Whether it’s rescuing a crumbling French chateau, transforming a knackered beachside shack or investing in a city apartment somewhere you’ve fantasised living, many of us have harboured a dream of renovating a home abroad. However, romanticism aside, renovating is never without its challenges and taking on a project abroad can create additional complications you might not face at home.
Vintage clothes and textile dealer Susie Nelson thrives on this challenge. A self-confessed property project addict, she has renovated five houses in France with her husband. For them, France offers more enticing property opportunities than the UK. “There are lots of old large houses in the UK but they cost much more, and many more have already been ‘modernised.’” Her latest project, a house in Burgundy dating to the 1770s, demanded an extensive renovation with work on the roof, internal walls, replumbing, rewiring and removing various 19th-century additions to reveal the original 18th century details.
Whether at home or abroad, the success of any renovation project lies in finding the right people to work with. Without the usual connections of friends and family, Nelson finds being a little inventive is always necessary. She worked with local French builders, architects and tradesmen throughout and found the list of contractors pinned to properties being renovated locally (a requirement in France) a valuable resource. Beyond this, it’s all about getting out there and asking locals, neighbours and town officials. A win-win for information collecting and future relations. “It’s important to get these people ‘on side’,” Nelson points out.
It was a similar situation for interior designer and founder of furniture makers Bespoke + Found, Anna Standish who recently renovated her family’s holiday home in Spain’s Costa Brava which dates back to 1596. “ We stayed in a small house in a nearby village and the kind gentleman whose house it was helped us find a builder,” she explains. Bought with her two siblings in the nineties, the latest renovations saw them replace the bathrooms, upgrade the kitchen and redecorate and re-furnish the house.
Unless you plan to live locally throughout the project, you will likely need someone on the ground manning the day to day. Choosing someone who is very communicative over Whatsapp with photos can help smooth this process but regular visits are always going to be necessary.
Not that this is always a bad thing. “I loved the frequent site visits; the blue skies of Costa brava in February are a lovely contrast to UK weather,” Standish says. On the flip side, being able to escape the dust and dirt when you can is always a nice bonus of not living on-site.
Site visits are also important when sourcing for a project in a new place but this can open creative doors. “I loved finding new local craftspeople, artisan workshops and antique dealers. We used some wonderful hand painted tiles from Ferres Ceramica which is a local ceramic manufacturer in Costa Brava,” Standish shares.
As the co-founder of Muza Lab, Inge Moore is not new to working abroad having completed large scale hotel projects such as the One&Only Aesthesis in Athens and Six Senses Southern Dunes in Saudi Arabia. When it came to creating a family holiday home for herself in her native Cape Town, she took a very hands on approach. Much like with her client projects, she was inspired by the location and relied heavily on local materials which meant extensive time at the property at the start and bi-monthly site visits throughout. While the home had good bones, she completed extensive renovations removing rough yellow pebbledash from the exterior, replacing all the flooring, doors and windows and completely re landscaping the garden with a new pool and jacuzzi.
While the 700sqm property cost the same price as a small London flat, there were challenges specific to working in Africa. “Severe water restrictions meant we had to add a borehole. Then when load shedding happened we only had power for several hours a day, so we had to install inverter systems to keep the fridge and internet running so we could work when we were there,” Moore said.
Of course, there is the bureaucracy too, both when buying a property and renovating abroad. For fellow renovators, Standish recommends always checking about planning permission and the situation with both access and utilities. “There is lots of red tape around these in Spain and it will be different in every country,” she notes.
This is something Daniele Mancinetti, founder of König Design Studio, found when he bought a Berlin bolthole. “Germany is efficient, but the bureaucracy is far from easy or pain-free,” Mancinetti explains. For example, he found rules around fire safety were more stringent than he was used to when he increased the square meterage of the attic space, once a laundry for the building, and had to add a fire exit. Similarly, adding a roof terrace turned into a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare. “Finding a way to install a staircase that was both visually pleasing, compliant with all the German rules and safe to use was difficult,” he explains.
Of course, working in another language is also a big hurdle. “My only regret is not learning German. It would have saved a lot of silly discussions with government office staff. If I spoke the language, I would understand what all those papers, permits and rules meant without having to rely on a third person,” Mancinetti says. In fact, everyone we spoke to hammered home the importance of either speaking some of the language or finding someone that does, whether that is a helpful friend or family member or someone you can employ to make things a little easier.
Plus, a bucket load of patience is always key. Renovating abroad is not a quick or easy process but one that can be both creatively inspiring and deeply rewarding on completion. “All the frustrations are worth it in the end,” Mancinetti says.
