Restored French chateau reminiscent of the Disney Castle up for grabs

Live like a Disney princess (or prince!) in this storybook chateau. 

About 15 kilometres from the city of Poitiers in central-west France, the restored 19th-century chateau has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a huge dressing room, study, games room, home cinema, heated conservatory, lift, two pools, a gym and an all-important climate-controlled wine cellar.

The estate covers 29 hectares, including a three-bedroom guest annexe, separate offices, a four-car garage, tennis court, a sheepfold and 15th-century dovecote. Part of the land is leased for agricultural uses.

That still leaves plenty of meadows, woods and parklands to explore. French country estates, or domaines, are available to suit a vast range of interests, from golf to hunting and wine-growing.

Christie’s International Real Estate and affiliate Maxwell Baynes are marketing the chateau near Poitiers with an asking price of 5.5 million euros (about $8.2 million).

Current market

Buyers in the French prestige property market breathed a collective sigh of relief with the recent election of Emmanuel Macron.

Not only is the new president giving Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau a run for his money in the style stakes, Macron represents a calm, business-minded and EU-fancying sensibility that plays well with buyers at the top end of the market.

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While prices in super-prime locations such as Saint-Tropez held firm throughout the GFC, prices in many other parts of France prices tumbled up to 30 per cent.

Michael Baynes, co-founder of Maxwell Baynes, says the most sought-after regions for rural real estate today are Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Provence, Loire and the Rhone Valley. In Bordeaux, there are about 7500 chateaux vineyards.

“Around 200 of these are now in the hands of Chinese investors that have been active buying in Bordeaux over the past seven years,” Baynes says. “Both the Americans and Australians are active in the market at the moment.”

Roughly 150 chateaux in the Bordeaux region are listed for sale at any given time. Last year, Maxwell Baynes managed the sale of 10 in this area, with prices ranging from 1 million euros to 15 million euros ($1.5 million to $22.5 million).

Can Australians buy in?

Bien sur! Thousands of French properties are sold to international buyers every year. The devil, as always, is in the detail.

A tangled web of tax laws has the potential to complicate the process, not to mention hand a hefty chunk of the profits to the government when a property is sold.

Rules regarding French tax residency are more grasping than many, while vendors are slugged up to 34.5 per cent capital gains tax unless they’ve held the property for 22 years.

Reputable agencies can connect buyers with lawyers and accountants.

What you can buy for

The chateau is expected to sell for about $8.2 million AUD. Photo: Christie’s International Real Estate

• $14.02 million: A 16th-century chateau on about 36 hectares, including Cognac-producing vineyards.
• $5.96 million: A five-bedroom villa in the Atlantic seaside resort town of Arcachon, an hour’s drive from Bordeaux.
• $2.82 million: A 10-bedroom manor house, currently used as a luxury bed and breakfast, in the Dordogne area.