Airbnb Hunting

Our History – A California Family in the Côte d’Azur

In 2018, my boss asked me to attend the Cannes Lions Marketing Conference held in June every year. As our two kids were out of school for the Summer we took the opportunity to travel as a family and kick off our summer travel. Lodging availability in Cannes was low due to the conference, so we booked a tiny Airbnb in the old town district of Antibes.

We returned the following year to Antibes for the conference, with a similar plan. Antibes became our starting point for trips to the Italian Riviera, Cassis, Marseilles, Paris, Amsterdam and London. Antibes from them on was the one place our family wanted to return to every year. 

Ten Reasons why we bought our Antibes Property

In 2022, my wife and I set out to buy a property on Antibes. I had some apprehensions that Antibes might be out of our price range. One report indicated that Antibes is the second priciest French city after Paris. So I scoped out other locations including Lisbon, Barcelona, and San Sebastian, Spain. But my wife insisted we make Antibes our second home, and I believe that was the right call. 

1. STR friendly. We wanted to list the property as a short-term rental (STR) on Airbnb and Antibes is Airbnb-friendly. Other locations like Barcelona have regulated their short-term rental markets. Adjacent cities of Cannes and Nice have also introduced new STR regulations. Antibes is different as there are not many hotels. There are high-end hotels led by the Hotel du Cap plus a handful of others downmarket. But Antibes appreciates the vibrant STR market as it houses the tourists who shop and spend. 
2. Strong dollar. It has been well documented that Americans are buying in Europe due to the strong dollar. 
3. Great value compared to the US. It’s not possible to find a beachfront property in the US in the half-a-million dollar range. It’s hard to compare Antibes to any American locales as it’s a compact old village but it might be something like Laguna Beach or Martha’s Vineyard. 
4. Low interest rates on cash-out mortgage. We were able to pay in cash for our Antibes property with a cash-out mortgage. The signs were on the wall that 2022 was the low point for mortgage interest rates and this was the last change to put low-interest loan to work. 
5. Low French property taxes and HOAs. This was a surprise as France is known for its taxes. But taxes in France focus on income and spending (VAT). Compared to California, French property taxes are minuscule. While our building has an association that collects assessments quarterly, the amounts are very low, currently $1200 per year, and we see improvements like painting and maintenance from the assessments.
6. Year-round tourism. Summer is the high season in the Cote de Azur and there are shoulder seasons but tourists come to Antibes year-round. 
7. Well managed city. The mayor of Antibes seems to be making good city planning decisions, approving many improvements, led by major developments in the center of town including a beautiful new cinema complex with a roof-top deck, a new park, and planned upgrades to the port that will welcome the well-heeled clients who dock their yachts. 
8. Antibes’ STR competition suffers from poor quality and not many rival 3 bedroom 2 bath options. Having stayed at other STRs in Antibes, the quality of bedding, kitchens, plumbing, and other basics is well below the standards that we see in the US. We knew that if we made basic investments our property would stand out, even it if lacked sea views, a terrace or other amenities. 
9. The town is the super amenity. Old Antibes has it all, led by beaches, restaurant and cafe scene, street musicians and entertainers, museums, a famous market, and proximity to France’s second largest airport in Nice. The French Riviera is on the bucket last for many tourists.
10. A walkable city. As everything in old Antibes is a 10-minute walk away and the train station is nearby, families don’t need a car. That helps with budgets as well as making vacations simple and enjoyable. 

Le Apartment

This is what the flat looked like when it was listed.

This is the living room after we furnished it, You can see our photos here on the listing.

Closing our Property

The French realty system is different from what you see in the US. There is no MLS in France. So an agency can’t show you everything that is on the market, rather they show you the properties that they can represent. The first agency that I contacted sent me links to some sad properties that were in the wrong neighborhoods and were not at all what we were looking for. At last I found an agency that sent me several properties that were in our budget and fit our needs.

Without visiting the properties we chose the one that we ended up buying. It was the only property in our budget that had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It had also just been renovated by a contractor. We were apprehensive about having to make major upgrades in a foreign country and this property was ready to move in to.

When we first made an offer, at first we tried it remotely from California. However, the owner didn’t trust that someone who had never seen the property might back out so he required that I travel to France to see the property. Our agent also recommended that if we really were sure about the property that we pay full price, as by French law, the first to agree to pay full price becomes the buyer. Unlike the US, there is no property bidding wars allowed. 

The Math

The first step in this process is the signing of a “Compromis de Vente” which is a preliminary sell and purchase agreement to the signing of the final deed.

We offered 475,000 Euros. To meet the seller’s asking price we had to simply increase the offer by 5,000 Euros. A deposit of 49,500 Euros was required as the deposit.

Subsequently, there is a cooling off period.

After all the enquiries have been completed and after the notaire receives all the necessary documents and after the funds are in place, the deed of sale (“acte authentique de vente”) can be signed.

There are then sales taxes. Ours came in at 29,500 Euros.

We spent another $24,000 in furnishings. Do not sleep in the costs of flights as they continue to rise steeply. We also spent $11,000 on flights to France in 2022.

Our Handicap

We are not fluent in French. We try. Did it matter? There were a number of documents in French. We put them through Google Translate but still we feel that we miss context. Perhaps the bigger handicap is that we expected the real estate process to be very similar to the one in the US and that is not the case.

The Mayor’s Suspense

You know already that we closed on the property. But in May 2022, after we had agreed with the seller, we still needed the town mayor to approve the sale. It was a bit mysterious why he might not approve the sale but the mayor has the right to block a sale should the city want to become the owner of the property. That’s fine but he had a time frame of the whole of the summer to decide. So we couldn’t buy furnishings or plan to stay in the apartment while we were in Antibes. It wasn’t until July that the mayor approved our purchase. 

Furnished or Clean Slate – Our Biggest Choice

The property had been staged with furnishings and the owner offered to sell us the property fully furnished for an additional 12,000 Euros. If we agreed to purchase it would speed up our ability to stay there and also to list it on Airbnb in August, a peak month for rentals in Antibes when we might see 400-500 euros per night. On the other hand, we didn’t care for the furnishings. It seemed both generic and also the quality was lower than what we would have bought. The beds, for example, were not comfortable. Moreover, the owner didn’t seem to offer any discount on the furnishings, offering them at the same price as what we could have bought ourselves. 

We decided we would forgo the immediate satisfaction of having a move-in-ready apartment and to not buy anything. 

We don’t regret the choice. It was a lot more work to buy furnishings than we had expected. The French delivery system is not as reliable as American deliveries, it was very slow. I booked a one-way ticket to stay in Antibes until the apartment was furnished, not knowing how long I would need to be there and it ended up staying for two months. 

Underestimating Staffing

I have lived in California most of my life and I don’t recall ever having trouble finding a cleaner. So while cleaning is crucial to the success of a short-term rental, I assumed it would be fairly easy to find a cleaning partner in France. It turned out to be very stressful and I found myself emailing any cleaning website I could find. And also stuck my nose into an apartment that was undergoing cleaning and asked about their services. 

In the end, we found a super cleaner as well as a backup in case she isn’t available. 

We also found a property manager, fluent in English and French, who meets guests and provides keys and a walk-though of the apartment. When things break in the apartment he manages that. As examples, a shower knob stopped working the day before a guest was to arrive and he fixed it, and the building had to change locks with not notice and he had keys made immediately. As we live 15 hours flight from Antibes, having a property manager is a necessity for us.

How’s Business?

We have an extra $1500 monthly in our mortgage payments to pay for our property. Add in the HOA fees, insurance, internet fees and electricity, at a minimum, and we want to be making $22K per year to break even. 

We don’t yet have a full year of data but our property manager has been managing similar properties in Antibes for years. He shared that we might expect to see bookings totaling 50,000 euros per year. Given that in July alone we had bookings of 8,000 euros this doesn’t seem like a stretch. 

We have decided to leave some mone on the table by not allowing bookings every night. To get some early 5-star reviews we allowed guests to stay for just one night. We have since extended that to a 3-night minimum. One and two nights stays just seem to add stress as between ourselves, our cleaners, and our property manager there is no room for error. We also require a day in between stays to make sure the house can be cleaned and if something is broken we have time to fix it. As we have more 5-star reviews we see more week-long bookings.

We use Guesty for Hosts to help automate tasks and we use Price Labs to set our pricing. While we might have made some mistakes, at this point we feel that our operation is humming. 

Another unexpected benefit is that our short-term rental has tax benefits as we can write off expenses. 

Is a potential $30,000 profit per year worth the trouble? Thus far it seems to be. We only spend a couple of hours a week managing the property Additionally we expect the value of the property to increase, and perhaps the daily rates might increase over time. 

Operating a short-term rental business has psychological benefits vs. having all of our investments in the stock market plus our primary residence. Once we retire we would feel that we dwindle our stock investments over a month as we sell stock to pay the bills. With our STR, we are not selling assets for income Additionally, our bank is taking the risk on the loan, allowing us to buy the property on their dime and our good names.

Economics aside, while hosting can add stress, it also has unexpected rewards as it’s a pleasure to get 5-star reviews and to interact with happy guests. 

Additionally, when we visit our property it’s a real pleasure to enjoy our second home. We can store clothing and personal effects in the basement so that we can pack with few things. It’s also a wonderful benefit to befriend other locals. And we have been offering friends and family stays in Antibes, which feels great, especially for friends who have been so generous to us.

What does 500,000 Euros Buy You Now In Antibes?

We believe we got a good deal. We don’t now see new properties in the 500,000 Euro range that offer a comparable value. This apartment is for sale at 525,000 Euros and has a nice terrace but, just two bedrooms and 1 bathroom.

Bonus Learnings

City Planning. The mayor of Antibes has been crushing it with city planning. The additions to the old town have improved the experience by maybe 20% in just the past couple years. Examples are closing car traffic to the sea wall walk and developing a new square in the old town that is both modern and blends in with the old buildings.

Celebrities are free marketing. International stars like Steph Curry and Lebron James post their Antibes trips to Instagram creating global brand awareness for the town.

Would we invest in another Property in Antibes?

Currently, our preference is to find properties in locations other than Antibes. This approach gives us a balanced portfolio. For example, it would be great to find property where winter is the high season, as most of our earnings from Antibes come in the summertime. Other locations also would add to our quality of life as we can stay in different locations.

That said our Antibes property and management system have worked out for us so if there was an unusual opportunity in Antibes it would call our attention.

Investment Data

Here are the estimated earnings for our property:

Here is aggregate data on Antibes:

What’s to like about Antibes?

• The walled city on the sea with the Alpes in the distance is stunning.
• Most of the old town is closed to cars making it a fairly large walkable city.
• As it’s a peninsula you can easily access a variety of beaches.
• The larger cities of Cannes and Nice are close at hand and have very different personalities.
• As crowded as it can get, it never feels like a tourist trap. The locals are a strong presence.
• There are many festivals and concerts and there are the regular markets.

The Vibe