Second home in Menton: the guide

Three districts, three uses. The old town and the seafront give life on foot: character apartments in the lanes climbing to the church of Saint-Michel or on the pedestrian seafront, market and shops at the door, the sea just below, provided you accept the age of the buildings. The Garavan bay, to the east towards Italy, gives the sea and the gardens: Belle Époque villas, discreet residences, floors with a terrace and soft morning light, in a narrow supply that often trades privately. The Annonciade hills give space and year-round quiet: villas with a garden and a view over the bay and towards Italy, the car for everything.

Between the three, Carnolès and its gardens offer a planted residential calm, minutes from the centre, at a more contained level than Garavan: small buildings and townhouses with a garden, on a domestic scale. In Menton, a view over the roofs and gardens of the old town is sometimes worth more than a distant sea from the top floor: light, quiet and the terrace change the real use of a property, and they are compared at the hours when the sun turns, not on the photographs.

The real question of a second home is the time between stays. In Menton it has two faces. On the seafront and in the old centre, salt air works façades and joinery: an apartment is managed from afar if the co-ownership is well run, and the minutes of the general meetings say what was voted, what was postponed and what you will pay in three years. In the hills and in Garavan, a villa needs a gardener, a monitored pool and someone who calls by: the town’s concierge services and gardeners are seasoned, but a citrus garden calls for regular care and the sea air for constant upkeep.

Two obligations are read before the offer rather than after. If the plot lies in a zone exposed to fire, brush clearance is compulsory within fifty metres of the buildings, and that obligation does not end once the deed is signed. If the house is not connected to mains drainage, the individual drainage system is inspected by the SPANC, and a non-compliant installation is costed before buying, like the works, to be costed before the offer. Home Select builds this logic of absence into the selection from the start: real charges, caretaker or not, access, exposure, what the house costs when you are not there.

The Menton market is active from February to June, then again from September, and mid-season remains the best window to buy. For a buyer who lives elsewhere, the calendar is prepared in reverse: the brief in autumn, by video call or by phone; qualification of the properties on documents over the winter, diagnostics, minutes, charges; video pre-viewings, steered by Home Select with the seller’s agent, window by window, at the hours when the light turns; then a single trip, in spring, for the decisive viewings, grouped together.

The price is set against comparable sales in the DVF survey, negotiation and the securing of the sale agreement follow, the notary is coordinated, and a power of attorney lets you sign the deed without coming back. Home Select’s fees are due 100% on success, nothing before the deed. For the taxation of a second home according to your country of residence, your notary and a tax adviser take over: that is another trade, which Home Select does not mix with the search.