BUYING A HOUSE IN FRANCE - HOW TO BUY FRENCH PROPERTY OR REAL ESTATE.

INTRODUCTION

If you are just starting out on your quest to buy that dream home in France, you will find that some of the websites you come across are so overwhelming in the amount of information they are offering that it is difficult to know where to find the facts you are looking for. With that in mind, the aim of these pages is to give a concise and simple guide for beginners to the process of buying a house in France.
They include.... where to look for French property, the role of French estate agents & the notaire, contracts, transferring funds, regular updates on French house prices, travel to France, and various other information. Also included are some links to other helpful sites, and some personal comments on my own experience of buying a house in France. Unlike some of the larger Web sites giving out information, I am not affiliated to any company selling French property and so am able to give my candid opinion of some of the pitfalls.

STARTING OUT TO BUY FRENCH PROPERTY

The Internet is the obvious first step towards buying your house in France, so I have provided a links page to some of the French property related sites that I discovered in doing my own research. Doing some initial research on French property web sites enables you to get a broad idea of what price you should be paying relative to size, condition of the property, location, etc. Of course, looking on the Internet is no substitute for actually going to France and viewing property. The house that looked so appealing on a French property web site might turn out to be located next to the local abattoir.

Dreaming of owning a house in France gives you a wonderful opportunity to take many exploratory trips to France. We spent 5 years of short breaks and holidays visiting Normandy looking at different regions and towns and picking up brochures from estate agents before deciding on an area in which to buy.

When it came to going to view French properties however we followed the best advice and went in the depths of winter. A property that seems like a charming restoration project in summer can appear very different with snow on the ground and a biting north east wind howling round your ears. By viewing in the winter, you also get the added bonus that ferry prices are much cheaper at that time of year.

Going through an Internet agency to buy your house in France can be a good idea if you have a limited time to view houses as they can organize for you to see various French properties from different estate agents on one visit. However,you will be limited to the agents that the Internet company has an arrangement with so if you have more time it is worth visiting all the different estate agents individually.

FRENCH PROPERTY SURVEYS

It is not that common for the French to have surveys done when buying a house and house surveying as a separate profession does not exist. If they do want a survey on the property before they buy, the French usually commission a registered builder to prepare a report. You can either go down that route or, if you feel that you want a surveyor's report you will need to contact one of the many British surveyors now working in France. Try typing "British surveyors in France" into any major search engine for a list.

If you're not having a survey done on the property because you are buying at the bottom end of the market, here are a couple of things to look out for.
Loose or flaking plaster at low level could indicate absence of, or damaged, damp proof course.
Corrugated metal roof can indicate problems with the roof structure. The French will sometimes strip the heavy slates off and then have the much lighter and cheaper corrugated iron fitted rather than pay for repairs to slates and roof timbers.
In Normandy, you will often come across old houses with what looks like rendered concrete lintels over the doors and windows. In fact these are nearly always timber lintels with a rendered face. Diagonal cracking running up the walls near the corners of the doors and windows could indicate that the lintels need replacing, a costly and disruptive job involving knocking holes through the walls above the openings to insert steel 'needles' before the old lintels can be cut out and replaced.

HOUSE price TRENDS IN FRANCE

According to estate agents Knight Frank property in France rose by 8.9% in the last year, (2006). FNAIM which is the French national federation of estate agents, puts the overall rise at 13.6% in 2004-2005 and 8.5% in 2005-2006. There are, however quite large regional variations, the more perennially popular regions, (like Normandy, Brittany, Province, etc), have experienced house price inflation of almost double the national average. So you will need to research the area you are interested in before you buy.

An article I read in a newspaper a few months ago suggested that price rises were tailing off and that anecdotal evidence from estate agents in France suggested that Brits, especially those buying as an investment, had not been buying houses in France in the last year, apparently deserting France to buy houses in accession countries to the EU like Macedonia.

UPDATES

March 2007: Source: Article in the Daily Telegraph by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.
French property construction dropped 15.1% in February and house prices dropped by 0.6% in January. Since 1995, French house prices have risen by 210%. The crisis in the sub-prime market which has caused house prices to drop in America may lead to a crash there and this could spread to Europe with France's OFCE research institute estimating that houses in France are 25% overvalued. In the light of this information, if you are looking to buy a house in France you may get a better deal by biding your time.

October 2007: Average house prices in France are reported to have fallen by 0.9% in the third quarter of 2007.

May 2008: F.N.A.I.M. reports that average French house prices rose overall by 3.8% in 2007 with variations between regions ranging from 1.1% rise in Aquitaine to 7.3% in Brittany.
Their prediction for French house prices in 2008 is for a stable year with rises of no more than the current rate of inflation in France of 1.6% although with some downside risks from possible rising interest rates and the impact of higher fuel and food prices on households.
It is worth bearing in mind that with house prices currently falling dramatically in the U.S., Britain, and Spain, that this is a report by an Estate Agents' institute and may be overly optimistic. In France's favour though, is the fact that their banking establishment is generally more conservative than in the U.S.A or U.K. and unlike the bankers in those two countries, does not advance more to French house buyers than their house is worth or lend large sums to low income property purchasers who have no hope of repaying the loan on the idiotic assumption that property prices can only go up. That is not to say that French banks have no exposure to sub prime risks from America through interbank lending, but of more relevance to house prices in France, French house purchasers have lower borrowing to equity ratios and therefore there should be less forced selling exerting a downward spiral on prices.

Sept 2008: I have noticed after a trawl through some of the French Estate Agent Internet sites that there are signs that some house prices are being reduced "for a quick sale". Something you would not have found a couple of years ago. Have no statistics to prove whether this is a trend yet but will keep these pages updated when and if I do have.