Just like the impending capital gains tax has wealthy homeowners scrambling to sell in the U.S., luxury property owners in France are also trying to ditch their properties before tax changes in the country's 2013 budget go into effect.
In the past eight months, more than 400 properties worth $12.7 million or more have hit the market, according to Jean Rafferty of The New York Times.
Jean Rafferty of The Times writes:
Quite a few of France’s most wealthy already have moved abroad to avoid the country’s stiff inheritance and wealth taxes.
Now, real estate agents say, the younger, working wealthy also are on the move, unhappy at the prospect of being taxed at 75 percent on income of more than €1 million, or $1.27 million, and a capital gains tax of more than 60 percent on stocks, bonds and company sales, although protests have produced exceptions for investors and new business start ups.
Charles-Marie Gottras, president of Daniel Féau, a high-end French real estate broker, told The New York Times that the type of luxury properties that once appeared once every six months or a year were now landing on the market once a week.
And with so many luxury properties for sale, buyers know they can negotiate the price, which is leading to a 3 to 5 percent decline in the homes' actual values.
Sotheby’s International Realty France said that in the past six weeks it had sold three properties for more than $25.5 million.
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