There are many things to consider when it comes to affordability and relocating to France. Here are a few things to consider, and our actual costs when we bought in the French Pyrenees.
You can read a clear overview of the legal costs on the notaires.fr site. This is a particularly important site since it will give you an opportunity to verify that the person you are dealing with (and ultimately transfering a considerable sum to if you are a cash buyer) is who they claim to be.
You can also check similar property prices in the area you are interested in on the https://app.dvf.etalab.gouv.fr/ (DVF) site which lists sales going back 5 years. It is common for land and property to be bundled together in one transaction, and maybe even several properties (for example a house and a gîte).
Estate agent fees can be 8% or even more, and regardless of how the sale is advertised, it can make sense for the buyer to pay this fee since it can result in a lower overall cost.
As an example, for a property advertised at €280,000 (260m2):
- Reduction for urgent repairs €15,000
- Contents €10,000
- Property €255,000
- Notaire and taxes €17,000
- Estate Agent €14,000
- Total to purchase: €296,000
- Exchange costs €6000
Ongoing costs for this example property:
- Tax Fonciere €1,000
- Tax d’habitation €2,000 (its a 2nd property for now)
- Electricity (used for holidays only) €600
- Gas (600kg per year, holidays) €1800
- Water + mains sewage €200
- Total annual cost €5600 excluding maintenance
Repair and Renovation:
- Urgent roof repair €22,000
- Kitchen complete refresh €25,000
- Renovation of 150m2 €180,000
Although as you can see we used the contents as leverage to reduce the property cost (and so taxes), these need to be justified and itemised. We relied on the DPE report rather than paying for any specialised survey, and used the same notaire as the seller (which is common, but by no means important).
Currency Exchange Costs
Finally, we did not make the best choice as far as currency exchange goes. We avoided the highstreet bank charges and used an ‘independent currency specialist’ but still ended up paying roughly 2% above the interbank rate. No ‘fees’ but there will always be a small spread between buy and sell. No guarantees that this still holds, but the neobanks (Revolut, Monzo, wise) seem to be fairly good. Check for the transaction size you will actually use, and absolutely build in some margin to deal with source-of-funds questions.