How much $ is a house in Nice, France?

Question

3 bedrms 2 bath?

Answer 1

Nice is very expensive but like anywhere else, it depends on a lot of factors that have little to do with the zip code itself. Most 3 BDR are between 400,000 € and 1,000,000 €

As a general rule, the further away from the sea the cheaper. A large suburban 3 BDR house 10 miles outside Nice can cost well under 400,000.

Unless the house is a new construction, get ready to add up to 10% of the purchasing price for taxes and attorney fees when you buy.

In terms of local taxes, there will be a yearly property tax (taxe foncière) and a housing tax (taxe d'habitation) = this one is payable by tenants too. But even the two combined should be much lower than the average US property tax. You will have to pay these each fall. The funny thing is that it's the person who lives in the house on January 1st who will have to pay these taxes the following fall, so if you move on January 2nd or after, you have nothing to pay the first year!

The only difficulty in finding the house of your dreams in the lower price range will be having two bathrooms. Most 3 BDR will have 1 1/2 and you will very rarely come across an en-suite bathroom (that's typically American) unless it is a modern luxury villa. But in older homes French bathrooms are often very large and you could easily build a 2nd bathroom out of the existing one or out of a 4th bedroom. Even if a house has only 1 bathroom, it may have up to 3 toilets (the toilet is a room in itself, it is rarely in the bathroom) so you can also convert one of these into a small second bathroom.

In France houses are rarely listed by the number of bedrooms but by the number of rooms (this includes living-room + bedrooms). So a 3 BDR will be listed as a 4P (4 pièces). Surface area is expressed in square meterage. Multiply by 10.76 to get the square footage.

You may have heard that the average French home is a little over half the size of the average American home. But these figures take into account the many many 1 BDR apts and studios that exist in France (young people rarely have room-mates in a large house, they have their own private studio) and the fact that nearly half of the population live in condos or apartments rather than houses. The size difference is not so noticeable when comparing houses. Bedrooms are generally smaller than in the US. Kitchens come in all sizes, there's no rule but in individual homes they tend to be quite roomy. There is no equivalent to the sitting-room, the family-room, the game-room, formal dining-room, etc. The French are about sharing living areas as a family so they just have one large living-room. So in other words there are fewer rooms but the main living areas are about just as large.

In France entertaining people for dinner is VERY IMPORTANT so there is no compromise on the size of the living-room/dining-room area. This is the largest room of the house.

If you are from California or the metro New York or Boston areas, you will NOT find French houses smaller and you will even find French backyards much larger than in those US regions. Surprisingly this is even true of houses situated right outside Paris. Of course if you are from another US region then be prepared for generally smaller spaces, especially since the Riviera is one of the more densely populated parts of France. However the Riviera real estate market is closer to the US one -in terms of house layout- than anywhere else in France.

Hope this helps you apprehend the French real estate market better. Happy house-hunting!

PS: Here are some sites to help you get an idea of prices:

http://www.pap.fr/immobilier/?mode=reche...

http://en.century21lafagetransactions.co...

http://www.immovision.com/listing.php?on...