About Us Contact Us Site Map

Property purchase

Foreign ownership of property is permitted in France, and most properties are sold as freehold.

Preliminary contracts

Once the buyer and the seller have agreed the details of the sale including the price, a preliminary contract will be signed and a deposit paid of 10%. The signing of this contract does not need to be overseen by a ‘notaire’; without a notaire it will be a ‘compromis de vente’, which is essentially a purchase agreement. These are more common in the south. If a notaire is involved, it will be a ‘promesse unilaterale de vente’ which is much safer. This is more common in the north, and is a more flexible type of agreement in that it allows for another person or company to replace or be added to the person that signed the contact as the ultimate buyer.

Types of agreement

The outcome of both agreements is similar, and in both cases if the buyer pulls out they will lose their deposit. However, if a compromis de vente is signed and the buyer pulls out of the transaction, a complicated situation can arise where the seller is able to force the buyer to go ahead with the sale. With the promesse unilaterale de vente, the buyer forfeits their deposit and the situation goes no further.

Cooling-off period

Following this there is a seven-day cooling-off period, during which either the buyer or vendor may pull out of the sale. It is recommended that the buyer takes this opportunity to commission a structural survey.

Property checks

The searches are then carried out before completion over a period of typically 10-12 weeks. These include searches of land registry, planning permission and local authority.

Assuming satisfactory results are obtained here, the final contract is then signed in front of a notaire and the deeds are signed over to the new owner upon payment of the final balance.

Costs and fees

The buyer is responsible for most of the costs associated with purchasing a property. The costs and taxes are likely to total around 8 - 14% of the purchase price.

• Registration fees – around 5% of the purchase price
• Notary’s fees – around 1%, plus VAT at 19.6%
• Land registrar’s salary – around 0.1%
• Other registry fees – 0.2 – 1%
• Agent’s fees – 1 – 5%, plus VAT at 19.6%

The buyer and the seller share the cost of the agent’s fees, each paying between 2 – 5%.

Related items

Documents and Reports

	France property investment report (447Kb)
	France property buying guide (1Mb)
	France country guide (991Kb)
Documents and Reports

Other related pages

Bookmark with:	What are these?
DeliciousDiggredditFacebookStumbleUpon