Hello,
My son and his wife are planning on moving to France. They have two young children, like all young parents they hope to buy their own home. Does anyone have any ideas where they can raise a mortgage to buy a home without putting down a massive deposit. Are there any schemes run by the government or builders ?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Regards Dewi
which makes more sense - you can't just hand in the keys and turn your back on it!
Jan, you are absolutely right.
It's my understanding when borrowing money to buy a house in France the debt is lodged with the borrower and not levied against the property as in the UK. I might be wrong but it's worth checking up on.
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you
Although it was just a fact-finding exercise, last Friday I had an almost identical result at my local bank, La Banque Postale. Our adviser was very helpful - and patient (my French is passable, we understand each other...). In our case, this would be for a buy-to-let, but the principles/process are the same.
Against all advice, having been here only four months and me being self-employed and my partner currently not working, we applied for a 100% mortgage plus notaire's fees and were accepted by Credit Agricole. The speaking French bit does definitely help and it also helped that I was continuing the same business for the same clients that I did in the UK. We were lucky to have a great advisor at the bank who was willing to look at my English tax returns and UK bank statements showing income and who didn't just say no straight away. I had got a French accountant and she asked for him to provide a financial forecast for me. He did and the bank were happy to lend on the strength of that with my UK tax returns and three months' banking history with Credit Agricole. A bit of cheerful persistence, speaking French and politeness can go a long way. It seemed that once the advisor was convinced we could afford the mortgage (total debt repayments with the mortgage below 33% of income), her opinion held sway further up the line when it went for final approval.
As Véro says, they just need to be in work, preferably with a CDI, and go and see their bank. Unfortunatly being French, English, bilingual or monolingual doesn't change anything, it's all about hard economics, Dewi, we lost a sale on our last place to someone who was a haut-fonctionnaires, great salary, CDI for life, you name it she had it, but whe was trying to borrow too much and that's where it all went pear-shaped. It sounds as though they'll need to rent for a while, get jobs sorted, and then think about buying once they're settled. Renting isn't that easy either until you've got a job, references, tax statements et al. :-(
Many thanks my son is half French and he is totally bi-lingual
If they are moving to France to work ie if they have a CDI, then they shouldn't find it too difficult to get a mortgage. If they are self-employed or aren't working and don't speak French and don't have a banking history then they won't get one.