Tips for making your move to France
You’re close, so close, to making the property dream come true. What’s stopping you? Here’s how to confidently make that final step to starting your French adventure.
Do you have a bad attack of FOMO (fear of missing out)? Might next year, the next house, a different location actually be better? There might be some truth in all of that but consider this: the house itself is only part of the dream. It is the place which will allow you to enjoy this thrilling, challenging, rewarding experience of a new lifestyle in France. And if you are in a position to fulfil the dream yet choose to put it off for another year, all that really happens is that you push the rewards of your new lifestyle further down the road.
Solid planning could be the key to giving you the knowledge, security and confidence to push ahead with your search and step over the line into home ownership. You might be looking for a holiday home for you and the family or a longer term, more permanent move. The basic principles are the same: you need to know what you are looking for and how you see your lifestyle evolving. You need to clarify how much you want to spend and, with exchange rates, what that might buy you. And then you need to do the really fun part of deciding what type of property you want and where.
Narrow down your search area
France is a vast space and identifying your preferred area first will ensure any viewing trip is more structured and more successful. Remember, a great house in a location that doesn’t work for your lifestyle is never going to work long term. The area you choose has to offer you all you need to enjoy your dream home and new life in France. You might find it useful to start by answering a few basic questions:
Do you need a train station nearby?
Many people overlook this but many charming pretty towns have a station and a station opens up all sorts of possibilities for you to visit other areas without driving and if you are buying a property with holiday options, it gives your guests more freedom too.
How close to an international airport do you want to be?
What works for you and your family? How many days a week do they fly to your preferred airport? Are flights year round or seasonal?
What does your perfect town need to offer you for daily facilities?
List what you really want easy access to. You might be happy to drive to the large supermarket but want to be able to walk to a small local shop, cafe, bakery or bar. Do you need to be near a hospital or doctors, important if you have any current health conditions.
Do you want to be part of a community?
What does the community demographic need to look like for you to settle quickly? Lots of other incomers? A purely French community might be good for your language skills but challenging in the first years.
If you can, use your answers to narrow down your choices to your preferred 1 or 2 towns and then focus your search within a 10-15 km circle of these, it will make your house search so much easier, give you more time at each visit and help you buy on the trip.
To maximise what you get out of your planned viewing trip to find that dream home, preparation well in advance is the key. Good preparation can save you much time on the trip and really help you nail down the right houses to view and more importantly the right area.
Money, money, money - get your finances in place
We know, we know, it’s the thing that’s key to the purchase and the thing people least like talking about. But if you don’t nail down a few things how do you know if you are looking in the right price band?
The first question is how are you funding the purchase. Do you have the funds in the bank? Is your previous home sold or up for sale? If taking a loan, do you have a loan or mortgage offer in place? Good agents with the best houses will want this information, as will their vendors. If your aim is to make an offer on a house, bring as much detail with you as you can. If it’s a cash purchase, have a bank statement ready to hand over to prove your funds are in place. If you’re taking a loan, bring the offer letter as evidence. This all helps to present you and your offer as serious and committed and will make agreeing a deal quicker and more importantly, easier.
A last word on money; if you are moving your funds between currencies, do you know what the current rates are and how to protect your money from a sudden fall in value?
Booking viewings
When you start your internet search you may contact many agents for house details, more information or to discuss a visit. Take this opportunity to find an agent you feel comfortable working with. Entrust your trip to the agents who communicate quickly with you, answer your questions and know their properties. This will ensure the viewing trip is set up well and, if there are any changes during the trip, they can be dealt with quickly and effectively.
If you're looking in a couple of different areas of France, a larger agency with a good network could help save you time having to explain yourself over and over again.
Choose an agent that can really assist you with every part of your move: mortgages, visas if needed, insurances, removals and so on. One point of contact can really make things easier. Look for a full service agency who will take care of every single aspect of your move, leaving nothing to chance and letting you enjoy the process. More excitement, less stress!
And while we are talking about agents, of course you can still choose to go the private purchase route. You’ll need to be confident dealing with vendors, possibly in French, and then negotiating to get a price that is fair for both of you. Once you get to an agreed deal it is worth remembering that around 60% of private sales fall through during the contract stage and an experienced agent will have a better chance of a sale concluding successfully.
Try not to view more than 3-4 properties in a day. A rushed schedule will mean you may miss things about properties and remember, the houses could be an hour apart.
Give yourself an extra day at the end to second view your favourites. And enjoy the moment. This should be the best day of your trip as you come close to offering on your dream home...
Don't waste time viewing unsuitable properties
Don't fall into the trap of visiting houses that are considerably over your maximum budget hoping for a low offer to be agreed. Despite what you might hear, prices in France are holding firm and low offers are unlikely to get agreed and could in fact antagonise the seller. If you see a house that ticks all those move boxes, pay what you need to and do not lose it for a few 1000 euro.
House buying will always come with some compromise so it pays to consider where your red lines are. On your list of must-haves and have nots, what could you compromise on if the house ticked most of your boxes? Make plenty of notes when viewing, ask lots of questions, get as much information as you can. If you want to take your own supplementary photos it is polite to ask the agent or the owner first. This is a big decision, full information will help it be the right one.
2025 could be the year this happens for you! By summer you could be on a sunbed in the garden of your farmhouse or village house. Perhaps you are drifting around your very own pool on a lilo and thinking about which local bar or restaurant you are going to stroll to this evening. Go on, you know you want to…
Start your property search here
Article written by Julie Savill at Beaux Villages Immobilier for French Property News magazine. Published in in the November/December 2024 edition.
