Advice on borrowing on cottage to buy another

[frankfile]

Hi everyone, I need some advice on buying another rental property in Italy or The Lot. We currently own a cottage in the Dordogne outright and would like to borrow via equity.  Any experience and names of  banks, etc would be very appreciated, as we live in Australia. Cheers

[Debra]

I'm no expert but I've seen discussions about this before and I don't think its that simple in France.  They give mortgages based on the ability to pay rather than the value of the property and I understand its not that easy to do if you have no income in France.  I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong....meanwhile, take a look at this thread:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/629887/ShowPost.aspx

[Will]

To be perfectly honest I think you would be better off looking for finance in Australia than in France. As Debra says, loans in France are based on your income rather than equity, although there may be some schemes which give what you need (try searching on this forum, there is one user who seems to give French mortgage advice as a business) they are likely to be geared to French residents rather than those from overseas. Although interest rates are a bit higher in Australia you would be protected against exchange rate fluctuations with a loan in your own currency.

[frankfile]

Thank you Debra and also Will for your valuable response. I will of course look at past threads and hopefully we can free up some cash to make it work harder for us. Otherwise, visiting once or twice a year may be too much of a luxury. Cheers.