Buying real estate in France
France is one of Europe’s core performing housing markets. Paris and the French Riviera continue to attract international investors with stable year-on-year price growth.
After the lockdowns worldwide, people realised that the only way to survive any crisis is in style, under the sun. That’s why we saw a run on luxury properties in the spring of 2021.
Unlike in Spain or Italy, the real estate prices in France remained robust. Transactions went fast, sometimes within two days. The Great Awakening for a better life in the South of France is growing. Nice, the Capital of the Cote d’Azur is a beacon of resilience in real estate.
With so much demand, investing in a property will likely increase prices over the following years. After all, there is not much space left on the French Riviera coast. And Paris always stays ‘in fashion’.
Mortgage rates in France
The euro is weaker than it has been in recent years. This economic reality means foreign buyers can get a more attractive exchange rate for their property investments and essentially pay less for a property than in recent years.
Finding a property in France
You can find French properties for sale online, in newspapers, and real-estate property magazines. Quality properties are sold with an estate agent or realtor (un agent immobilier).
People who care about personal service and assistance during buying will feel happy at Living on the Côte d’Azur. Our international team is available on 7/7 and prides itself in a professional, transparent way of working in Paris and along the French Riviera.
Our real estate portal collects the best listings along the coastline and Paris, thanks to solid partnerships with trusted local agencies.
Working with us means you’re also connected to fully licensed agencies. International buyers prefer a buyer agent who can communicate and later negotiate in English.
Our partner agencies have these ‘codes’: FNAIM, SNPI, UNIS, or CNAB. These show that the company belongs to a registered organisation with a financial guarantee, liability insurance, and at least one staff member holding a carte professionelle, a licence issued by the prefecture de police.
Like in every country, fake professionals are engaging in unethical practices. You could have signed for a piece of land with a fake notary and agent, paid a lot of money and discovered that the land was never theirs to sell.
To further safeguard buyers, the French government created the Conseil National de la Transaction et de la Gestion Immobilières (CNTGI) in 2014, a representative body for maintaining ethics and creating regulations for real estate professionals and property-related activities. The government controls every step, and no more space exists for fraudulent people.
If you choose to work with us, we will represent you at all agencies as a prospective buyer. This gives you full access to the market and available properties. Some properties are not online, but we will share the off-market properties with you. In our team we have English speaking notaries, fiscalists and mortgage brokers. Our notary helps prepare the compromis de vente (the sales contract) and liaise with the seller’s notaire. When you nominate your own notary, legal fees are split between these two state officials. When Living on the Cote d’Azur acts as your buyer agent, we help to set up the best financial structure, organise utilities and local services.
Buying a property in France
Once you find a property you like, you can make an offer to the owner. If they accept, you sign a first agreement; a ‘promesse de vente‘ (unilateral offer to sell). This holds a deadline to create the ‘compromis de vente’. This ‘promesse is commonly used by property professionals wanting to secure an ‘option’ to buy land or property.
The ‘compromis de vente’ is the draft sale and purchase agreement. Our notary will draft this agreement for you and double checks all details of the property.
Once signed, both buyer and seller agree to cement the deal at a given price, the buyer puts down a 10% deposit, and in legal terms, this is a final sale. If either party pulls out, the other can take legal action and claim damages. Both contracts have a ten-day cooling-off period when the buyer can withdraw without penalty.
Before signing the contract
We always advise bringing our notary. Our regular notary offices in Opio and Cannes will not charge you any extra costs, as the seller’s notary will share the fees. Your notary will double-check that all the details are correct. It should include complete property details (its surface area and boundaries) and precisely what is included in the sale. Such as dependencies (outbuildings), fixtures and fittings, and the results of legally required reports (energy performance report, checks for termites, asbestos, lead in the property, electricity and gas safety certificates). There will also be a check whether there are any suspensive conditions (conditional clauses) or other statutory disclosures, such as ‘vive cache’ (hidden defects), easements and other possible legal interests over the property, such as tenancies.
If advised, you can nclude a penalty clause in the contract. For example, requiring vacant possession of the property can lead to fines if the vendor – or other occupants – fails to vacate the property after the sale.
You’ll also need to supply details of how you’ll finance the purchase. Are you planning to purchase the property through a mortgage? The loan’s primary information and state must be in the ‘compromis de vente’ with the cancellation clause that the sale can be made when a satisfactory mortgage is secured.
To secure a mortgage at an advantageous rate, use our mortgage broker, who helps ex-pats obtain financing on their dream home. And if you need to transfer money from outside Europe, we can introduce you to our Foreign Exchange partner. This foreign exchange service can save you thousands of euros in banking fees.
After the signature
Your notary will investigate any legal, financial, or other claims on the property. This process usually takes about two to three months. Once this is underway, a completion date (when you sign the acte de vente or deed of sale) can be set.
If you plan to build an extra part of an existing building, you’ll need permission from the mairie. You’ll need to apply for the certificate of urbanism (certificate of town planning), provide a permis de construire setting out your building plans and check what other taxes or fees you’ll need to pay. We can introduce you to a team of architects who will handle this.
In France, property is always passed to the children. Take inheritage tax advice from the notary before you take the next step – signing the’ acte de vente’. It might even be wise to make the children owners, and you will have the usufruct. Our notary can advise you on this subject.
The deed of sale
Once all the checks are complete and the purchasing funds are in place, you can go to the notary’s office to sign the deed of sale, the acte de vente. If you don’t speak French, you may need to take a translator; the document is read aloud before you sign. On the date of signing, the various taxes and fees must be on the notary’s account.
The notary will use this money to pay the taxes and fees, pay the commission to the selling real estate agent and pay off mortgages that might be connected to the house from the previous owner. The deeds in your name are registered at the land registry. You are now the new owner of a property in France!
After the sale
If you need our support for interior design and styling, we are here to help with all the top brands. We also have the team to renovate your villa, apartment or pool and install a swim spa, a jacuzzi, or a wellness area with a hammam. Contact us for our extensive after-service.