Buying first/holiday home in France

TheLearner2008

Hi there,

My partner and I want to buy a holiday home in France. It's a fixer upper and costs €60k and then we want to borrow an additional €20k.

We don't have a deposit but we decided that I would apply for a personal loan for the deposit and my partner would apply for a mortgage and then we would get a solicitor to tie everything up fairly as we are not married. My partner was approved for a mortgage at HSBC.

Does anyone know if this is all possible and all fine?

Cheers

G_M

Who is going to own the property?

I hope you understand French inheritance law.

If one of you were to die, do you know what would happen to the property?

Do you fully understand the other various French taxes involved? If yes, fine. If no, do some research!

Johnnytwostep

the bible says you should get married

ognum

Please don't unless you have lived in the area of your home for at least a year, all seasons.

Do you know about property taxes, cost of insurance when a property is not lived in, how properties that are unoccupied deteriorate, do you k ow someone who can look after your away home.

Do you soak French, can you do DIY, do you realis all your holidays will be spent doing the same stuff as you do at home, paying bills, cleaning and cooking, tidying cupboards etc etc. Think about it some more.

bigfreddiel

Johnnytwostep wrote: »

the bible says you should get married

That's correct, friends of mine had to when they bought a French property.

fj

bigfreddiel

Wait until we have voted in or out.

If out it could get tricky. fj

Running_Horse

Check out some expat forums.

It is much easier to buy in France than sell, if you need to.

Much as I love the country, I prefer the freedom to explore somewhere new every year.

G_M

ognum wrote: »

Do you soak French, .

Yeah, the French bathe differently to us.........

davidmcn

TheLearner2008 wrote: »

My partner and I want to buy a holiday home in France. It's a fixer upper and costs €60k and then we want to borrow an additional €20k.

We don't have a deposit but we decided that I would apply for a personal loan for the deposit and my partner would apply for a mortgage and then we would get a solicitor to tie everything up fairly as we are not married. My partner was approved for a mortgage at HSBC.

They do mortgages for UK residents buying French properties?

They're happy with your deposit being a personal loan?

They're happy giving your partner a mortgage but the property being in joint names?

sol-aero

I've been reading these forums for a while, as i was going through my recent house sell and purchase and felt i may be able to help.



I bought a French studio apartment about 5 years ago and it was rather painful, I went through a broker to get my mortgage and the cheapest rate was in fact a French bank which meant that I had to also have a French bank account, Britline are great for this and they speak English!



Also when applying for the mortgage and the account I had to supply 6 months worth of bank statements of all my bank accounts each had to be stamped and signed by the local branch… needless to say I avoided them for a while since there was a lot of paperwork involved.



I had to visit twice at least once to show my ID and a second for the notary reading of the contract of sale, though defiantly read up on inheritance law they normally write something in on the contract about this.
Website about buying in France are great and will also advise on insurance of your property as there are a number of companies that won’t insure a company if occupied for less than X days make sure you read the T&C’s.



I admit I didn’t take a loan for my mortgage so I can’t comment on how this could affect things, I know a number of high street banks now do mortgages for properties overseas but since I went through a broker and subsequently a French bank I can’t comment on the rates. Things, i'm sure have changed since when i purchased!



The only thing i would say if that if you do try and buy a UK property after buying an overseas property especially if it's with a French bank mortgage and bank account then it will take 2 weeks at least for someone to work out how to convert a certain amount from EUR to GBP in google!

AnotherJoe

My partner was approved for a mortgage at HSBC.

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On a house in a foreign country with the deposit and all expenses on a loan? I very much doubt that.