I’m a finance guy. Let’s figure this out:
The cheapest castles in France are around 1.5million usd, with some of the more expensive ones rising to around 6mil. We’ll probably need a bigger one to house a chivalric order.
Almost all of these are fixer-uppers. Now, we’ll have the manpower of at least seven people at this point, but if we want to both modernize and restore to historical standards, it could easily double the buying price.
That means a total investment of up to 12 million usd.
That’s a 30-year mortgage of $15.5m, or $43,000 a month with a $2.4 million down payment.
Split 7 ways, that’s $6,100 a month from each of us, with a $350,000 initial investment each. I’ve already doubled the buying price, so that covers maintenance and repairs.
However, French property taxes of upwards of 9% on a 12m usd property could cost up to 1.15 m usd every year.
In addition, insurance on a historic property could cost around $350,000/year depending on the location. We’re now up to $168,000/mo, or $24,000 per person per month.
Which seems unreasonable if you don’t consider the ways to make the property pay for itself. Since we’re restoring it, we could potentially write off 90 or even 100% of the total investment (purchase plus renovation costs) over 12 years. That’s a savings of 1m a year or 11,900 per person per month.
Let’s set up a farm or vinyard on the property to make an expected $6k a year per acre. If the property comes with just 150 acres, that’s $900,000 per year or an additional $10,700 off each of our monthly contributions. Down to just $1,400 each per month. That’s totally doable.
If there’s more than 170 acres attached, it pays for itself. We’d only be liable for the down payment. 350k each.
The kicker is that these prestige properties are so cheap because of a recent $75 tax on the wealthiest individuals in France. The market is flooded due to a bunch of bougies no longer able to afford playing Bourbon. If we split ownership of the castle between a bunch of people, our own personal stake could remain in a more managable tax bracket.
And if we were to set up a nonprofit to govern the castle, we might qualify for business incentives and reduce our tax stake to a minimum. In addition, we could extend the mortgage because ownership of the castle will be a going concern. We could also look into agricultural incentives.
$6m usd could certainly buy us a castle and over 200 acres. Plus $6m in reno costs is $12m total. If we ran it as a nonprofit, we could secure a loan for a downpayment of as little as 3-5%. That’s $360k-$600k.
Let’s not consider it a chivalric order with less than 24 members. 3% downpayment of just $15,000 from each of us and it’s ours. Profit is reinvested, so we wouldn’t have to work a 9-5 another day in our lives.
Now, who wants to buy a castle?
janainaart
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
areudirty
kianamaiart
origamiaround
2087
germansingergirl
