Azur Assistance was founded in 1993. The idea at the outset was simple: to provide a framework that enables foreign nationals to acquire a property in the South of France in complete confidence and security.

Since neither Mme Lemaître nor I had started off as estate agents originally, we were perfectly aware of the doubts, worries and pitfalls that can beset any buyer, particularly a foreign buyer, who does not always have sufficient knowledge of the French real estate market.

We decided to concentrate on looking after the buyer's interests and to leave it to our colleagues to handle the vendor's. By positioning ourselves in this way, the benefits to our clients but also to ourselves are several :

the client can be certain there is no conflict of interest in terms of the properties we are showing them our portfolio of properties is larger than that of any traditional estate agency (i.e. from Menton to St Tropez) we have a more global view of the market and are better placed to match our clients' requirements.

This approach has been so successful that our first branch, which was created in Holland, was soon followed by other offices in various countries, all operated along the same principles :
- Identifying clients in their home country
- Searching for a suitable product on the Côte d'Azur
- Visiting properties with the prospective buyer
- Assisting with the negotiation
- Helping to secure purchase finance, introducing the client to notaries and insurers, and giving legal and financial advice
To respond to our clients' needs we have widened our services so that we now also handle renovation works when they prove necessary or desirable, as is often the case. In addition, we can arrange the management of the property acquired through a specialist company.

In line with our desire to always strive to improve our services, we have decided to venture out into Italy and Spain where demand from potential overseas buyers has been growing steadily.

We are here to help you turn your dream of a property in the sun into a reality and look forward to working with you to achieve that goal.

LAURENT CALIXTE , chairman of Azur Assistance