It has recently been announced that 30,000 homes are due to be torn down in Spain this year as they have been classed as illegal developments with insufficient or incorrect documentation or simply without planning permission. This sort of thing may come as no surprise to many of you who have been reading the papers over the last few years where cases such as these have been well documented. This is in addition to other problems in Spain such as the "land grab" scenario by local authorities in Valencia where hundreds of home owners have ended up losing their homes which many have their life savings locked up in. Now it seems that this type of thing is now happening in other newly "fashionable" cheap countries which promoted cheap investments with seemingly incredible projected capital growth prospects such as Bulgaria. The OPP magazine recently discovered that 200 developments in Bulgaria have now been torn down in just the 1st 6 months of 2006 for very similar reasons to the properties in Spain- namely insufficient planning permission. This type of rogue developing and false selling is not only a financial disaster for the poor individuals who spent vast amounts of money on their properties in these countries but is also incredibly emotionally draining for them, many of whom have based their pension plans on the capital growth of these properties or are in fact already retired and may be planning to live there.

Unlike any other country in the world the French have a fascination with paperwork, contracts and the rule of the law and although this can be seen as a hassle at the time to comply with all their regulations and complete all the necessary paperwork it does in fact protect the purchaser to the extent not found any where else. Vast numbers of developments being torn down by mis-selling and illegal construction activity by developers in France is simply unheard of and therefore makes it the safest place to buy property. It is therefore an excellent location to invest as it provides very reasonable capital growth with a steady rental and resale market. Some Bulgarian developers have been boasting capital growth of 20% per annum in some areas but with no way of verifying their statistics can these figures really be relied upon and will the property actually still be there in a couple of years? On the other hand capital growth in France was over 10% in 2005 (source: FNAIM www.fnaim.com ) which coupled with its very low deposits and ease of mortgage application makes it a highly rewarding and yet sensible place to invest.

Of course there is still the choice of where in France is the best place to purchase and from whom. For property hunters who can often be bombarded by developments from every location it is hard to distinguish which are the savvy investments and which are not so savvy. Leapfrog properties works with only the most reputable and established developers in France and has nearly 150 developments to choose from placing it in a unique position where its consultants can give totally unbiased advice on where and what to buy. They can advise on which are the areas currently performing the best but also on where future growth is predicted and whereabouts in France the best deals are to be had.