We can help you move to France if you are looking in the region around Hautes-Pyrenees. We have recently made the move from England to the South of France, and we will be happy to share our expertise with you. With our help, you will be able to take the first steps of your research remotely. We are completely independent of estate agents and vendors.
We offer the following stages to help you:
- Target specification, initial research and refinement
- Identify property and location expectations
- Discuss 4 target properties to better understand your requirements
- Focused property search
- Generate a shortlist of properties and review them with you
- Local property visits
- We will visit your shortlisted properties on your behalf
- Support for in-person visits
- As needed, we can accompany you when you visit in person
We are not estate agents, and we have no arrangements which restrict the properties we can present to you, including privately advertised properties. We charge a fixed fee as buyer’s agent, not a proportion of any estate agent fees (which you will need to pay yourself as appropriate). In France these will typically be 6-7% of the property value. You also need to pay the solicitor (notaire) fees which include sales taxes. These fees will be described in any adverts which you read.
In France it is relatively common to purchase a property furnished, and for the buyer to pay the estate agent fees, this provides an acceptable way of reducing the price on which the legal fees are calculated.
There are several reasons why using a buyer’s agent in France will improve your experience of moving to France:
- French estate agents often do not speak good English, and it can be very hard for example trying to book viewings where there is a communication gap.
- Property in France has it’s own unique set of potential pitfalls, from mains sewerage or septic tanks (requiring regular inspection and probably upgrades to modern standards), termites, land use and planning, historic building listings (far less common or restrictive compared to the uk), and a whole local set of construction norms. We can help you to navigate these questions and identify local experts if necessary.
- Any estate agent will tell you how close the nearest shop is to your dream property, but an honest assessment of how practical day to day living will be all year round will benefit from a more independent perspective.
- We have first hand experience of renovating a grand property from the 17th Century, and while we can’t bypass the need to use an architect for a major project we can explain the process, and share real representative costs if this is relevant to your search.
Our local area covers the central Pyrenees area, spanning from Pau, Lourdes and Tarbes, past Toulouse, Saint Gaudens and Auch towards Foix and Ax-les-Thermes. This places the winter and summer resorts of Cauterets, Saint-Lary-Soulan, Grand Tourmalet and Bagnères-de-Luchon within reach. We operate primarily in Hautes Pyrenées (65) and Haute Garonne (31).
We are fluent (native level) in British English, French and Spanish.
Once you are in France (or if you are already here), we can help you with interior design. See http://lalubi.fr/maison
We also offer an immersion French language tuition week, staying in the Old Bakery.