House Hunting in … France


By NINA ROBERTS

Published: January 9, 2013
$2.7 MILLION (2 MILLION EUROS)

Plane trees flank the drive to the castle of Fresquiennes, a three-story structure built of brick and limestone in 1826. Its pitched slate roof has a row of dormer windows and six tall peaks topped with ornate finials. The presence among its outbuildings of a tiny domed chapel signifies that the castle was built for nobility, according to Mike Werner, a journalist and tour guide specializing in Normandy.

Nearly every room on the first floor runs the full depth of the house, with both front and back views through large casement windows. The entrance hall, dominated by a grand curved marble staircase, is reached through a central door. Its floor is tiled in white and black marble, and its off-white walls are painted to resemble stone.

The dining room, to the left of the entrance hall, has an imposing floor-to-ceiling brown brick chimney framing a white ceramic hearth. One wall is covered in de Gournay paper depicting a 17th-century scene; the ceiling has oak beams. Beyond is a kitchen of many white surfaces, except for the salmon-red granite that tops an island and the counters. The faucet is made by the German company Grohe; the cabinets are painted wood.

To the right of the entrance hall is a library lined with shelving and cabinets made of darkly stained birch. Next is the living room, which has yellow walls and an ornate marble fireplace. Beyond that is a large end room, currently empty, with another ornate fireplace and a colorful floor of tiny tiles.

“You have fireplaces in nearly each room,” explained Hervé de Maleissye, a partner at Cabinet Le Nail, the listing agency. “It was the only way to heat.” But the castle today has central heating. Most floors are a herringbone oak parquet, and wall and ceiling moldings are all in excellent condition thanks to a restoration completed in 2007. Of the five and two half bathrooms, most have fixtures by the French company THG and tiled surfaces by Porcelanosa, a ceramics company based in Spain.

The master bedroom, one of eight, is one flight up; it has two closets, an en-suite bath and a terrace. It shares the floor with two additional bedrooms, and another bath and terrace.

The third floor is reached via an oak staircase with a carved banister. It has five bedrooms with vibrant colored and patterned wallpaper made by the French company Braquenié, now owned by Pierre Frey. One bedroom has an en-suite bath; in addition, a full and a half bath are off the hall. The building also has an insulated attic, as well as a basement with storage and laundry rooms and several wine cellars.

The castle is set on 92 acres planted with mature cedars, sequoias and beeches; there is a small pond, an apple orchard, and woods with walking trails. The property is 12 miles outside Rouen, which gained a contentious place in history in the 15th century as the site of the imprisonment and execution of Joan of Arc, and whose cathedral was immortalized in the late 19th century in a series of paintings by the Impressionist Claude Monet. The seaside town of Deauville is approximately an hour and a half from the castle, as are the 1944 D-Day landing beaches. The castle is 90 miles northwest of Paris, which can be reached by train from Rouen in 40 minutes.

MARKET OVERVIEW

“The real estate market in France is very nervous right now,” said Marc Tison, a developer and agent with the real estate company Orpi. France’s housing market suffered for about a year following the global economic crisis in 2008, after which it steadily grew, with peaks and valleys, until this autumn. “Now the prices are dropping and the buyers are waiting,” said Mr. Tison, adding that prices are about 10 percent lower than a year ago.

Joelle Larroche, a broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate in New York City who also sells property in France, agreed, saying, “The past year is the first year it’s really terrible” since 2008, with sellers unwilling to lower their prices. “They prefer not to sell than to lower at this point,” she added, describing the sluggish market as the result of compounded problems: huge debt, high unemployment, low productivity and skittish lenders.

Mr. de Maleissye says real estate prices are 20 to 40 percent lower than in 2007. But unlike Mr. Tison and Ms. Larroche, he has found some sellers willing to lower their prices.

WHO BUYS IN NORMANDY

The British are the predominant foreign buyers in Normandy, Mr. de Maleissye said. Others are typically from Belgium and Holland.

He said many homes in the region, as in others outside Paris that have been considered second-home territory, are now being bought as primary residences. “It’s easy to work from everywhere with the Internet,” he explained.

There are international buyers throughout France, according to Ms. Larroche, but the majority are from European Union countries. She noted a recent influx of Italians, most likely driven to look outside Italy by its unstable economy.

BUYING BASICS

Foreigners can buy property in France without restrictions. Notaries generally handle transactions. “The buyer is very well protected,” said Mr. de Maleissye, noting that title research in France is meticulous and strictly regulated. “You know precisely who owned something,” he said. Either the notary or a real estate agent can draft the contracts; but it is the notary who determines that the property is indeed owned by the seller and is free of debt.

Employed foreigners with good credit can obtain mortgages from French banks.

WEB SITES

Normandy tourism: normandie-tourisme.fr

Rouen guide: rouentourisme.com

D-Day information: normandie44lamemoire.com

France tourism: us.franceguide.com

LANGUAGES AND CURRENCY

French; euro (1 euro = $1.32)

TAXES AND FEES

The buyer pays the transfer tax, notary and closing costs, approximately 6.3 percent of the sale price. The property tax is close to $6,000 a year. The agent fee of 4.5 percent is included in the sale price; castle maintenance is estimated at $66,000 to $198,000 per year.

CONTACT

Hervé de Maleissye, Cabinet Le Nail, 011 33 2 43 98 20 20; cabinetlenail.com

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/greathomesanddestinations/real-estate-in-france.html?ref=realestate&_r=0

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