Property hunter: the best solution for expatriates!

Nowadays, mobility is key for an international professional career. Meanwhile, access to property is getting harder and harder. There is a solution, in particular for expatriates, to relocate without turning into a nightmare? Using property finder services can be the best way to quickly find an apartment or a house that fit your needs, especially on the attractive French Riviera with its famous cities as Nice, Antibes or Cannes.

Expatriates relocation, a growing concept The increasing number of relocations creates a real issue for people who require buying a property quickly in France, and even more on the French Riviera where it is already difficult to find a house or apartment for people leaving there.

To better manage relocations, an increasing number of companies propose services to help expatriates with the different relocation tasks. However, when an expatriate would like to purchase a property before he relocates, using dedicated property finder services is more appropriate. The property finder is a real estate agent, but is mandated to search for an apartment or house (compared to a “standard” real estate agent mandated to sell properties).

The property finder’s methodologyThe property finder searches depending on detailed criteria provided by the buyer, in our case, the relocated or expatriate person. He searches through the whole local market, professional, local partners and direct owners, pre-selects and visits apartments or houses that best fit to the buyer’s needs. This service creates a real gain in time, decreasing the number of travels required to search and visit properties that often don’t fit, and the buyer takes advantage of the local expertise of the property finder in terms of knowledge of the local market, but also negotiations skills that allow them to buy “for the best price”!

Côté Acheteur : a property finder’s testimony
Côté Acheteur is a pionner in property finder services in France. In order to fulfill increasing demand in specialized services, the buyer’s agency has created a dedicated service to support expatriates during their relocations. Caroline Azière, manager of Côté Acheteur Nice – Côte d’Azur, says:

« It is a fact that we receive today an increasing number of demands from expatriate, relocating to France. A person that relocates is not only looking for a service helping with administration and search for a property to rent, but may prefer to buy the property he will be leaving in, or to make an investment. In that case, we can offer that dedicated service and ease their relocation, as for any other customer, by finding the best product fitting with their needs and expectations, for the best price »

We can therefore note that increasing number of companies internal transfers and need for mobility has an impact on the real estate market and allow new dedicated services as property finder to develop further in France. Created 10 years ago, this service provided a real impact and usefulness for many expatriates needing relocation.