People assume that buying in France means paying cash, or remortgaging at home and carrying the money over. Often neither is necessary.
French banks lend to non-residents, they have done for decades, and the rates are frequently better than you would get in Britain or Ireland. What is different is the deposit, the paperwork and one single affordability rule that decides almost every application.
Here is how it works, including the part that is specific to building a new house rather than buying an old one.
The one rule that matters: 35 per cent
Everything else is detail. This is the rule.
A French bank is required to keep your total monthly loan payments, worldwide, below 35 per cent of your net monthly income. That includes borrower's insurance, and it includes your mortgage at home, your car finance, and any other credit you have.
It is set by the HCSF, the French financial stability board, and it is not a guideline that a friendly manager can stretch. There is a small allowance for exceptions and it is mostly used for first-time buyers in France. Assume it is a hard ceiling.
This matters because it cuts both ways. British lenders look at a multiple of income and then stress-test it. French banks do arithmetic. If your income is solid and your existing debts are small, a French bank will often lend you more than you expect. If you are carrying a big mortgage at home, you will be turned down even with a healthy income and a large deposit.
So the first thing to do, before you speak to anybody, is add up every monthly loan payment you make and work out what 35 per cent of your net income is. The gap between those two numbers is your French mortgage payment.
How much deposit you need
More than a French resident would, and it depends on your passport and where you pay tax.
Broadly, in 2026:
- French tax residents put down 10 to 20 per cent, plus the buying costs
- Residents of other EU countries — Ireland, for example — are generally looking at 20 to 35 per cent
- UK, US and other non-EU residents are typically asked for 30 per cent and sometimes considerably more
And in every case the deposit is on top of the purchase costs, not inside them. French banks will not lend you the notaire's fees. On a new build those fees are low — around 2 to 3 per cent, because a new house attracts reduced registration duty rather than the 7 to 8 per cent charged on an old one — which is one of the quieter financial advantages of building.
Some banks will go further for a strong file, and a broker who knows which lenders are currently keen on foreign buyers earns their fee here. The appetite moves around from year to year.
Rates
French mortgages are overwhelmingly fixed for the whole term. Not fixed for two or five years and then whatever the market says — fixed for twenty years, at a rate agreed on the day you sign.
For anyone used to the British remortgage treadmill, this is the single most attractive feature of borrowing in France. You know the payment for the life of the loan.
As of autumn 2026, rates for French residents are roughly in the low threes — around 3.05 per cent over ten years, 3.16 per cent over fifteen, 3.31 per cent over twenty and 3.43 per cent over twenty-five. Non-residents pay a premium on top, usually somewhere between 0.2 and 0.5 of a percentage point.
Twenty-five years is the standard maximum term, and a little longer is sometimes allowed on a new build. Age limits apply — most lenders want the loan repaid by around seventy-five, some stretch to eighty — which is worth knowing if you are retiring.
The costs around the loan
Budget for these, because they are real and they are not always quoted up front.
Borrower's insurance is compulsory in France, not optional as it tends to be in Britain. It is life cover, and usually disability cover, assigned to the bank. It costs in the region of 0.2 to 0.4 per cent of the borrowed capital a year, and more if you are older or if a medical questionnaire turns something up. Since a change in the law in 2022 you can switch provider at any time for equivalent cover, and doing so often saves a surprising amount, so do not simply accept the bank's in-house policy for twenty years.
A guarantee fee, usually 1 to 1.5 per cent of the loan. France mostly uses a mutual guarantee society rather than a traditional mortgage charge, and this is its cost.
Arrangement fees of roughly €500 to €1,500.
Early repayment is capped by law at six months' interest or 3 per cent of the outstanding balance, whichever is lower — and is often waived if you are selling because of a job move or a death.
What the bank will ask you for
Expect a thick file. French banks are document-driven and they do not take anything on trust.
Typically: passports, proof of address, your last three years of tax returns or assessments, three to six months of bank statements for every account you hold, three months of payslips or two to three years of accounts if you are self-employed, a statement of your existing loans, evidence of where the deposit came from, and the signed contract for the property.
Two things British and Irish applicants underestimate. First, the whole file may need to be in French, and sworn translations take time and cost money. Second, "evidence of where the deposit came from" is taken seriously — if the money arrived from the sale of a house or from a pension lump sum, have the paperwork ready. Trying to explain a large unexplained transfer after the event is the most common cause of delay.
The part that is specific to building
This is where a new build differs from buying an existing house, and where people get confused.
When you build under a CCMI — the French builder's contract, which is the contract we use — you do not pay the whole price at the start. You pay in stages as the house goes up: at the foundations, when the walls are at full height, when the roof is watertight, at completion of the shell, and so on, with a final slice held back until you have accepted the house.
A French mortgage is designed for exactly this. The bank does not hand over the money in one lump. It releases funds in stages against the builder's calls for payment, after checking each stage has actually been reached. You draw down as the house is built.
During the build you pay intérêts intercalaires — interest on only the money released so far — and your full monthly repayment starts once the loan is fully drawn. So the payments ramp up over the build rather than landing at full size on day one.
The CCMI also carries a completion guarantee, which the bank likes, because it means a third party is legally on the hook to finish the house if the builder cannot. It is one of the reasons French banks are comfortable lending against a new build at all.
The land is usually bought first, at the notaire, with its own release of funds; the construction draws follow. Your broker and the notaire coordinate this, and it is routine.
Should you borrow in France or at home?
Three honest considerations.
Borrowing in France means your debt and your asset are in the same currency. If your income is in sterling or dollars, you still carry exchange-rate risk on the payments, but you are not exposed on the capital. Borrowing at home against a British property and bringing euros over means currency risk on the whole thing, and you have put your main home behind the French one.
Borrowing in France gets you a genuinely fixed twenty-year rate, which is hard to buy in Britain at all.
Borrowing at home is faster and the paperwork is in your own language. If you want to move quickly on a plot, that counts for something.
Plenty of our buyers do a mixture: equity released at home for the land, a French mortgage for the construction. There is no single right answer and it depends mostly on what debts you already carry.
A realistic timeline
Allow two to three months from first approach to a signed mortgage offer, and do not compress it.
Get a broker to assess you before you commit to anything — a decent one will tell you inside a week whether the 35 per cent rule works for you, which is the only question that matters at the start.
French law then gives you a cooling-off period: you must wait ten days before accepting a mortgage offer, and the acceptance cannot be posted before the eleventh day. It is built into the calendar and nobody can waive it.
Where to start
Work out your 35 per cent figure. Then get a broker's view in principle before you fall in love with a plot, because knowing your ceiling changes which houses you look at.
Our free guide explains the CCMI, the stage payments and the guarantees in detail, which is the part your lender will be looking at too. Download it here — there is nothing to pay.
Current house and land packages are listed with an all-in price and a notaire estimate, so you can test them against your own numbers rather than guessing.
Rates and lending rules checked in October 2026 and they do move. We are a building company, not a mortgage broker or a financial adviser, and nothing here is advice on your own finances — the figures are here so you can have an informed conversation with a lender.