Sprogster
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Posts posted by Sprogster
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From what I am reading in the UK financial press is that the recently announced UK government loan guarantee scheme for first time buyers risks creating another housing bubble, as average prices in the UK are starting to strenghten. In the South East & London it is a different world with prices continuing to rocket!
As for the exchange rate the cited 15% forecast depreciation of the £, is against the US$, as most currenvy analysts are not forecasting a major downward correction against the Euro. mainly because the Euro is forecast to weaken in parallel against the US$.
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The medical requirement comes down to the size of a loan and would never be required for a personal or car loan. However, mortgages are a different kettle of fish as the amounts are usually much more substantive and the banks want to avoid a situation where for example the surviving spouse has to sell the property to pay of the mortgage, as they can no longer afford the repayments on their sole income.
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As someone who deals with this on daily basis as part of my day job, I can reassure you that there are no taxes on transfers of money to France. Maybe, the person who told you this was confused with banking charges?
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val2, BNP International is a bit of an oddity in that it comprises its non French operations in London and Jersey for example and deals mainly with wealthy non French resident clients and institutions. The OP is almost certainly dealing with their UK operation, who based on an intial internet enquiry would have given no more that an indication, rather than a offer as such, as to what they could lend based on their lending criteria and intial information provided by the enquirer. Nothing would be referred for more formal approval until account opening forms had been submitted, approved and a property identified.
You are quite right though in that to most British people the financial scrutiny you are subject to by French banks in approving a loan can come as a shock and the affordability one third of income test is strictly enforced.
One thing I forgot to mention to the OP is that from my experience with a French mortgage I obtained ten years ago, the lending bank in France insisted as a condition of the mortgage that I took out Life Assurance through them to cover repayment if I died during the ten year period of the loan and would not accept an assignment of any of my existing life assurance policies, as they were not French. This involved a thorough medical, which I doubt I would pass these days! How common this is these days I do not know, but if it is it is a point bearing in mind if you have a medical history that could make this problematical or expensive.
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The risk in borrowing in France in Euros where your earnings are in sterling is the currency risk, in that if the £ falls further against the Euro, you're borrowing cost in sterling increases. As a result it is generally considered more financially prudent to borrow in your currency of risk, which is your income currency.BNP International is probably the exception amongst French banks at the moment, but they will expect you to avail yourself of other services they provide like investments and life insurance, as they are using lending to hook wealthier non resident clients, so I presume you are talking serious money! Therefore, I would not put too much credence on a 'in principle offer' because until you have identified a specific property and completed all the paperwork the bank's credit committee would not have been involved and only they can sanction an offer. If you defaulted on a French mortgage it would not stop the French bank pursuing you and your assets in the UK, which has become legally easier to do recently. Especially, if you are asked to also give a personal guarantee, which I expect you will be asked to do.
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Explorer450, in the current French economic environment, as a non French resident finding a mortgage for a second home in France will be very difficult. In fact I believe most of the French banks will not currently lend to non residents. If you do find a lender in France, you need to be aware that there is an additional lending criteria you have to comply with, in that servicing your total debts must not exceed more than a third of your income. This includes car loans and credit card debts. Therefore, if you already commit a third of your income to servicing debt such as a mortgage in the UK on your main house, legally the French bank cannot lend to you more.Your best bet and probably only realistic option in the current credit squeeze in France is to raise a second mortgage with a UK lender on your UK property if you have enough equity in the property.Whatever you do don't rush and take your time to fully familiarise yourself with the areas in France you intend to buy and this includes visits during the winter, when things can look far less appealing. This is especially relevant now with the weak French property market, as prices are forecast to continue to fall and if you make a mistake buying trying to re-sell could prove very difficult and expensive.
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deby, I think unfortunately even the weather is changing for the worst if the last eighteen months are anything to go by! I am in an area of France that has the highest average sunshine record and all I can say is that I have never known so much torrential and persistant rain with unusually cool temperatures for months on end, with the last week being the first time this year there are signs of the weather settling down with more consistent sunshine. If the experts are correct and the unsettled weather is the beginning of a trend for northern Europe, we won't even have a better climate to console us any longer! Although the skiers are happy!
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Nothing new, these emails are sent out to millions of email addresses and you are unusual if you have never received anything similar!
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The fact you speak and write fluent French puts you at a significant advantage to most Brits in France. However, I would get cracking with the French lessons for your hubby and start speaking to him in French whilst at home, as the risk is that once you move to France your husband could feel isolated if you build up a new network of friends and contacts that only you can communicate with. Also by starting the language lessons now, you will get an idea as to what aptitude your husband has for languages, because if he struggles with the language this will probably be your biggest area of stress, as financially I cannot see you having any difficulty. This just leaves the weather and here your guess is as good as anyone, as to what on earth is going on with the current climate change and I am sure you will have been told by your French relatives that everyone in France is as fed up with the bad weather as in the UK. Where I am in the south of France we have just had the coldest winter and wettest Spring since records began and last summer was a bust, to the extent that if the current rainfall pattern continues over the next few years, I am going to be going back to Florida more for my holidays!
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Ideally if you can afford it keep a foot on the UK property ladder, as the majority of retiree Brits do end up returning to the UK eventually.Do not rush into buying in France until you are certain of the area you want to live and this includes spending time in your favoured area for a winter, when things can look very different and could be much colder and wetter than you expected. Like the UK the weather in France seems to be deteriorating over recent years!This is especially relevant in the current weak French property market, as selling especially in rural areas is difficult at the moment. (The French Notaires, banks and immoblier associations are forecasting a 5% to 10% drop in French property values this year, with rural areas especially badly hit.)
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My previous French property was a co-proprietaire and one of the things I learned is that you do not own the outside walls of your apartment or house or the land underneath as they are like the common areas owned by the co-proprietaire on behalf of all the owners.So your first port of call should be the Syndic to find out the rules for alterations to the outside of the building, which will probably be that consent is required from all the other owners, by way of a written confidential vote at a specially called EGM. If you get the other owners consent then it would be the Syndic on behalf of the co-proprietaire that has to apply for planning consent. You will also probably need the consent of the original architect as the apartments are new build.
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In the south of France, one satellite company is saying a 1.2 to 1.5 metre dish will be required to pick up the free to air BBC,ITV, Channel 4 and 5. However, they are advising to wait until these channels all move satellite, so this can be checked.Even then they do not appear overly confident as maybe it might not be possible to receive a strong enough signal if you are as far south as the Med.
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The weather on the Cote D'Azur has been cold wet and windy since last October, with record amounts of rain and snowfall down to the Med. In fact the sea has not been very Azur at times, more a mucky brown with trees floating past, thanks to torrential rain!
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Good thing you waited until late June for your holiday, as in PACA we have had one of the worst six months of weather the locals can recall. Today the Cannes film festival is in full swing and the weather is more akin to what you would expect in northern UK, with heavy rain, high winds and cold to the point I have had to put the heating back on!As for Nice taxis, you know you are going to be fleeced when you see a queue of new Mercs, BMW and Lexus taxis outside the airport. I think I am correct in saying that Nice taxis are notorious in France for being the most expensive in the country, a problem the Nice authorities have been trying to get to grips with for years. So you are doing the right thing in making alternative arrangements.
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Val, your situation is probably different from most forum members and Brits in France, in that you moved to a France at a much younger age and your children live there.For most Brits who move to France as retirees they leave friends and family behind in the UK.Betty and Norman have nailed the issue on the head and the only thing I would add is the winter weather in France is not much better than the UK and in some areas in France can be colder. Also the weather in most of Northern Europe seems to be deteriorating to the extent that if it continues I think more retiree Brits will consider venturing further south than France to save on escalating heating bills.So other than debt, divorce, death, language, boredom and the weather the pull of grandchildren seem to be a common factor often cited my members leaving!Lastly, if you are going to be dependent on a fairly modest sterling pension income I think it would be prudent to budget at one Euro to the £ to make sure you could afford to survive future likely sterling weakness.
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I am down on the Med in south east France and have lost Channel 4HD with my 1 metre dish, so does not bode well for the other channels when they switch.
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Chancer, as an EU citizen when you enter France you just waive your EU British passport and sometimes it might be scanned. What you probably do not appreciate is that for a non EU person such as an American citizen is that their passport is stamped, dated and scanned when they enter France. As France has immigration control on leaving France, the passport is checked, exit date stamped and re-scanned and it is obvious from the entry date in the passport if they have overstayed so a non EU citizen who overstays will be picked up when they next enter or leave the country and would be barred if caught. The fact that they have a holiday home in France is irrelevant in the same way if you had a holiday home in the USA and overstayed it gives you no rights as you are still just a tourist.I know a wealthy retired Brit in France who met an American lady and she ended up moving in with him and overstaying but they did not think it would be a problem as they divided their time between France and the USA, neither worked and both were well off financially. However, they decided one weekend to go to London for a couple of days and upon their return to France at French immigration control they saw from her passport she had overstayed 90 days on her previous entry so she was sent back to London!Anyway to cut a long story short she had to return to the USA and wait for him to join her so they could get married, apply for a marriage visa and then return to France some months later.
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Andrew, in your case as an American the long stay French visa these days has to be applied for and granted in the USA before departure. The requirements will include a medical and evidence of private health insurance and a means to support yourself, as working is prohibited. For this purpose your parents income will not be taken into consideration, if you are an adult.Now for the tough bit, I think your application will be refused as the long stay non working visa is aimed primarily at non EU retirees and the French authorities will think you are looking for a way to get into France and work illegally if you are of a working age and are currently unemployed or not in full time education.It sounds like you have overstayed the 90 days you are permitted in France and other Schengen countries as a tourist and therefore are in France illegally. This is likely to be picked either up when you leave France as passports are usually scanned by French immigration on flying out of France or when you try and re-enter France, which could see you deported and banned from re-entering France for a long period of time.Unless you are a student studying in France, married to an EU national or being transferred by an employer to France, as a non EU national you are limited to 90 days and getting a long stay visa is probably a non starter if you are young.The USA as I am sure you are aware are super tough on illegal immigration and EU citizens are limited to 90 days in the USA, so Americans find it tough these days to make long visits to Europe as these things tend to work on a reciprocal basis and unlike with Australia there is no temporary work visa options for young people between the USA and Europe, other than Ireland.Thank your lucky stars you are not a French citizen who has overstayed the allowed 90 days in the USA, as you would be barred from re-entry up to 10 years!If you have been in France over 90 days your biggest challenge is going to be the fact that your passport will have been stamped on entry and will be evidence you have overstayed, which probably will not go down well when you apply for a long stay visa.
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wooly, I was reading the other day that the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden are backing plans to introduce restrictions on the free movement of labour within the EU. If I recall correctly, unless you have a job to go to, there will be a restriction on access to benefits and a means test for inactifs, similar to what Spain have introduced.What has given this proposal legs is the German backing and the concern about Romania and Bulgaria having free movement within the EU from the end of the year.With spiralling unemployment in many EU countries like Spain at 27%, you can see the shutters going up on the free movement within the EU.
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Matty, on the assumption that like you, your mother lives in Canada, travel insurance will have to be obtained in Canada, as French insurers will not provide travel insurance to foreign residents. Also the other posters reference to EHIC is irrelevant if you live in Canada.If her Doctor says she no longer qualifies for travel insurance, this would be seen by insurers as your mother being deemed medically unfit to travel and therefore unfortunately uninsurable.The problem with strokes is the conditions unpredictable nature and for those 60+ if you have had one, I believe you are at risk of having another. Therefore, I don't think long haul flights would be wise to undertake.Pickles, with travel insurance the underwriters will always qualify a policy that it is void if your doctor deems you unfit to travel. So if you have a serious medical condition it is your doctor ultimately who has the final say,
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You are right wooly, as France has become expensive compared to Spain and other popular tourist destinations.Also the unsettled weather over the past few summers has probably not helped France, as tourists head further south for guaranteed sunshine.
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carl, as you will be able to pick up from this and other similar forums there has been a dramatic drop off in younger Brit families moving to France in recent years due to the economic crisis, and many if not the majority who moved out in the boom years from 2001 to 2008 have left. Hence the very low level of new threads in the education section.The relevance of this to your question is that unless you have employment lined up, statistically the odds are on you returning to the UK if you cannot make a living in France and you have to ask yourselves what impact that disruption would have on your son. Also it might be worth taking advice from suitably qualified UK based health professionals on this issue.Several years ago when there were more parents with children at French schools contributing to the forum I seem to recall that the general consensus was that provision in France for children with special needs, including Aspergers, could be somewhat lacking especially in rural areas.These days most Brits permanently resident in France and members of this forum moved to France as retirees and therefore fall into in the grandparents age category!
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With the Alps you are less Ryanair dependent as you have a much larger choice of low cost carriers including Flybe, Easyjet, Jet2. Also of course you have BA out of Gatwick, where it adopts a low cost model. I also thought being further north the Alps were more reliable for snow, as there have been some winters where the Pyrenees resorts were somewhat lacking in the white stuff.
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Property in the Pyrenees is cheaper for a reason and that is because there is much less international demand than the Alps, which ranks as one of the most desirable places in the world to have a second home. Therefore, although the Alps is more expensive it should be the better investment.
The other consideration is year round accessibility and if you are looking at a second home then there is a much more extensive choice of flights to the Alps Gateway cities from the UK in winter, as the Pyrenees has never really caught the imagination of Brit skiers.
Last but not least, try before you buy is excellent advice, in that you should definitely spend time in each location before committing to buy. Especially, in the current depressed French housing market, as if you factor in the high purchase and sale costs attributable to French property, and you decided after a year or two that you had bought in the wrong area it is likely you would lose a considerable amount of money in selling up and buying elsewhere.
Where do you start trying to fix France?
in The Complete France Post Bag
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For those who look to retire abroad for the weather and save money from winter heating bills, I think France will increasingly fall out of favour, if this is the weather pattern for the next ten years!