Second home in Saint-Malo: the guide

The weekend pied-à-terre is found in the Intra-Muros: a character apartment behind the ramparts, everything on foot, in granite rebuilt after 1944 and subject to the rules of the protected sector, with no parking. The sea-view second home is found on the Sillon and in Courtoisville: a floor facing the great beach, the most legible choice, whose value plays on the floor and the exposure. The family house is found in Paramé and Rothéneuf: a garden, bedrooms, the beach on foot or a few minutes away.

Two other uses are prepared differently. Saint-Servan suits the second home meant to become a main home one day: schools, winter shops and services on foot, at more measured values than the seafront, with the view over the Rance for the finest addresses. The Clos-Poulet, lastly, sells the estate: a malouinière or a longère, ten minutes from town, on a market of a few properties a year where the owning family often comes before the agency.

The time between stays is the real question, and in Saint-Malo it comes down to the climate. Local buildings take the wind and the salt: granite pointing, slate roofs, joinery and ventilation age faster than inland, and a house closed all winter fears the damp. An apartment can be managed remotely if the co-ownership is well run: the minutes of the general meetings say what was voted and what was postponed. A house asks for more: someone who calls by, airs it, keeps the heating on frost setting, closes the shutters before storms and looks after the garden.

Three points are read before the offer rather than after. The rules, first: Saint-Malo regulates the use of dwellings, and each co-ownership has its own rules. The sanitation of a country house in the Clos-Poulet, next: if it is not connected to the mains sewer, it is inspected by the SPANC, the public non-collective sanitation service, and a non-compliant installation is costed before buying. The works, finally, to have costed before the offer. Home Select builds this logic of absence into the selection: real charges, caretaker or not, access, exposure, what the house costs when you are not there.

The Saint-Malo market has two peaks, spring from April to June and the return in September, when second homes come free after the season. Summer brings the visitors, not the best negotiating conditions. For a buyer who lives elsewhere, autumn and winter are the right window: less competition, more available sellers, and a town seen as it is eleven months out of twelve. The Sillon in August and the Sillon in February are not the same address.

The calendar is therefore prepared ahead: the brief by video call or by telephone; qualification of properties on documents, diagnostics, minutes and charges included; video pre-viewings, steered by Home Select with the seller’s agent, at high tide and at low tide; then a single trip for the decisive viewings, grouped together. The price is set against comparable DVF sales, negotiation and the securing of the preliminary contract follow, the notary is coordinated, and a power of attorney allows the deed to be signed without coming back. Home Select’s fees are due 100% on success, nothing before completion; for the taxation of a second home, your notary and a tax adviser take over.