I own a property in France and I wanted to share my experience of buying property in France and the French property buying process. Use the menus on the left and links to 1000's of properties and services and a wide range of French estate agents.

PROPERTY TO BUY IN FRANCE -SECURING YOUR PROPERTY

When you have found a property to buy in France, you will need to make an offer to secure it.

If you have read and followed the advice on this site , before finding your perfect property to buy in Franceyou will already have:

Found an experienced lawyer experienced in property to buy in France

got a mortgage offer in principal, if needed

allowed for legal and purchase costs for your property to buy in France- at least 10%

opened a local bank account

arranged documentation to prove your financial ability to proceed with a property to buy in France

considered who will inherit the property to buy in France should you die-

and looked into making a local will

property to buy in France

TOP TIP

Get several passport size photos - they are needed to procure many essential documents
and those handy photo booths are very thin on the ground -
you may have to travel a long way to find one in a hurry.

YOUR OFFER FOR THE PROPERTY TO BUY IN FRANCE

When making your offer you will be asked:
how much you are offering for the property to buy in France
how much deposit you intend to provide
whether you need a mortgage property to buy in France

You should ask:

what's included with the property to buy in France- furniture, fittings etc.

As well as making sure you are getting the fittings you want included, unwanted furniture, cars or old farm machinery can be costly to move.

You may be able to make sure this 'rubbish' is NOT included with the property to buy in France and must be removed before you buy!

which land is included with the property to buy in France?

what are your rights of access to the property?

are there any rights of way across your land?

These should be answerable by the estate agent or the vendor.
Although you'll need to double check with your lawyer, a few simple questions now could save loads of time and expense before you get to that stage. If there is no legal right of vehicle access to the property for instance, or if you find there is a public footpath through the garden you may well decide not to proceed.

See our legal page for more information