Getting a mortgage for a property in France

[slf2012]

I was wondering how difficult it is to get a mortgage for a property in the south of France.

Are there specialist brokers in the UK that it would be advisable to use, or would it better to talk to someone in France?

Are there any guidelines on how much lenders are prepared to lend, based on income, deposit, etc?

Any good websites which would offer such advice?

Many thanks!

[Maryben]

http://www.mortgagesoverseas.com

[Sid's Dad]

When we looked into this, it seemed that by far the best and cheapest thing to do was to remortgage the UK house and pay cash for the second home. And along the way we were given some extremely good advice:

"If you haven't got enough UK equity to remortgage to pay for the second house, and you don't have any cash to put in, you probably can't actually afford that second home and shouldn't be buying it."

As it happened, we did have enough equity to remortgage. But we then met two couples who both talked about the reality of a second house in France and we went off the idea.

[550M]

There's always a good reason not do anything! If you want something, have it. You can always unload it if it doesn't work out! That was my reasoning anyway...

I remortgaged here as it was relatively easier, and my French is minimal. There were certainly some interesting deals available on a French mortgage though, one fixed at 3 point something for 20 years! There were plenty of UK based brokers who were keen to help, but all wanted up front fees which worried me a tad.

[zcacogp]

Sid's Dad said:

But we then met two couples who both talked about the reality of a second house in France and we went off the idea.

Interesting comment SD - care to tell us some more?


Oli.

[Sid's Dad]

zcacogp said:

Sid's Dad said:

But we then met two couples who both talked about the reality of a second house in France and we went off the idea.

Interesting comment SD - care to tell us some more?


Oli.

The first couple we met through friends had bought the classic English vision - a pretty cottage with a big barn attached, in a lovely but isolated spot. The kind of place the English love but the French don't touch with a barge pole. It was cheap, but the renovation was every bit as expensive as it would be in England, so by the time it was fitted out like they wanted, it had cost a good deal more than they had budgeted. And when they needed to sell, the local agents weren't interested because it wasn't the kind of thing that sold to locals. They took three years to sell. To another English couple who, like all English buyers, expected it to be dirt cheap and so paid only about €10k more than the vendors had paid for the cottage in the first place - so most of the money they poured into the renovation went down the drain.

The second couple bought it to spend Christmas and all summer with the kids. What they found was that when the kids were teenagers they missed all their mates, so only stayed a couple of weeks and then wanted driving home. So the mother took to staying on her own or with girlfriends, while the husband stayed at work and came out for long weekends. Then he had an affair with a girl in the office (while the cat's away, and all that) which rather put an end to her wishing to leave him on his own all summer. Last time I saw them the place was used for weekends by their now twenty-something kids who leave the place like a tip, leave food in the cupboards which attracted rats, and mean that every time they visit they spend the first week cleaning and bhing about their kids.

The place was always too cold for Christmas and the kids wanted to see their friends and go to parties so it only ever got used twice for Christmas. I reckon for all the grief it caused them, they would have been better off spending the money on a nice villa holiday each year.

[550M]

Location, location..........




.....LOCATION !!!