Article in The Times newspaper about where to buy property in Nice, and stories about British people that have bought a property here and why. Fortunately it starts with some advice from somebody that some claim is Nice's top estate agent.

They just had a vote that passed to increase your taxes. The council tax ("Fonciere") will be going up next year by 6% and the tax on second homes ("Habitation") up by 4%. There was a lot of opposition but the Mayor Christian Estrosi pointed out that we have one of the cheapest local taxes in France, and that if households can afford €25/month for Netflix then an average increase of €12/month for locals is not too much to ask to keep all the essential services running.

The city of Nice has done its budgeting and the good news is: no price increases this year. Your council tax (Taxe Fonciere) will be the same this year as it was last year. Same with the now ironically named Tax Habitation, which is only for secondary residences, no price increase here either.

No, Nice hasn't gone cycling mad. That is not why all the bikes have disappeared. After being in place for only two weeks all the rental bikes in the city streets and on the Promenade have been withdrawn from service because of a potentially dangerous manufacturer battery fault. The Mayor is predictably furious, especially as he wasn't happy with the pedal bikes being replaced, and has asked the license-holder "Pony" to at least put in place some pedal power whilst they search for a replacement for the electric bikes. I suspect a lot of frequent visitors would not mind the license being revoked and the iconic Blue Bikes being brought back.

The Mayor is upset that the new rule regarding AirBnb in Nice has been struck down in court. The Town Hall has recently been checking the building rules to see if short term rentals is allowed or not, and this has been deemed unconstitutional.

Nice has been voted 13th best city to live in for locals, up 5 places from last year. Not bad out of the 34,808 cities surveyed. Paris came in 103rd place. It scored highest in "quality of life", with satisfaction being 28% above the national average.

A Place In the Sun has an article about why Nice is the place to buy, including some advice from a local expert.

British people will be allowed to stay in France 6 months of the year without a visa, as opposed to 90 days currently. The new law has just passed through parliament and is expected to be rubber stamped by the "constitutional council" and put into effect this Spring.

Villefranche has now adopted the same regulations as Nice where you are only allowed to rent out one property. If it's your primary residence then you can rent it for 120 days per year, and if secondary then you will get one authorisation from the Town Hall to rent it out for 6 years, non-renewable.

Happy New Year everybody! I hope 2024 is a fantastic year and may your dreams come true.