English people would like to buy houses here,” confides the old lady in the
bar in Olmeto, southwest Corsica. Surely the locals aren’t happy about that,
I say, mindful of the nationalist movement that has waged a sometimes
violent campaign since the 1970s. “Oh, no, they’re fine with it,” she
assures me. Behind her back, the patronne tells a different story,
rolling her eyes and waggling a hand in a gesture that says, with wordless
eloquence, “up to a point”.
The Mediterranean island is just over 100 miles from mainland France (or "le
continent”, as the islanders call it), and is run almost as any other
French région, but even seasoned property-hunters who think they
know the French market will be in for a few surprises. The insular locals
aren’t fond of the outsiders on whom their tourism industry depends, most
estate agents don’t speak English and, for most of the year, you can’t fly
direct from the UK. Yet the island’s beguiling combination of mountains and
beaches, relaxed but chic resort towns, timeless hilltop villages and
premium summer rental yields is luring British investors.
“We wanted something more exciting than the UK buy-to-let market,” says Sarah
Bailey, a clinical scientist who lives in Romsey, Hampshire, with her
husband, David, a software sales director. “I’ve lived in South Africa and
Australia, and there’s not a lot to compare to Corsica’s endless beautiful
beaches. I like the French feel, but it’s not crowded like the south of
France.”
The Baileys chose a six-bedroom villa known, in the Italian-tinged Corsican
language more widely spoken on the island than French, as Monte a lu Marinu.
The property, which has its own pool, is in a gated estate near Propriano,
on a hillside fragrant with juniper, myrtle and sage, and has glorious views
of the Gulf of Valinco. They bought it for £495,000 from Pierre
Mozziconacci, a local builder who recently sold two two-bedroom flats to
British buyers for about £170,000 each.
The link between the British buyers and this small corner of Corsica is a
company called DirectCorsica.com,
which branched out from its main business, holiday lets, when Janet Rankin,
its director, realised there was a gap to be bridged between owners looking
to sell and British buyers trying to find a way onto the island.
“Here, it’s all about what they call ‘ les pistons’ –
who you know,” says Claire Hall, the firm’s Propriano-based agent. Monte a
lu Marinu was sold to the Baileys with several weeks of holiday lets already
booked for summer 2008. They plan to keep renting it out – the villa can
generate £2,750 a week from mid-July to the end of August. “Apartments get a
longer letting season than big villas,” Hall says. “Couples can come when
families with school-age kids can’t, so they can earn from £400 a week in
low season to £1,250 in high summer.”
In nearby Abbartello, behind the camp sites that fringe the beach, Hall is
selling a small house, with permission to extend, on 3,000 square metres of
land. Development is strictly controlled in Corsica, with a blanket ban on
new building within 100 metres of the shoreline, but Hall says the local
authorities review the status of other land every seven years and can decide
to allow building on hitherto protected terrain.
The Abbartello house, on the market for £400,000, could be extended to create
a four-bedroom villa with a pool for about £150,000. The prices aren’t rock
bottom, but the Valinco area is still significantly cheaper than the
southeast of the island, around the resort of Porto-Vecchio, where villas
sell, largely to Italians (Italy is just across the Tyrrhenian Sea), for
£800,000 or more.
“The beaches in this area are equalled only by the Caribbean – which is not
the case on the Riviera,” says Kaver Kittani, of the Antibes-based estate
agent Carlton International. Yet even he has to admit: “The market here is a
bit peculiar. Everybody knows everybody’s business, and people are willing
to work with us because we’re not in Corsica, so nobody needs to know
they’re selling. It’s a cultural thing – as though you’re selling off their
island.”
This is clearly a contentious issue. “Shame on you who sell your land”, read
the graffiti written large (in Corsican) on a wall in the village of Ponte
Nuovo, near Corte, to the north of the island. According to Kittani, one
British buyer recently pulled out of a purchase because of financing and
insurance problems linked to a perceived threat of nationalist action
against foreign buyers. “Some banks are wary of Corsican collateral,” he
says.
So, why would anyone buy? “It’s five or six times less expensive than the
south of France: £950,000 for a villa, compared to £5m or £6m.”
Though it’s only a 150-mile drive from Porto-Vecchio to Calvi, on the
northwest coast, the journey through the interior takes several hours,
across spectacular woodland and mountain scenery, with a final sweep of
magnificent coast road past L’Ile-Rousse. Lorraine Campbell, whose
London-based company works with a network of agents in France, is using
Calvi as her bridgehead into Corsica, with Sarah Deubras of a local agency,
Salito.
Campbell believes the Balagne area, in the northwest of the island, is most
likely to appeal to the British market. Buyers who can’t afford Provence,
but want a large country property, perhaps to turn into a B&B, might be
interested in a restored six-bedroom farmhouse with vaulted brick ceilings
near Corte. It has a pool, a separate guest house and 10 hectares of land,
including a river with fishing rights.
The price is £1.8m: cheaper than Provence, but dearer than other parts of
rural France. Why the premium? It’s all about being close to the sea,
Campbell says. Deubras puts it more succinctly: the holy grail is “ les
pieds dans l’eau”, or feet in the water. Properties erected before
the ban on building within 100 metres of the shore – which came into effect
30 years ago – have a valuable USP.
An 18-year-old five-bedroom villa with pool in the Marina de Davia estate,
near L’Ile-Rousse, is nothing special for £1.4m, but all that stands between
it and the beach is a short slope of aromatic maquis. Villas without
frontline beach access start at about £475,000.
When the supermodel Laetitia Casta decided to buy a holiday pad in her
father’s native region, however, she preferred village life to dangling her
toes in the briny. Deubras points out her blue-shuttered house in the
hilltop village of Lumio, near Calvi, and breathlessly relates the tale of
how Casta’s granny used to char for the previous owners before the local
girl made good bought the property. A few French celebs have also bought in
Lumio, pushing up prices and softening local resistance to outsiders.
Deubras has a newly restored and surprisingly roomy house in the nearby
village of Corbara on her books for £312,000.
Finding a wreck to do up yourself is not an easy option in Corsica, though two
Paris-based artists, Candida Romero and her mother, Simone Dat, have pulled
off an amazing feat with the abandoned Convent
of St Francis which they let out, in a valley below the village of
Oletta.
It took a year and a half just to clean the place up, before 120 windows and
doors could be copied in local chestnut and installed; 27 nuns’ cells turned
into light and stylish bedrooms and bathrooms; wood and terracotta floors
installed; artists’ studios created; gardens planted and a swimming pool
built. There’s still the ruined church to get started on.
Romero won’t say what they have spent on the venture – which began in 2000 and
last year won the Emile Garcin prize for restoration of a historic French
building – only that the £51,000 it costs to rent the entire
place in August is just a contribution to costs. While they praise the local
workmen, the women point out that they had to be around to get things done –
a warning for anyone considering a restoration project. “It has taken eight
years,” Romero says. “If we hadn’t been here, it would be 20.”
Par or the Corse
- La Piazza Ronda, a former wine tower in Propriano, has eight bedrooms, on
four floors. It also has a pool and, in high season, could be rented out for
up to £5,500 per week.
For sale for £994,000 through DirectCorsica; www.directcorsica.com
- This six-bedroom house, set up as two apartments, is a five-minute drive
from the pristine beaches of Palombaggia, near Porto-Vecchio.
For sale for £623,000 through Carlton International; 00 33 6 10 18 38 83,
www.carlton-international.com
- Perched on a hillside in Corbara, near L’Ile-Rousse, this stone-built
three-bed house has mountain views and exposed-rock features.
For sale for £312,000 through Lorraine Campbell Property Services; 020 7978
5505, www.lorrainecampbell.com
- On the Santa Maria development, in Monticello, near L’Ile-Rousse, these
two-bed, 90-square-metre houses have gardens and off-street parking.
From £221,000, through Lorraine Campbell Property Services; 020 7978 5505, www.lorrainecampbell.com
English investors taking advantage of an island that is the poorest region of France are one of the reasons why the english are generally despised by the Corsicans. It's called a lack of respect. The fake superior attitude shown by many english is well noted - dont be suprised by the firebombs!!
Carlo Van Hinsk, Shooters Hill,
We love Corsica and have been several times over the last 5 years. If I wanted to live there, I'd buy a villa. As I only want to have holidays here, I rent a villa.
I think my £500k is better spent in the UK
Pete, london,