Buying an apartment in Paris: a step-by-step guide

A Step By Step Guide

Buying an apartment in Paris

Plan your investment

First thing first plan your budget and the corresponding financing plan.

If you are expecting to borrow a loan to cover your finance, you will need to define the duration and the personal contribution (This should be between 5% – 10% of the price of the apartment). This amount corresponds to the cost of your notary is going to ask you to pay when you sign the initial contract, this amount will be deducted from the selling price at the final signature.

Once you set up your budget, you can then select what kind of apartment you are looking for and which area etc.

We can help you after you decide your budget. Our experienced staff is there to find an apartment as per your criteria.

Searching

After you thought about the budget you can start searching the apartment or the property. If you have an idea of what kind of property you want and where it will make somewhat easy to make yourself ready and make a deal when you find the right apartment.

On International Home website, you will have access to many criteria in order to refine your search (budget, district, property type, surface area, etc.). Of course, you can request to visit each apartment by sending us an email: a consultant will contact you to make an appointment. A consultant will contact you to schedule for a meeting.

If you couldn’t find any property matching your criteria, we invite you to subscribe to the email alert which will keep you updated on once we update our site with a new apartment.

You found the apartment

After visiting the apartment, and now you have made up your mind to buy a certain apartment. Of course, you can negotiate, and after both parties come to an agreement, yous Internationa Home consultant will send you all the necessary documentation for the apartment so that you can make a purchase offer with full knowledge of the facts.

Negotiation

If you would like to make negotiate further to purchase a property, you can send a purchase offer to your consultant by e-mail or handwritten letter.

This document will have to contain the following information:

Your first and last name
Your main residence’s address
The proposed purchase price (including fees)
The financing details (personal contribution and loan)
The address of the property you’d like to buy
Your offer’s duration

You can also add your notary’s contact details. Or, International Home will provide you with our partner notary’s contact details.

Sending your documents to the lawyer

International Home chooses to send each of the ‘sales’ completed file to the notary in order to reassure both sides are clear. You are free to choose your own notary, but it is also possible to do the agreement with just one notary representing the two sides.

If you don’t or have a lawyer of your own, International Home will be helpful in regards to this.

Before signing the first contract

Before signing the first contract, it’s better to know each and every single detail so you will not be lost in the middle. It’s important to have all the information related to the property. As per the law

it states that certain issues should be brought to the attention of the future owner such as:

The 3 previous years collective ownership’s general meetings’ reports
The total of the building fees (such as service charge. Example: elevator, garden, green space, heating system and hot water..)
Property tax for the previous year and current year

The technical diagnosis dossier which includes:

The measurement of the apartment’s surface
The (CREP) lead exposure risk report
The report mentioning the presence or absence of materials or products containing asbestos
The (parasite condition report) regarding the presence of termites and other xylophagous insects
(DPE) The energy performance’s diagnosis
(ESRIS) State of risks and soil information
The condition of gas and electricity if they are more than 15 years old
The condominium’s regulations and amendments
Building’s maintenance booklet (if only available)
A document stating the co-property and selling co-owner’s financial situation

Once all the documents are collected, the notaries can make an appointment to sign the agreement to sell or preliminary sale agreement

Financing with a loan

Whether you are facilitating a loan in order to fulfill the sale or not, in the deed of sale you have to mention how you are financing your purchase.

When it’s mentioned on sale deed, the amount is paid through a mortgage, the latter has to include a legal condition precedent of the loan procurement. You have a period of 30 days which is generally increased to 45 days, to obtain a loan confirmed according to the planned conditions in the preliminary contract (amount, time, rate). This period can get extended up to 60 days according to the time of the year.

Once the loan offer is communicated by the bank, you will not be able to accept it before the period of 10 days period following its reception. You will have to send it back to the bank from the 11th day. The sale can’t be signed before this term.

If you don’t receive the loan before the mentioned date in the agreement to sell or first contract sale agreement, you will have the choice whether to stay in continuing the sale (if you have another financial resource etc) or to get it withdrawn. If you wish to withdraw it, you will get your deposit back except in the case of insincerity (offer to exceed the financial capacity or not confirming to the preliminary contract’s estimates).

Revisiting the apartment before the final sale

Once the final signing date has been decided, you can plan a new visit to the property. This will be appointed as per the everyone’s availabilities, this appointment will be planned a couple of days before or the same day of the final signature of the sale deed.

This visit will allow you to check that the apartment, as well as its outbuildings (basement, rooms…), whether they have been well emptied by the seller.

It will also allow you to check and get the readings of the meter (EDF- GDF) and thus simplify the subscription transfer.

Don’t forget to subscribe to a home multi-risk insurance.

Final Sale

The appointment will be placed at the notary’s office and runs as following:

Proofreading of the sales project
Closing of the accounts (this will be done according to pro-rata basis (co-property charges, property tax and potential building’s construction)
Payment (the notary will call for funds and the days preceding the appointment)
Hand over the keys

If the any of the parties cannot be presented at the signing of the deed of sale, they can assign a representor by a third party or their notary, the original duly signed and sent in advance.

Sometimes signing the first (preliminary) contract is not needed and the notaries proceed to the signing of the deed of sale. This occurs when the buyer can purchase a property without having a loan and with a prior consent from the parties. In this case, the buyer is notified of the preliminary contract and its appendices before the completion of the sale and the withdrawal period (SRU law) is served like any other sale with a preliminary contract signature.

After this appointment, you will have to manage the subscriptions’ shift about changing subscriptions (EDF, GDF, etc.).

A Step By Step Guide