Limousin Long Term Let - New

Le Moulin de Sansonneche
Gioux, La Creuse - Limousin

The picturesque Moulin de Sansonneche is a renovated wool mill set on the banks of the river Gioune. The mill is reached by crossing a lovely stone bridge. An enchanting fairytale setting perfect for an idyllic holiday in the heart of the beautiful Limousin region of France. This 3 bedroom gite offers immaculate 'home from home' accommodation prettily and lovingly furnished and decorated throughout.

The delightful gardens and wooded grounds,heated swimming pool and river ensure tranquillity and relaxation. A small piece of paradise in which to restore and revive a tired mind and body. The nearby market town of Felletin has a pretty square, bars and cafes and the towns of Aubusson and Gueret and the city of Limoges are all within easy reach for days out shopping or sightseeing. The spectacular Lac de Vassiviere with its sandy beaches and watersports is also only a short drive away.

Follow the link for details and owner contact information for this delightful Limousin rental property

Getting a mortgage for your property in France.

This is the second part of a series of articles related to the French property mortgage market.
By Alan Tyrrell.

Getting a mortgage to buy a property in France need not be intimidating, as long as you are sensible and take precautions. You must seek independent professional advice, and be aware that there will be differences between the UK and France regarding property and mortgage law. There will also be variations in practice, customs and local regulations. This is one reason why many British people decide renting property in France long term, is the way to go before buying.

If you are troubled by the prospect of buying a French property using a French mortgage lender, then you could raise capital on an existing property in the UK, as long as there is sufficient equity in the property you intend to use. This may be an easy option because generally the loan will be in Sterling, and the cash from the equity of a UK property is released quickly, accelerating the purchase of your French home. You must be careful of using this option, as it may present some risks, especially if specialist independent legal advice isn’t sought.

If raising the mortgage for your French property in the UK is not an option, or you prefer to look for a deal in France, then consider taking out a mortgage secured on the French property from an overseas lender. One advantage with this route is that the lender will usually carry out checks on the property themselves. They will ensure that a proper legal title exists, that the property is registered in the buyer’s name and that a valuation of the property takes place. They will also check other issues such as whether proper planning permissions have been obtained or that building licences are correct.

Taking a mortgage with a French lender is fairly straightforward, especially if you use an overseas mortgage specialist. They will be familiar with and understand French lenders. They will also know the restrictions and administration requirements, which can save the buyer time, cost and hassle.

This is especially valuable if you intend to buy a property in France to rent long term and time is of the essence. There are many British people who make a living from the French property rental market. They buy a number of properties over a period of time and in summer rent them to holiday makers at very high margins, and in the quieter months, they capitalise upon the market for renting property in France long term, which is aimed at those wishing to buy in France but who decide to rent a property long term while they find what they want to buy. Another benefit is, an overseas mortgage specialist will generally work with other local professionals, such as lawyers, surveyors and currency exchanges. But remember things rarely move in France as quickly as you'd expect.

There is little difference between UK and French mortgage lenders. Both use property as security and have set criteria regarding eligibility for securing a mortgage. Interest rates are also set by the lenders, and are influenced by the Bank of England for UK lenders or the Euribor for French lenders.

As with UK mortgages, if you enjoy a fixed rate for an introductory period on you mortgage, you are liable to be penalised, with extra charges for paying it off before the end of the ‘fixed rate period. So, if you are anticipating paying off your mortgage early, think hard about fixed rate offers.

List Your French Property For Rent

The Gold premium listing option we offer to advertise your French rental property now has even more great features available.

We have now included a cool Google map that allows visitors to your page to scroll around your area* and even calculate travel distances and times to your village from anywhere in the world.

Check out this example for Montpellier in the Languedoc Roussillon.

View Larger Map

Secondly, we have added a 'Send To A Friend' function which allows a page visitor to send a link to your property page to someone they know. This is a great marketing tool which quickly and easily allows your property listing to spread amongst people looking for rental properties in France.

You can view a full working demo listing when you visit our Gold Premium Listing page and all for less than £100 a year!

*Note: For your security and privacy we do not set the map to your property address but near enough, eg your village or town, to give visitors an idea of where you are.

French Property Mortgages

This is the first in a series of articles relating to the ‘French property mortgage’ market in France.

If you are looking to buy property in France you need to consider the mortgage market seriously. In our experience, rushing out and buying a home is fraught with danger. However, until you decide on where to live in France, what type of property to buy and, what type of mortgage to take use, you can rent a French property for as long as you like.

Fixed and variable rate mortgages are available to buy property in France, but it is worth considering, that the French market for these products is vastly different to that in the United Kingdom.

Interest only mortgages are available, but the criteria for obtaining such a product, is extremely high. Therefore, not many non French residents qualify for this type of mortgage.

The majority of French property mortgages are based on a variable interest rate, which is similar to a UK tracker mortgage. However, although variable, most banks offer a fixed rate for the first 3-12 months, sometimes with rates as low as 3.5%. For the remainder of the mortgage term, the interest rate will be on a fixed margin above the Euribor, which stands for the Euro Inter Bank Offered Rate. This is the rate at which European banks borrow from each other for a fixed period, 3, 6 or 12 months.

The margin, which the bank adds to the Euribor figure when calculating the amount it charges, is usually between 1.1 and 2% above the Euribor. However, this will depend on the mortgage company you are talking to, and on the odd occasion, 0.7-1% may be offered.

Fixed interest rate mortgages are available in France for property purchases, but unlike the UK, rates start higher and are fixed at one rate for the entire mortgage term, because of this, early repayment penalties will be put in placed.

The advantage of having a variable rate linked to the EURIBOR is that your bank cannot keep your payments high, if general money markets fall in Europe - the bank can only charge their set margin above the current level of the EURIBOR.

You are advised to seek professional financial advice before committing yourself to a mortgage in France or the United Kingdom. All facts and figures quoted in this and subsequent articles relating to this subject are indicative only. Until you have found, committed yourself to and purchased your property in France, remember you can always rent long term.

By Alan Tyrrell

New Sitemap

Another quickie update today. I've added a new sitemap page to the site to enable quick reference as to what pages are in relation to which other pages.

Steve

Links Page Shuffle

Just a quick post to point out that our links page has now begun the organisation re-shuffle I have been threatening to do for weeks now.

Rather than a bunch of links to related sites, useful services and sites that are kind enough to link to us all dumped on one page I've broken them into categories, see below:

• Life In France
• Directory Sites
• French Property Sites
• Learning French

There are other catergories still to appear over the coming months and obviously we hope to add many more links to the existing ones.

Visit the links page here: Let's Rent Property In France Links

Note to Webmasters: If you have a reciprocal link with us it will have been moved from the /links.php to the most relevant category page. No reciprocal links in effect prior to today have been removed so please double check before you think I've removed your link.

Steve.