Marketing French Riviera propertyto international buyers

On the French Riviera, many of the people looking at your listings are not local. They are researching from London, New York, Dubai or San Francisco, often months before they visit, and they are comparing you with agents they have never met. Your marketing has to do the work of a first meeting.

Speak their language, literally

An English version of your website is the minimum for international buyers, and many agencies benefit from more. Translation is not enough on its own: prices, fees, energy ratings and the buying process should be explained in terms a foreign buyer understands. Treat each language as a real version of the site, not a machine translation of the French one.

Explain the process before they ask

Buying in France works differently from buying in the United States, the United Kingdom or the Gulf. Notaires, fees, timelines and the role of the agent are all unfamiliar to many international buyers. Clear guides on your website answer the questions they are too polite to ask on a first call, and they are exactly the kind of original content that helps a site rank.

• How buying in France works, step by step, from offer to completion.
• What the costs and fees are, and who pays them.
• Area guides for the towns you sell in: lifestyle, access, schools and seasonality.
• What to expect from you, before, during and after the purchase.

Show the lifestyle, not just the property

International buyers are buying a way of life as much as a home. Video and photography of the setting, the light, the town and the view do more than any floor plan to make a buyer book a flight. Edited well, one shoot can serve your website, your social channels and a newsletter to your international database.

A foreign buyer has to trust you from thousands of miles away. Everything they see online is your first meeting.

Build a presence that works across markets

We built Realtor on the Riviera around exactly this: one advisor serving buyers between San Francisco and France, with separate markets, French listing details and a journal for international buyers. We also rebuilt Riviera King, a luxury agency in Villefranche-sur-Mer. If you sell on the Riviera, see our France and the Riviera page.