Gîtes For Sale

If you are looking for gites for sale, you have come to the right place! We always have a number of gîte complexes on our books, as well as single properties suitable for private lettings. However, some potential buyers are understandably wary about buying gîtes. Every year the subject occupies pages and pages both in the British press and French lifestyle magazines, including plenty of highly emotive and often inaccurate articles. It appears that the gîte debate is here to stay! In order to understand and evaluate both the attractions and drawbacks of this type of property and business, we need to discuss a number of related questions.

· What exactly is a gîte?
· Is the gîte market already saturated?
· What are the attractions/drawbacks of buying one and who do they appeal to?
· How much does it cost to purchase a gîte complex?
· How practical are they as restoration projects?

The term gîte rural means a self-catering country cottage (as opposed to B & B). The word gîte literally means a ‘shelter’ and herein lies part of the problem! For many years both UK-based and French home owners in France rented out their holiday homes with very basic accommodation on offer. The rustic facilities were meant to be part of the charm. With so much choice for holiday makers now, there is little room for this type of letting property; things have moved on.

Click on to a popular gîte website such as Chez Nous, search on an area of France such as Poitou Charentes, and you will soon see that the market is flooded. Does this mean that buying a property as a rental investment or income-generating home is a foolish idea? Not necessarily. The problem is that there are too many substandard gîtes in a market which is not regulated. Many gîte owners have struggled in recent years to gain sufficient bookings. You need to advertise with a successful company such as Chez Nous or French Property News. You also need a user-friendly website with plenty of attractive internal and external photos (not a long tedious text outlining your family history!) Make sure that the property is competitively priced, offers appropriate facilities such as a pool, central heating out of season etc. There are too many gîtes out there, it is true, but there are not enough quality gîtes in a country which attracted 77 million overseas visitors in 2005, more than any other country in the world.

The attractions of buying a gîte are often financial ones: to fund a holiday home or to help finance early retirement in France. However, people should not fool themselves into thinking that a young family can live in France on the money generated from a single cottage in the garden. It may pay your heating bills but you will need other forms of income unless you purchase or create a large, successful gîte complex. Sometimes older couples simply like the idea of running a holiday gîte as a hobby or social interest. This is probably a healthier approach to take.

A gîte complex can apply to a main residence with anything more than one letting unit. The potential benefit is that you could earn decent money from this type of business. It is important, though, to ensure maximum privacy for everyone, that any shared facilities can cope with the demands of multiple tenancies and that you can get around to cleaning each gîte thoroughly on changeover day! The maintenance (including replacement) costs of gîte complexes should not be underestimated. A main house with two letting units might be available for as little as 260,000 euros but a gîte complex offering scope to run as a profit-making business for a family to live off will need at least four letting units and will start at a minimum of 500,000 euros.

The attraction of starting from scratch is that you can choose all the layouts, both internally and outside. However, you will need to set a realistic budget and stick to it. Also, as opposed to buying an existing business, you will need to budget for a period of up to two years without income while the buildings are being converted. Buying an existing business is also a risk, of course. In many cases, income potential may already have been established by the previous owners, but it is vital to establish whether or not it was well run and successful; establish why the owners are selling it.

Gîtes for sale - Click here to search our range of French properties.