Monday, October 18, 2010

FT - fall in interest rates draws buyers to France



There's a lovely article in the Financial Times that you can see here. It starts with this statement:

Wealthy borrowers are buying second homes in France after mortgage rates fell to the lowest level since the postwar period last month.

Mortgage brokers have reported an increase in the number of large loan deals being arranged on French property purchases over the past few months, driven largely by the low mortgage rates available. France has traditionally been the most popular location for British buyers of top-end second homes.

It then goes on to say:

The French mortgage market has remained stable during the credit crisis, with banks and lenders showing a strong appetite for lending to foreign investors.

The majority of lenders are happy to lend around 80 per cent loan-to-value – and some offer up to 100 per cent of the value of the property, though buyers must borrow at least €300,000 and have minimum earnings of €90,000.

Buyers can get rates as low as 2.20 per cent, available up to 80 per cent loan-to-value. Borrowers can choose between variable rates, capped variable rates and fixed-rate mortgages – which tend to be the most popular in France.

You can see a "best buy" table of French mortgages by clicking here.

www.cognacproperty.com

1 comment:

Chris said...

Would be interested to know if it is easy for British people to get mortgages from British banks at our interest rate for French properties. I imagine our interest rates are lower than France's at the minute.