Early stages of considering a French small property purchase

[Nemophilist]

We are in the very early stages of planning a French property purchase.
It would be in Normandy, not coastal.

I’ve been playing around with budgets, funding and finance options using Perplexity pro (mainly so I don’t get laughed out of the door when I get told it’s totally not possible when progressing this through to reality)

I know that buying in France isn’t as simple as it used to be, I know it’s not going to make money (this isn’t for investment purposes) , we just happen to be in a situation where we have a lovely house we’ve extended in an expensive part of the UK that’s always been well within our means and with some recent job changes we have the ability to buy a holiday house.

By this I mean a house for us (and maybe some trusted friends/family) use for holidays, it’s not for living, not for renting.
We had previously considered buying a lock up and leave type place in England somewhere we love but Normandy seems to be the place that we’ve decided on.
We can speak the language and our children are getting there too.

To move this onto the next step are we best to speak to our existing mortgage adviser (we haven’t the full capital to fund it up front yet) or something else?

If anyone else has done similar since Brexit any advise would be most welcome

[Nicetobenice]

The french have some pretty strict lending rules so might be easier to use your UK property as the security

And don't forget the 90/180 rule if it applies to you

[The Leaper]

I suggest that before you purchase, you have a good understanding on what happens to any assets especially property in France on death according to French laws. It is very different to that in England

R.

[grumbas]

I've got a place in the Alpes, it has it's challenges.

Firstly, banking in France is still very branch based, which we found challenging being remote for the bulk of the year. I switched a few years back to Britline which is a brand of CA Normandy and made life much easier. They keep marketing mortgages to me so probably worth an enquiry.

The biggest issue is the quick odd jobs you do at home become a nightmare. You either need to find good local trades, and you'll probably find this easier than me as my French is very much 'advanced tourist', or you'll loose a chunk of every trip dealing with the list. At least with an apartment we only have to deal with the internal stuff, finding a reliable gardener etc could be a challenge.

We Airbnb ours for the peak weeks, finding someone reliable to deal with cleaning, linen, etc is always a challenge, and we're in a tourist resort. We've recently started using a very established rentals management firm rather than side hustle type people. The cost is eye watering and means I've stopped letting for a couple of nights, but the quality and reliability of service are worth it. If you're renting to friends/family depending on where you are finding something similar for low volume could be a hassle.

Overall, go in with your eyes open, it's worth it, but not without it's hurdles.

[ClaphamGT3]

Another vote for Britline - they are very good and, if you need a mortgage, they apply lending criteria that are closer to the UK’s than France’s - much stricter - ones

[rdjohn]

Britline are good. France also has a very easy system for getting a 6-month visa to use during the summer months.

Bureaucracy needs some getting used to, but once you get the basics of the language, stuff becomes much easier.

You just need to go with the flow, immerse yourself and enjoy each day.

[Nemophilist]

Thanks everyone so far
Especially to hear it’s not a potential disaster for others who have done it

I will look into Britline initially

[ooid]

Harry has a new thread here, though mostly about renovation not sure if there is any other info (transaction costs, finance and the deeds...)

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[cliffords]

Wife and I looked at this , actually retired but in similar UK house position to you . We fancy an apartment in a French city , Troyes.
I did a massive amount of research and only found countless barriers and reasons not to .
As a retired couple we have time to use such a place, however financially and hassle wise , we can't make it stack up.

At current Airbnb rates we can easily spend 8 or 10 weeks in France for less cost and hassle, and benefit from different locations.
In the last 6 months we have done four trips , two France and two Spain totaling about 80 days. Accommodation costs about £5500 .

The taxes, property charges, energy on a Troyes apartment would be about £4500 a year alone . Before any maintenance, repairs and the security issues that are quite real in France for empty property.

[omniflow]

cliffords said:

Wife and I looked at this , actually retired but in similar UK house position to you . We fancy an apartment in a French city , Troyes.
I did a massive amount of research and only found countless barriers and reasons not to .
As a retired couple we have time to use such a place, however financially and hassle wise , we can't make it stack up.

At current Airbnb rates we can easily spend 8 or 10 weeks in France for less cost and hassle, and benefit from different locations.
In the last 6 months we have done four trips , two France and two Spain totaling about 80 days. Accommodation costs about £5500 .

The taxes, property charges, energy on a Troyes apartment would be about £4500 a year alone . Before any maintenance, repairs and the security issues that are quite real in France for empty property.

As a counterpoint to the above - my Mum and Dad did this very successfully and enjoyably for 25 years.

They spent, very approximately, 6 months of the year in France and 6 months in the UK. Whilst in France they did many overland side trips to places all over Europe, even venturing as far as Romania in a rented Camper Van.

They made a fair few improvements to the house over the years and became well established in the community.

In the end they sold the house because my Dad became too ill to drive there. He died partway through the sale process but there were no untoward consequences of this - me and my Sister both had to sign forms, but all of the proceeds of the sale went to my Mum. However, the sale price after 25 years and a fair few improvements was pretty much exactly the same as the purchase price 25 years earlier.

One thing to look out for is strange access arrangements / easements. Due to French inheritance laws many previously large properties have been split into multiple parts over the years, leading to you not actually owning the piece of land immediately next to your house and also some random person having a right of access over your land to get to it. The French are very particular about these things, and you can't put a gate or fence up, you have to leave it totally accessible.