Office and General Enquiries: +33 (0)9 52 78 27 65 
Want to buy an apartment in Nice or the French Riviera?
Owning an apartment in Nice is an excellent investment. Property in Nice remains very good value for money when compared with cities like London, New York and Paris.
Many international financial advisors recognise that French real estate offers a stable investment with a proven track record of annual increases in value without the risk of property crashes that other international markets have recently suffered.
As Nice and the French Riviera is already built up and not getting any bigger, the only way property prices can go is up. With the new tramway, low cost daily flights to Nice, over 300 days of sunshine a year and with the bustling town as well as the beach, Nice has a lot to offer over other investments abroad.
This is true whether you are buying to rent out, use as a pied-a-terre or as a full or part time home.
Using Nice Pebbles to buy your Nice apartment
Headed by Laura Poirier, previously of Coast and Country and Winkworth, we have our own sales portfolio of properties in Nice and the French Riviera and also work closely with other estate agents to find our clients the right apartment or villa.
Laura is originally from Ireland, but has lived on the French Riviera for the last 15 years. She has two teenagers and is married to a Frenchman and has been an active sales agent on the French Riviera for 8 years. Laura can help you find an apartment to buy in Nice or the French Riviera that suits your requirements.
To help you find your apartment in Nice, Laura will carry out an in-depth interview with you to ascertain your specific needs for your apartment or villa. We can make buying an apartment in Nice as simple and as stress free as possible and save you a lot of time, money and legwork.
Nice Pebbles is a fully licensed and insured estate agency in Nice. We are not property finders who have to work with licensed estate agents. This means we have more scope to negotiate on commissions and more often that not will be able to offer the buyer a better price than a property finder who does not have the same leeway in negotiating his fee. This is why properties listed with property finders, rather than licensed estate agents, are usually advertised at higher prices. It is the only way a property finder can obtain his fee.
In France, the estate agency system is very different to that of the UK and other countries. Due to the system, there is usually little point in working with more than one agency in Nice to find your apartment or villa to buy since most will be offering the exact same properties.
It is rare for one seller to give a sales contract to just one agency. Consequently, you might see the same property in many of the estate agents windows or websites. Where the sales contract has been given to one estate agency, the agency is usually willing to share the property with other licensed agents.
We have excellent connections with other estate agencies in Nice and can find your apartment in Nice by working with them with the properties on their books, as well as our own. So, we can offer you the best properties available at the best prices available.
Buying an apartment in Nice or the French Riviera for investment
For the last three years, our core business has been providing holiday rental apartments to the English speaking community. We are now the leading rental agency for apartments in Nice for the English speaking community.
Over time, it became more and more common for previous guests and those working with other estate agents in Nice to seek out our advice for what to buy in Nice, especially when considering buying in Nice for investment.
When we saw a gap in the market for investment sales for the seasonal rental market, we knew we had something more to offer than most local estate agents. In 2009, Nice Pebbles launched its sales portfolio of properties to buy in Nice and the French Riviera.
With over 5,000 guests a year, a portion of our new clients are previous guests. There are always a few who decide they want their own slice of the French Riviera. We love welcoming previous guests as new clients, proving again how wonderful this part of the world is, and proud that we may have helped them to discover it.
Benefit from our experience of property rentals
As the leading rental agency in Nice with over 60 apartments and villas on our rental portfolio, we know what guests want and what works to achieve the maximum investment for your rental property.
We can show you the returns achieved for every property in our rental portfolio and can advise on why certain properties achieve the highest income. Backed up by spreadsheets, bank statements and maintenance records, buyers can trust us to find them the right investment property to buy for their budget.Our rental apartments are generally of a higher standard than most properties on the rental market in Nice. We know that upmarket apartments and villas work for the English speaking community.
Purchasers could buy something not so flash, as locals tend to do, and get around £800 per month on a long term rental, or they could offer something special with a beautiful sleek kitchen and bathroom and high end furniture and obtain an average of £700 per week (taken over 3 seasons) or more as a holiday apartment. With short term holiday rentals, guests pay up front for their stay and arrive with a suitcase and leave with a suitcase. In other words, there is little risk of not receiving your rent due as there is with long term renters. Short term rentals through us also provide a deposit by way of a credit card during their stay, so there is little risk of unpaid damage. We have also found our well-heeled short term rental guests to be very respectful whilst staying in one of our rental apartments so bad tenants are not at all usual. The other advantage is that holiday renters tend to be out sight-seeing during the day, so there is usually less wear and tear on the rental apartment.
We can also advise on the pitfalls of purchasing the wrong apartment. As we hope you will want to rent your apartment through us, it’s extremely important to us that we help you find the best investment. This means we weed out the apartments that aren’t quite up to scratch so your time is not wasted on your search.
In Nice, property prices are very precisely linked to floor square meters and number of rooms provided. This means that apartments can stay untouched for years accounting for basic kitchens and bathrooms, the use of mezzanines and rooms that are too small that what the English community might be used to at home.
If you are looking for income, this is where tricks are missed. We would always recommend going for bigger space, and knocking walls down when necessary and we would rarely recommend buying an apartment in Nice that has a mezzanine or where the living room is too cramped for the amount of bedrooms.
Other aspects to consider when you start your search
One of the best ways to obtain the best investment and income for the English speaking rental community is to buy a rental apartment in Nice as a renovation project. Alternatively, buying an apartment in Nice from a builder before he has completed the renovation is a good idea, so you have some say in the apartment spec whilst being renovated.
We have good contacts in the renovation market and are always seeking out good opportunities for our clients. If a renovation project could be what you are looking for, it’s best to contact us early. Some renovators now also contact us to ask our advice before they start, so we can direct potential purchasers to good renovations.
We would recommend beautiful over cheap for kitchens and bathrooms and high end furniture. We have apartments on our books which cost half the price of others, but which achieve more annual rental return because they cater for what the English community want with high end furniture and oodles of space. And they are prepared to pay for it.
The key thing to get right for a rental investment is of course the location. Buying any apartment in Nice, the key consideration should always be location above anything else. We will always try and steer investment clients to buy the best they can afford in the right location because any furtuer costs of remodelling is the same no matter what price you have paid per square meter for the apartment you buy.
We know where the demand is for holiday rentals in Nice, and what is a good buy and what isn’t to obtain the maximum rental yield on your apartment. We can save you the days of searching for the ideal neighbourhood.
Please email your requirements to us on the online enquiry form below. We will then inform you of any potential properties that are for sale which may meet your specification. If we have nothing available, then if you wish, we will keep your details on file and inform you of anything that comes up.
We also work with local estate agents and property finders who may also have something available for you. If you wish, we can pass your details to them also.
Rather than set out what is already easily accessible on the web, upon completion of your enquiry, we will, if you wish, send you details on the buying process so you are fully informed at all stages.
