For Sale - Only €7m

 I’ve said before that one of the most useful things out here is the web site called AngloInfo which not only supplies a myriad of information on everything from when you can burn your garden rubbish to the travails of buying a house or setting up a small business. It also has a ‘bring and buy’ forum where members can sell things which are no longer required in their households, including the house itself.

I’ve been lucky enough to buy a whole host of things from other members of the forum, ranging from cars to dishwashers, garden furniture to scooters and not one of them has been a bad buy. I even managed to rent my house through Anglo with scores of people asking for details within minutes of the house being posted there. It’s a great resource for ex-pats but sometimes people just expect too much from Anglo. Read the following advert and see what you think.  

A luxurious 450 sqm villa in a private and secure domain with a beautiful view of the bay of Cannes.

Luxuriously renovated, the property floor space is 450 sqm plus a 50 sqm guard’s house. This propriety with generous volumes is situated on flat land of about 2900 sqm. The property has a pool, pool house and sea and mountains view. Located in an absolutely quiet domain.

Price: €7,100,000 euros (Can be sold furnished or unfurnished).

€7.1 million euros! Who do they think reads Anglo – the rich and the hoi polloy? Maybe they’re just trying to sell it without engaging an estate agent, the fees of whom are absolutely astronomical. In the UK the normal agency fee can be anywhere from 1.5% to 2.5%, or maybe even 3% if you employ a fancy-dan agency. In France it can be from 6% to 7% on a good day – that’s €426,000 for selling that house described above! Maybe Angloinfo wasn’t such a bad idea after all?

No wonder the estate agents all have fancy houses and drive about in Porsches!