Hi,
In our late 40s. Live in Ireland and thinking of buying a holiday and retirement apartment in France. We have enough cash to cover 40-60% of the LTV and would be looking to buy something in the 150-200K range. We've a mortgage here - but are below the 50% LTV, can service it easily and have secure jobs. We have a good bit of money in PRSAs in the form of equities, we have a DB pension, etc - but these won't mature until we're 60+. We also have 3 young kids. We recently paid off a good chunk of our mortgage (which for the reasons below might now appear to have been a bit silly
).
Last time we thought about this a few years ago, the Irish banks were not lending for foreign places. There's a lot of stuff on the web for British people who are looking to get mortgages for french property - and if you read articles in publications like the Telegraph, it looks like its fairly routine for British people to get mortgages for places in France from French banks. There's also a big community of mortgage advisors/brokers for English people looking to buy in France. But there's next to nothing in terms of advice for Irish residents.
Two basic questions of fact,:
-Do Irish lenders lend for French property?
-Is it possible/easy for Irish people to get mortgages for apartments in France from French lenders?
The alternative is that we try and save the cash for a 100% purchase which I reckon could take 3-4 years.
Our rationale is that if by now:
*Us and our (young) kids will get use out of it BEFORE retirement. For example, we're hoping to give our kids exposure to french language and culture and being able to hop there for a few weeks or spend a chunk of schools holidays there would be great.
*Property prices look very cheap in France and hoping to hedge ourselves against appreciation there.
*An apartment in France - if things change - is a fairly liquid assets that we could sell.
Finally, I'm a bit offended by the idea of a place there lying idle for 45 or so weeks of the year and not earning a return!!! However, I know AIrBNB comes with a bit of hassle and notice that most friends with places in France, Spain, etc DON'T rent out their places.
In our late 40s. Live in Ireland and thinking of buying a holiday and retirement apartment in France. We have enough cash to cover 40-60% of the LTV and would be looking to buy something in the 150-200K range. We've a mortgage here - but are below the 50% LTV, can service it easily and have secure jobs. We have a good bit of money in PRSAs in the form of equities, we have a DB pension, etc - but these won't mature until we're 60+. We also have 3 young kids. We recently paid off a good chunk of our mortgage (which for the reasons below might now appear to have been a bit silly
).Last time we thought about this a few years ago, the Irish banks were not lending for foreign places. There's a lot of stuff on the web for British people who are looking to get mortgages for french property - and if you read articles in publications like the Telegraph, it looks like its fairly routine for British people to get mortgages for places in France from French banks. There's also a big community of mortgage advisors/brokers for English people looking to buy in France. But there's next to nothing in terms of advice for Irish residents.
Two basic questions of fact,:
-Do Irish lenders lend for French property?
-Is it possible/easy for Irish people to get mortgages for apartments in France from French lenders?
The alternative is that we try and save the cash for a 100% purchase which I reckon could take 3-4 years.
Our rationale is that if by now:
*Us and our (young) kids will get use out of it BEFORE retirement. For example, we're hoping to give our kids exposure to french language and culture and being able to hop there for a few weeks or spend a chunk of schools holidays there would be great.
*Property prices look very cheap in France and hoping to hedge ourselves against appreciation there.
*An apartment in France - if things change - is a fairly liquid assets that we could sell.
Finally, I'm a bit offended by the idea of a place there lying idle for 45 or so weeks of the year and not earning a return!!! However, I know AIrBNB comes with a bit of hassle and notice that most friends with places in France, Spain, etc DON'T rent out their places.