Why Buy A Cannes property?

1. For Pleasure

Cannes ticks all the boxes for the criteria the vast majority of people would use when looking for where to buy a holiday property . It's many attractions include the wonderful weather, easy accessibility, beautiful sandy beaches, stunning scenery, glamorous events, excellent restaurants and of course great shopping!!

It is a city that can be easily reached from most major European cities and is just a 35 minute drive from Nice airport so you can even use your holiday home for a quick weekend away with no hassle.

An international and cosmopolitan city, Cannes has something for everyone - from the glitz and glamour of the Crosiette and  the Cannes Film Festival to the hustle and bustle of the daily French markets in Cannes Old Town.

Cannes has an excellent public transport system and provides a good base for exploring the rest of the famous French Riviera towns such as St Tropez, Nice, Monaco as well as some of the sleepy villages in the hills & mountains like St Paul de Vence and Eze.

It is also possible to go skiing in the winter months to some of the local resorts such as Isola 2000 which is only an hour and twenty minutes drive away.

2. For Investment

The two most important factors that an investor should consider are the capital appreciation and the possible rental yield. Buying property in Cannes is a perfect choice for exploiting both of these possibilities.

This area is a hugely popular tourist destination, especially amongst Europeans. Nice International Airport is France’s largest airport outside Paris and its second terminal has expanded to cater for the large number of low cost airlines such as Easy Jet and Ryan Air now operating in Nice.

Cannes is the segment of the French market with the highest demand for tourist/business rental accommodation and is highly likely to retain excellent capital appreciation.

Cannes is an extremely popular area amongst tourists. According to the INSEE ( L’Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques), over the past three years the average number of tourists visiting Cannes per annum is 9.4 million. At 22%, UK citizens make up the largest proportion of visitors.

Unlike most other towns along the coast, Cannes is less exposed to fluctuations in tourist numbers due to the many conferences and congresses that are held throughout the year. The most famous of these is of course the Cannes film festival; others include MIPIM which focuses on commercial property and the ILTM - the International Luxury Travel Market. In total  around 27 events and conferences are held in Cannes throughout the year; one in every five visitors to the Riviera is a business man or woman who stays for an average of five nights. Cannes therefore not only attracts the ordinary tourist but also business men and women who have higher expenditures than the average.

The Côte d’Azur is less than a two hour flight for most European capitals such as Berlin, London & Moscow. You are guaranteed a mild climate in the winter and a wonderfully long, hot summer. Also compared to cities such as London, property prices are still relatively cheap.

High capital appreciation occurs in areas where there is high demand but low supply. Cannes is the perfect scenario for this situation. Building land is limited as the French government has implemented stringent building restrictions to prevent overdevelopment. Therefore the supply of building land for property is extremely limited, but the demand for property in this beautiful and highly desirable part of France is incredibly high.

The other important factor which has led to high capital appreciation is that the overall personal income of the foreign purchaser is a great deal higher than the personal income of the French resident purchaser. This has had a dual effect of further increasing the price value of property and also increasing the demand for rental accommodation amongst the French residents who are taking advantage of the high prices by selling their properties, releasing their capital and renting.

The rise in the prices of property in Cannes over the past three years has been significant. According to the FNAIM - a body which regulates, insures and advises French real estate agents - the increase reached as much as 22% in 2003- this is compared to 12.1% in 2002 and 14.2% in 2001. From 2007 onwards we expect there to be a steady rise of around 6-8% per annum AT LEAST in the price of properties in Cannes - for the first quarter of 2007 the rise was already at 10% !!!

The town has recently adopted into their budget the ‘Plan Vert’ which means that more than 10 000 000€ will be injected into ‘beautifying’ several of the principal roads. Hence it is evident that property in this area this will continue to appreciate at a high rate.

Attika offers and excellent buy-to-let scheme in Cannes, for more details on this please see our chapter on 'Cannes Buy-to-Let' or please email us at info@attikainternational.com and request our Cannes Buy-to-Let brochure.