THE EXPERT PROPERTY-FINDING SERVICE FOR PARIS

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"We want to move to the centre of Paris but don't have time to look at anything"

Extracts from an article by Ginetta Vedrickas in The Independent, Property
Wednesday 24 March 2004     

The Problem

Lyndsay Jones writes: "For some time now we've been thinking about buying an apartment in Paris. We've lived there before and, despite it being a large city, it's also very relaxed and is the ideal place to spend weekends. But the problem is that with my job I can't afford to take time out during the day to make appointments with agents and they are not around in the evening or at weekends. I'm not particularly fussy about what sort of property I would like but if I had to produce a shortlist it would include a one or two bedroomed flat which is very central and where it's easy to walk down to the river and near a big park. I'd like it to be easy to get to either from the airport or in particular the Gare du Nord where the train comes in. The location is definitely more important to me than type of property. I'm very attracted to the idea of having someone such as a search agent do the initial legwork on my behalf and then I can go and look at the short-listed properties and make a decision."

The Advice

"Buyers fall into three categories - those looking for pieds-à-terre to use a lot, those buying purely for investment or those, like Lyndsay, who want to use the property as a family home but also hope to let it from time to time. An important factor here is that he also knows Paris fairly well so I pointed out to him that he had to decide between the right and left bank as a location. The right bank is mostly Le Marais and the left bank is the Latin Quarter and St-Germain. As he has a baby and wants to be near gardens or a park the left bank is much better for him. Lyndsay also wants somewhere which is peaceful and quiet and ideally overlooking a courtyard so we narrowed down our search to the fourth, fifth and sixth arrondissements and took Lyndsay on one visit out there to see them all. We are a search company so we only show clients properties which exactly fit their requirements in order not to waste time looking at unsuitable properties. In this case the flat's location far outweighed its condition and the one we've found for Lyndsay is in the perfect location, in the sixth arrondissement which is one of the smartest and most expensive areas of Paris, but it just needs a bit of decorative work which we're happy to arrange. It is near the Luxembourg Garden and is very quiet. It's a very good investment and, once decorated to a high standard, local agents tell me that it could rent for £1,000 per week."
Marie-Pierre Saint-Martin is a search agent for London Paris Dream Home. +44 (0)20 7820 1337

The Solution

Property one: 1 Rue du Roi de Sicile, fourth arrondissement. Studio or one-bedroomed flat, around 47sq m, in Le Marais.

Property two: 2 Rue d'Assas, sixth arrondissement. One-bedroom or two-bedroom flat, around 45sq m.

Property three: 6 rue de Fossés St Marcel, fifth arrondissement. One-bedroom flat, 50sq m, in the south of the fifth arrondissement.

The Verdict

"Marie-Pierre came to see me one evening with a shortlist of six, which I viewed over one weekend. I've now bought property number two! It's an apartment in an early 20th-century building in the sixth arrondissement. Had I done this alone I would have ended up taking around five trips to Paris and probably looked at 25-30 properties so Marie-Pierre has saved me a lot in time and expense. She helped me with the negotiations, found a good lawyer and even signed for the property on my behalf. She is also arranging decoration of the flat for me so overall this has been a very happy experience!"