The budget nobody makes: what a villa on the Bay really costs

There is a rule of thumb in Anglo-Saxon property, the one per cent rule: set aside one per cent of the property's value each year for maintenance.

On the Atlantic coast, with houses that are often old, exposed to salt, wind and damp, and unoccupied for most of the year, that rule is optimistic. Our observations put the real range between 1.5% and 3%.

The gap between the two ends has almost nothing to do with luck. It has to do with the regularity of maintenance.

I. The four families of expenditure

Four very different things are commonly conflated, which explains most under-estimated budgets.

1. Fixed charges. Property tax, second-home council tax and any surcharge, insurance, water, electricity, subscriptions, drainage charges. They fall due whether you come or not.

2. Routine maintenance. Garden, pool, cleaning, service contracts, statutory checks, small repairs. This is the predictable line, the one that can be smoothed and negotiated.

3. Major works. Roof, façades, joinery, heating, services, terraces. They do not occur every year, but they do occur. A house has a clock: joinery lasts twenty-five to thirty-five years, a roof forty to sixty, a water cylinder twelve to fifteen, a heat pump fifteen, a pool liner ten to fifteen.

4. Claims and the unforeseen. Statistically inevitable over time. A coastal villa will, over twenty years, see at least one significant incident — storm, water damage, subsidence.

The budget that fails is almost always the one that adds 1 and 2 and ignores 3 and 4.

II. A worked budget, 200 m² villa at Cap Ferret

The orders of magnitude below are for a 200 m² villa on a 1,200 m² wooded plot with a pool, occupied twelve to sixteen weeks a year. They are indicative and vary considerably with the commune, the age of the building and its exposure.

The provision line is the one that makes people sit up. It corresponds to no invoice this year. It corresponds to the roof that will need work in twelve years, the joinery reaching the end of its life in eight, the terrace waterproofing that is now twenty years old.

Not providing for it does not make the expense disappear. It turns it into an emergency decision, at the least convenient moment.

III. Why prevention costs less than repair

This is not a sales line, it is a mechanism.

Preventive work is planned. It is negotiated out of season, with a chosen firm, against several quotations, with a comfortable lead time, and limited to what is needed.

Reactive work is suffered. It happens under pressure, often in peak season when trades are saturated, with the first available firm, without competition, and over a wider scope because the fault has spread.

Three examples from our files:

Gutter clearing, €250 a year. Render repair and damp treatment after three winters of overflow: in the order of €8,000.

Re-bedding verge tiles, €400. Structural repair after prolonged ingress: several thousand euros, plus insulation and ceilings.

Preventive replacement of flexible connectors, €200 for the whole house. Water damage discovered six weeks after failure: from a few thousand to tens of thousands.

The ratio is rarely better than one to ten.

IV. What distance adds to the bill

An owner living in Bordeaux manages a villa at the Cap with a few round trips. An owner in Paris, Geneva or London cannot — and that impossibility has a cost, rarely quantified.

The cost of dedicated journeys. Six to eight round trips a year to wait for a trade, take a delivery or open the house. Count the travel, any accommodation, and above all the time.

The cost of uncompared quotations. At a distance you accept the quote that arrives, unable to obtain three. The gap between the first quote and the best of three, on routine work, commonly runs between fifteen and thirty per cent.

The cost of missed appointments. The trade calls, nobody opens, they recharge the visit and propose a date in three weeks.

The cost of seasonal slippage. What should have been done in February gets done in July, at July prices, with July availability.

Added together, these frequently amount to the equivalent of an annual management contract. That is the economic argument we put forward, and it is only worth anything if it can be verified: so we cost it file by file rather than asserting it.

V. What really drives the variation

Four factors explain most of the difference between two comparable houses.

Exposure. Front line onto the Bay or sheltered by forest: the wear ratio on joinery, timber and metals runs from one to three.

Age and construction type. A 2015 timber-frame villa with a flat roof, a 1930s stone village house, a 1970s blockwork build: three maintenance calendars and three budgets.

Equipment. Pool, spa, lift, home automation, jetty. Each adds an annual maintenance line and a replacement date.

Regularity. All else equal, a house maintained regularly costs appreciably less over ten years than one rescued in fits and starts. It is the only one of these four factors entirely within an owner's control.

Frequently asked questions

What annual budget should I allow for a second home?

Between 1.5% and 3% of the property's value per year on the coast, including running costs, local taxes, routine maintenance and a provision for major works. On Arcachon Bay, a 200 m² villa with a pool commonly falls between €25,000 and €55,000 a year.

Should I make a provision for major works on a second home?

Yes. Major works account for forty to sixty per cent of the total cost over twenty years but arrive in bursts. An annual provision of about one per cent of the building's value avoids emergency decisions when the roof or joinery reaches the end of its life.

Is preventive maintenance really cheaper than repairs?

Yes, at a ratio rarely better than one to ten on routine items. Preventive work is planned out of season, competitively tendered and limited to what is needed; reactive work happens under pressure, without comparison, on a fault that has already spread.

What does an owner's distance actually cost?

It translates into dedicated journeys, uncompared quotations, missed appointments and work deferred into peak season. Combined, these frequently amount to the equivalent of an annual management contract, without any of its benefits.

Is second-home council tax increased around Arcachon Bay?

Several communes on the Bay in designated high-pressure housing areas have voted a surcharge, which can run from 5% to 60% depending on the council's decision. Rates change year to year: refer to the decision in force in the commune concerned.