French property 'offering window of opportunity'

While some may see the grey cloud of recession looming above, others are looking at the silver lining. In the foreign property market, news of price drops in France and Spain could deter some who had once dreamed of a real estate portfolio bathed in sun. However, French property consultant VEF takes a different view of the global economic slowdown, by suggesting that now could in fact be the right time to buy.

"There are just so many super properties now available to buyers; many at incredibly low prices, so not to buy now would be very foolish," a spokesperson for the company stated.

According to the firm, mortgages in the country are still available to those keen to purchase and there are many that aren't just looking at the investment potential of French property, but also the opportunity to enjoy a change of lifestyle. The spokesperson noted that there are some property owners who commute back to the UK on a regular basis from their dream house in the French countryside.

Gordon Atlantic Plans Luxe Golf & Tennis Club in France Aimed at UK Market

Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Champagne-Ardenne, France— January 20, 2009 — Today, Dr. William Hyatt Gordon, LEED-AP, 40, President of Gordon Atlantic Development Corporation, a New York, New York-based firm announces plans to pursue the development of a new destination environment featuring a golf course with an aim to host the Champions Tour. Gordon Atlantic is in negations with Greg Norman Golf Course Design, a West Palm Beach, Florida-based company, regarding the golf course design. Gordon Atlantic has been planning the development with assistance from the Invest in France Agency – New York, and CADev for nearly a year, since William Hyatt Gordon visited the Champagne-Ardenne region during a tour of France aimed to foster the development of green jet fuel for use in commercial aircraft.

Gordon, a renowned American environmentalist, and real estate developer attended the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California, and immediately drew parallels between the Champagne-Ardenne Region and Napa Valley, Carmel Valley, and the Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Europlace wants to promote Islamic banks in Paris

Paris Europlace (the Paris Financial Centre) said it welcomes sukuk issuers on NYSE Euronext and the setting up of Islamic banks in Paris.

“The regulations that have been recently adopted to facilitate Islamic finance in France are intended to make Paris a hub for Islamic finance and now we have all the tools to accommodate Islamic finance,” Arnaud de Bresson, Managing Director of Paris Europlace told a news conference here yesterday. He said Paris Europlace has exerted great efforts for the last three years to promote Islamic finance and the opportunities it has to offer and ultimately submitted proposals for reforms to develop Islamic Finance in France.

As a result, both the French Ministry of Economy, Industry and Employment and the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), the French financial markets regulatory authority, announced late last year significant tax and regulatory changes aimed at boosting Islamic finance in France.

Paris Mayor Blocks Emir of Qatar's Mansion Plans

The mayor of Paris is blocking the Emir of Qatar's plans for a multimillion-dollar renovation of the Hotel Lambert (above), an historic 17th century mansion in the Quai d'Anjou on the city's Île Saint-Louis. Mayor Bertrand Delanoë says the Emir's upgrades pose a serious threat to the Paris' architectural heritage, the Property Wire reports.

The Emir's plans for the three-story building, built in 1639 by Louis Le Vau and part of a Unesco World Heritage site, include underground parking, new elevators and a the addition of new bed and bathrooms to the living quarters. "This is a real threat to a gem of Paris' heritage, the only private house from the end of Louis the XIII's reign that remains untouched," Delanoë stated in a letter to France's Culture Minister Christine Albanel. "I want this plan to be reconsidered, taking the time for a thorough examination."

As mayor, Delanoë has the power to block real estate projects that do not conform to the city's urban code. The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, was ranked at No. 7 on Forbes' list of the world's richest royals in 2008 with a fortune of $2 billion.

Christian Lacroix Offers Paris Apartment

Fashion designer Christian Lacroix is selling his Paris apartment for €2 million, or about $2.6 million.

The roughly 2,150-square-foot apartment is in the chic Marais district. The house, in a late-17th-century building near the historic Place des Vosges and the Picasso Museum, has an upper floor with public rooms designed around an interior patio of roughly 200 square feet, and a lower floor with four bedrooms.

There's also a mezzanine library. The ceilings are 13 feet high and the apartment has many classic original details, including gilded moldings in the master bedrooms and French doors. The bathrooms and kitchen have been renovated. Mr. Lacroix has already purchased and moved to another apartment in the same neighborhood, according to his listing agent, Xavier Attal, of Paris-based Immo Best International properties.

French-US Tax Convention Amended To Cut Financial Flows Taxation

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- France and the U.S. Tuesday signed an amendment to the tax convention between the two countries, lowering financial flows taxation, the French Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The amended convention puts an end to the pay-as-you go system for license fees and a partial end to corporate internal dividends, allowing for instance French companies operating in the U.S. to repatriate their funds to France without being taxed.

The amended convention also simplifies taxation processes for some investment structures such as investment funds, recently-created French real estate companies or U.S. partnership structures, the ministry outlined.

The modified convention stipulates mandatory arbitration thus avoiding double taxation for companies as well as individuals.

The amendment will be presented to the French parliament and the U.S. Congress for ratification "very soon," the ministry also said.

Alps real estate

In Chamonix, 88 kilometers, or 55 miles, from Geneva, the pound's "crippling" decline is making it more difficult to attract Britons, said Simon Warren of Agence Montagne, a real estate company in the town.

"Our biggest problem is that nobody needs a chalet in the Alps," Warren said as he surveyed the plat du jour of Thai chicken at Chambre Neuf, a bar opposite Chamonix train station. "It's the ultimate discretionary spend."

Chamonix, which hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924, lies in a valley encircled by snow-clad peaks.

The town's population of 9,000 increases 10-fold during the winter as skiers seek such attractions as the Vallée Blanche, a 20-kilometer descent on a snow-covered glacier from the Aiguille du Midi, which has an elevation of 3,842 meters, or 12,600 feet.

Bomb hits French Basque country real-estate agency

A bomb exploded at a real-estate agency Thursday and another explosive was defused at a sports rehabilitation center in French Basque country, police said. No injuries were reported.

The bomb went off hours before dawn, damaging the real-estate agency's office in Anglet, a town in southwest France, local police said. The phrase "Basque country is not for sale" was spray-painted across the building facade.

The same phrase had been sprayed on other real-estate agencies' offices in the region during a wave of bombings last year.

Anglet Mayor Jean Espilondo called the bombing "unacceptable."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, a judicial official said in Paris. The armed Basque separatist group ETA has waged a sometimes violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France since the 1960s.