Property Letter: June 29th, 2006

Vicky and I will be in Cape Town for the month of August and I hope we will be able to see some of you there.

Cannes is amazing this year.
I suppose it is inevitable that we would feel increasingly secure in our environment, and we have been here for over four years now – we’re no longer “new boys” on the block.

Studios in Cannes, Financing property in France

Property Letter - 4th October 2005
(Some interesting investment options are as usual included at the end of the letter….including a new opportunity in Montenegro that could be of interest)

Dear All,

Many people have recently asked to be included in mailings and the questions most commonly asked of us are “Who are you?” and “Why are you in France?” People seem intrigued that a family of foreigners is running an organization in France that provides a ‘total solution’ in property investment, management and rental for non-French investors. (For those who have been on the mailing list for years, and you’ve heard it all before, please skip the next bits and come in at “Capital appreciation update”. That’s really interesting.)

Cannes Property Summary - UPDATE OCTOBER 2005

We continue to learn here every day:

The more we learn the more we know that we have very good long term prospects in Cannes, doing exactly what we are doing, and doing it very well. Our focus from the beginning has been on properties that you and I might not necessarily buy for ourselves and our friends and family, but on income generating units that have the ability to increase in capital value too.

Increasingly however people are asking us to source properties that they wish to keep as second or holiday homes, and are less interested in rental prospects and more in the potential for capital appreciation, and for enjoyment and personal use. It is a slightly different emphasis and equally rewarding for us and them.

We have visited the Cote d’Azur for many years. However before we started buying three and a half years ago we again travelled up and down the length of it. We looked at Nice, Villefranche which we love, Monaco, Menton, Cagnes sur Mer, Antibes, Baai des Ange, and Juan les Pins. But every piece of investment intelligence we could gather pointed us at Cannes, and within Cannes, at the Croisette. Consequently most of the 40 or so apartments we have bought are within a stones throw of the Croisette or on it, and within 15 minutes walk of the Palais des Festival.

Who we are- Who is behind the organisation

The group of companies were set up as a family business, which has naturally grown from small beginnings …
We have visited the Cote d’Azur for many years and have good and long term friends here. But before we started buying we travelled up and down the length of it. We looked at Nice, Villefranche which we love, Monaco, Menton, Cagnes sur Mer, Antibes, Baai des Ange, and Juan les Pins. But every piece of investment intelligence we could gather pointed us at Cannes, and within Cannes, at the Croisette. Consequently all of the apartments we have bought now are within a stones throw of the Croisette or inside it. All are within 15 minutes walk of the Palais des Festival.

SUMMARY – CANNES PROPERTY:

Update – April 2005.

We continue to learn here every day.

The more we learn the more we feel that we have very good long term prospects in exactly what we are doing. Our focus from the beginning has been on properties that you and I might not necessarily buy for ourselves and our friends and family, but on income generating units that have the ability to increase in capital value too.

A LETTER FROM THE FRENCH RIVIERA.

As I sit down at my keyboard in Cannes this Sunday morning Sky News is reporting that Carlisle is flooded. Hurricane warnings are being broadcast and huge parts of Wales and the West of England are under freezing water. Rivers have burst their banks and a state of emergency has been declared in 40 areas so far. More icy rain and gales are predicted.

Quote From « The Olive Season » by Carol Drinkwater.

The south of France predominately Cannes, promotes itself as the California of Europe, the multilingual film centre of the world, at least for the fortnight when this, the most famous film festival in the world, unveils its latest package of stars and stars-in-the-ascendant. In the hills above Cannes, a kilometer or two away from our crumbling farm there is a residential quarter called La Californie, twinned with Hollywood which boasts some of the most expensive real estate in France, much of which is hidden behind tall, thickly fronded palm trees and equally tall, electrified iron gates. To rent a villa on that strip during the film festival can set one back something in the region of 5000 sterling a day.

Aside from this film festival, there are two television festivals held in Cannes, one in the spring, the other in autumn. There is a music festival in January, as well as festivals for the worlds of multiactive media, young aspiring actors, short films, advertising, television commercials, antiquary, clairvoyance, yachting, parlour games, real estate and, for the town of Cannes, the most lucrative festival of all, the Duty Free Festival, which is held in the late autumn. Yes, festivals are big business here. International companies fly in chairmen, presidents, vice-presidents, any and all executives by the plane load, and they are all on generous expense accounts.

“A duty free festival?” I asked incredulously when I first heard mention of this one. Particularly since Europe is now a united body whose duty free boarders have been dismantled and across which travel no longer offers this perk. But that has made little if any difference, it seems, to the thriving duty free market elsewhere. This festival is heavy weight money for the town. Prices escalate during that autumn week. For anyone who is not a card carrying duty free merchant, a hotel room is an impossibility at any price. These traders are the guys who call the shots. So much so that Cannes has been warned that if it does not build two new 5 star hotels, providing every amenity required and desired by these visiting sales people, the organizers will move the whole shebang to Barcelona.

Why is property good?

TEAMWORK.

I realise from our own experience now that investing as a team we are doing better than if we were trying to achieve results on our own. That does not mean that we have syndicated our properties. Each investor in our team owns his own property or properties and all rights over those properties are his, just as your farm in Macheke or Stellenbosch is your own, or your home in Wiltshire. However association with like minded people with similar goals opens up opportunities for mutual benefits. Benefits which are aimed at achieving higher returns with less risk, and the use of other people’s money (being the Bank’s)