PROPERTY LETTER No : 17 (b) - 12th November 2002

Dear All,

Following our recent month in Cannes, I need to make some comments and observations, keep you up to date with developments, and plead for assistance in a couple of areas.

The first major development that I have pleasure in telling you about is a cut in interest rates. The rate that we pay on our borrowings from Entenial Bank has been reduced from 4.1% to 3.9%. I like that bank. They try hard to look after us, their staff have never been anything but totally obliging, and charming with it, and those of you who have spoken with or met Sandrine Faivre and Brigitte Mardokh will agree I think. They often have to work under-staffed, especially as far as English speakers is concerned, and take quite a bit of criticism from the Estate Agents for taking too long. (The agents don’t get paid until transfer, and transfer is often delayed whilst mortgages are awaiting approval, and I don’t tell the agents that approval is normally delayed because of difficulty getting the information they require from us! Language barrier and distance are not a serious impediment, but they do cause delays and misunderstandings).

PROPERTY LETTER NO. 17 (a) - 9 th November 2002

I’m going to do this letter in two parts. I need to get the information on some properties out to you urgently, and will settle down over the next few days to fill you in on developments in France over the last few weeks.
Vicky flew home to Cape Town a week ago, and I got home yesterday. We had an incredibly successful trip, and Steve and Avril are now settled in Cannes and gaining in confidence every day. I will tell you more about all of that also in the letter to follow. We now have 17 apartments in our group, and all of them bar two are in the Croisette and/or Palm Beach area of Cannes. They are all close to the centre, and the beaches, and all of them have been chosen for their rentability, i.e. with a view to earning a return on the investment in the shortest possible time.

Property Letter 16 � 6th November 2002

Dear All,
 
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL ADDRESS - USE watsies@mweb.co.za as per usual. I am scribbling this quick update on James and Kate’s machine.
 
I have little time before catching our train back to Cannes, but wanted to keep you up to date with our progress.
We have been the weekend in Milan after a first week in Cannes, during which we have achieved mountains. Steve and Avril arrived safely on Tuesday, and although a little shell-shocked, which is to be expected, they took only about a day to start their first French sentences. I believe that they are the right people in the right place at the right time, both for them as a couple, and for all of us who will be relying on them to care for our investments. We have left them this weekend to find their feet, and with the job of planning and beginning the process of furnishing the first apartments. We have 4 sets of keys to work with and hope to have another 4 sets very soon. I hope to see the first apartments complete and ready for occupation, and just maybe the first paying guests installed before I leave in under 3 weeks.