Buying property in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat from abroad

Most of the great Cap Ferrat estates change hands without a listing: sales are prepared over months and concluded between established advisers. Without a network on the peninsula, a foreign buyer simply does not see what is selling: the homes for sale in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat that appear on the portals are not the ones that matter most. That is the point of a search mandate: the search is steered by Home Select’s management, with its network of 15,000 partners; Home Select receives more than 100 off-market properties every day, monitors 1,700 listing sites for the part of the market that is advertised, and presents your project to the peninsula’s established advisers, in your name and with the discretion residents demand.

Each shortlisted address is qualified on documents: planning permits, diagnostics, condition of the maritime structures, line of the rights of way and view easements, the seller’s situation. Then the video pre-viewing, steered by Home Select with the seller’s agent, window by window, to check the view over the bay, the exposure, the slope and the real access to the sea. The price is set against the rare comparable sales in the DVF land registry data, and only the properties that deserve your trip stay on the shortlist. Home Select counts 50% expatriate or international clients: whether you want to buy a house in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat or an apartment by the port, this way of working is its routine, not an exception.

Nothing is closed to you: France imposes no nationality or residence condition for buying a property. An offer to purchase accompanied by a payment is void: nobody can ask you for a deposit to ‘hold’ a property. After signing the preliminary agreement, you have a ten-day withdrawal period. The diagnostics, energy rating, asbestos, lead, termites depending on the zone, electricity, gas and risks, are at the seller’s expense and are read before the offer.

On the peninsula, two more rules. The shore belongs to the public maritime domain: no property owns the sea in front of it. The loi Littoral protects the hundred-metre strip outside built-up areas, and the protected site governs works, pools and fences: any idea of extending is checked against the planning rules before the offer. For the taxation of your country of residence, tax treaties and inheritance, your notary and a tax adviser take over: that is another trade, which Home Select does not mix with the search.

The market is active all year, with two breathing spaces more favourable to viewings: spring, from April to June, and autumn, from September to November; winter, very quiet, is often the best moment to handle a confidential file over time. For a buyer abroad, the sequence is prepared in reverse: brief in the autumn, watch and qualification over the winter, single trip in spring, deed before the summer or in September, by power of attorney if need be.

Negotiation plays as much on terms and timing as on price. The peninsula’s sellers are almost never in a hurry: proof of funds, a flexible completion date, furniture taken as it stands and guaranteed discretion often weigh more than a higher figure. Lock in these terms before discussing the figure, then stand ready to decide on a complete file: opportunities close fast. Home Select’s fees are 100% on success, nothing is due before the deed; the Confidentielle offer, 1.5% incl. VAT of the net vendor price, reserved for projects of 2 million euros and above, provides the same full service and presents only off-market properties.