Essentially, to get your visa, you need to show your business - and, if you have more than one, each business - generates an income of at least SMIC, the national minimum wage, which is just over 17.000 € at the moment. (For a couple, it’s not quite double.) That’s not impossible for a dormant gîte business, but the fact that the business is not trading at the moment complicates matters somewhat.
Yes it was all my own work. (well, not the photo montage that’s the movie poster, but I changed the text)
Changing faces on movie posters is fiddly - you need images at a matching angle and lighting - and an avatar image won’t have enough pixels to work.
I did one a few years ago with pictures of a bunch of colleagues from a photographer’s forum called DWF - that’s me as Emperor Palpatine lower right. (click to enlarge)
Difference between coming over as inactive, ie just needing SMIC as enough income to keep your roof over your head and requesting a visa to start a gîte business.
The business plan for the visa must be self contained (ie not reliant on other activities) and show a turnover in first year of at least €23k although that might have been raised this year. It is turnover, not profit however given costs of running a gîte I doubt this would sufficiently profitable for a comfortable life as you would most likely end up living on less than SMIC.
I’d gather that the main feature being a mummified nun in a glass case “à la blanche neige” probably doesn’t quite make it to the top 10 of world attractions.
One of my colleagues had a holiday home near Nevers and loved it. I’m sure a gite there would attract people looking for tranquility in the countryside and history. I personally think that would not be enough to start up a new business there. In my area in the Poitou Charente gites and chambres d’hotes seem to be very seasonal. The only exception I know is a chambres d’hotes close to the N10 which does well all year around with a mix of regular business travellers and summer tourists. My neighbour ran a chambres d’hotes for several years but it wasn’t a viable money maker, at best it paid for the granules to heat the house through the winter. The clients tended to be people visiting family occasions in the area, people here for cycling or football events and the occasional couple passing through. I’ve always presumed that the successful gite businesses are either well established or are close to a tourist hotspot like the coast, the mountains, a lake or an attraction.
A new gite complex opened on the outskirts of our town last year after a lot of expensive looking renovations. Whoever invested in that obviously thinks that rural gites are a viable proposition so perhaps I’m wrong.
I think you might be
There are the gîtes that are essentially side hustles, and all people seek is for it to earn its keep plus a bit. Often using a property that was inherited, or was bought a long time ago. Many individual gîtes are like that and serve a solid purpose. Because we started so long ago the return for us is good and provides a nice top-up income. But it still takes work, and with increasing competition anywhere that is sub-standard may not do well at all.
But more and more one sees complexes of 3 -6 purpose built/reconverted gites that are super-professional as that’s the only way to get enough return on investment/living income . But from what I see round us they work. A different form of package holiday. As long as enough on site people don’t need to be next to the Eiffel Tower.
The other thing you need to research carefully is the fiscalité of your plans - Welcome to France!
In 2025 there have been some significant changes about tax treatments on meublé de tourisme which squeeze profitability. Previously there were some very nice tax breaks. So it will make it harder. Not impossible, but just needing tight financial control. LMNP probably won’t apply to you as your turnover will be too high, but it is indicative of the ways things are going.
Anything you read pre-2025 may be irrelevant now so take care.
Sorry for my late replies, due to being a newbie I was on a limit to how many posts I could do in a timeframe and I have been busy with getting a valuation on my UK house today! Following all your helpful advice, I think we have steered away from the beautiful Nevers property. We have quite a specific requirement for a property, since although we wont have a mortgage we need a place big enough for our family and with enough additional space for gites. I’d need help to navigate how we would operate two businesses as although the two sets of parents will be retired, the kids (well 19 and 21) will need an income/business to run themselves.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone, I know its not going to be easy to navigate this move, but we are undaunted and looking forward to our new challenge.
Good luck. Just be VERY realistic as programmes like a New Life in the Sun are very much not!
One thing to leave with you is the massive difference in runing businesses here. So many extra taxes and charges.
“Typiquement, la marge nette moyenne pour un gîte se situe entre 20 % et 40 %.
En d’autres termes, si votre gîte génère 20 000 €, votre bénéfice net après toutes les dépenses pourrait être d’environ 6 000 €, représentant 30 % du revenu total.”
Each of them will need to apply for their own visa. There is no ‘family visa’ that allows adult children to piggyback on their parents’ visa. It may be quite challenging for a 19 year old to convince the visa people that they have the necessary skills and experience to set up and run a successful business in France.
(well, not the photo montage that’s the movie poster, but I changed the text)
(click to enlarge)
Even we have one down the road…