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The Expert Property-Finding Service for Paris
Paris chic goes cheap
 (This article appeared in Evening Standard Homes & Property,
Wednesday 4 December 2002)
You've dreamed of living in an apartment in the centre of Paris.
Jane Barry meets a woman who can help you achieve it.
 A
second home in Paris is an appealing idea. Particularly with pieds-à-terre
going for as little as £70,000. But how do you research the market
when you lack time and French? Enter property finder Marie-Pierre Saint-Martin.
Describe your wish list, and she'll find the apartment to fit it, as
well as explaining the legal technicalities and putting you in touch
with a bilingual lawyer. If you want, she'll even help with the renovations.
The advantage of using a property finder is they can provide an overview
of suitable apartments in your price range - knowledge it would take
months of weekending in Paris to acquire. And, unlike estate agents,
whose business is shifting properties, a property finder is commissioned
by you and has no axe to grind but yours. Saint-Martin, a Parisian working
out of London, hunts down properties from everywhere, not just estate
agents, but private sellers and developers. "I don't want to have
close contacts with particular estate agents," she says, "because
I want to be free to buy exactly what I want, exactly as if I was buying
it for myself."
Her first step is to take a detailed brief. What size apartment do
you need, in which area? Would you prefer a modern block or something
typically
Parisian? And, of course, what's your budget? "I will say either
I can find something like that for you, or no, I'm sorry, that does not
exist in Paris. Paris is a lot cheaper than London, but sometimes people
ask for something with three bedrooms for £50,000, and even in
Paris that does not exist." Not that she can't find bargains, particularly
if you wait longer than the three to six months her search normally takes.
Usually she'll take you around a short list of five flats but, if none
fit the bill, she'll come back with others. And, in the year she's been
running the business, she hasn't failed once. "When I sign the contract
with the client, I sign till I find them a flat."
Saint-Martin became a property finder by accident. A former maths teacher,
when she came to London six years ago she decided to train as an interior
decorator. A friend asked her to design a Paris loft shell, which featured
in a French magazine and earned her a second commission, only this time
her client didn't have time to find the shell, so her property searches
began. But interior design remains a passion. If your new apartment needs
renovating, she'll happily organise the project.
Saint-Martin will not only find you an English-speaking lawyer, but
she knows about rental incomes too. If you want your second home to earn
its keep while you're in England she can even find you a tenant.
The best investments, she says, are studios and one-bedroom flats,
which have a higher yield than larger properties: while a three-bedroom
apartment
will bring in £8 to £10 rent a square metre, a studio yields £10
to £13. Paris, she says, is an excellent investment. Apartment
prices have risen 10 per cent annually since 1998. And, although the
market is not as high as London, "when it goes down, it goes down
a lot less."
Understanding her clients is as vital as market knowledge. "I think
it's the main reason for this kind of business. To an estate agent, it's
all square metres, prices, figures. But mine is a very tailor-made, personal
service. You have to understand what the person wants."
The Moltgens: 'Marie-Pierre negotiated to get the price reduced'
Bruno and Ursula Moltgen live in Guildford, but hail from Stuttgart;
he's an engineer on secondment here.
The accessibility of Paris by Eurostar prompted them to think about
a second home in the city last year. A one-bedroom flat they could let
out seemed the perfect idea. "We intend to move in after my retirement
in seven years' time," says Bruno. They knew they would need a property
finder: "For us it was essential to find someone to organise it
and help with the language."
After an eight-month search, they met Marie-Pierre Saint-Martin. Last
January, Saint-Martin came up with a short list of six flats and, although
none of was exactly right, Bruno believes: "It was a good opportunity
to get a feeling for what was on offer and go into more detail about
what was important for us." A month later Saint-Martin showed them
the ideal apartment, on the sixth floor of an attractive 1926 block,
light, with a good view and a coveted 16th Arrondissement address. But
the property was in poor condition and more than their budget of Euros
200,000 (£128,000). "But Marie-Pierre negotiated to get the
price reduced," Bruno says. Saint-Martin also arranged the refurbishment,
and the couple found a tenant immediately.
The Moltgens are delighted with the process. "It was clear
to us that it was the only way to go".
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