After travelling to France, drinking some good French wine and tasting French cuisine, you are dreaming about owning a property in France. You have fallen in love with the French « art of life » and now you want to buy a home, even for holidays. How to do it? Where to start? Discover our guide How to buy a property in France?

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Choose the location of your future property in France

If you are thinking about buying a house in France, most likely you have visited France a lot and you probably have an idea of your perfect location. If you are going to rent your home part of the time, it is  good to choose a property in a touristic area, like big cities: Paris, Lyon, Nice, Bordeaux or regions like Provence, French Riviera, French Alps, Normandy or Brittany. In those areas  you can be also sure to find English speaking professionals who could help you to find your new french home.

Finding property in France

In order to find French properties for sale you can search online e.g. on green-acres.fr or proprietes.lefigaro.fr or in French on seloger.com.

However, the best way is to find an English speaking agent who knows very good his area and can offer you a property perfectly matching your needs and your budget.

Offer

Once you find your French home and you are willing to buy,  you have to make a written offer to the owners. If they accept you should sign a compromis de vente at the notary’s office. It is a sale and purchase agreement to secure two parties of the contract.  The buyer has to put down a 5-10%  deposit and the owner promises to sell the property to you in a limited period of time (usually two to four months). There is a 10 day cooling off period within which the buyer has the option of pulling out without any penalties or fear of losing their deposit.

Purchase costs

The price that you see advertised on the real estate website doesn’t include the notaire’s fee. Notaire fees depend on the region but they are usually around 7-10% of the purchase price of the property.

Acte de Vente – final document of the sale

Typically it takes about 3 months from signing the compromis de vente to acte authentique – the final document of sale. All the parties have to be present when signing the contract, although if you can’t be present a power of attorney can be granted. You will need to do the balance of funds to complete the purchase of property to the notaire’s bank account a few days before signing the purchase.

The day of signing the Acte de vente, before the meeting  it is recommended to check one more time the property if everything is as agreed. If everything is good and the document of sale is signed, you can open a bottle of champagne to celebrate your new place on earth.

If you need any help to buy a property in France please contact me via phone or mail. Don’t forget to mention that you found me on the FrenchRiviera.Travel website!

Dominika Nogier

tel. +33625699836
dominika.nogier@megagence.com