The French mortgage checklist for international buyers

Start with identification and residence evidence, income and tax records, bank and investment statements, existing debt schedules, proof of your contribution and documents for the French property. The exact list depends on the lender, the borrowers and the transaction. A UK director, a US employee with equity compensation and a retired couple will need different explanations behind those headings.

For financing from €1M, the useful question is what each document establishes: who is borrowing, which income can service the debt, where the purchase money comes from and what the bank can take as security. A large portfolio or a valuable property does not answer all four questions. This checklist helps you prepare that evidence before committing to a lender or a completion date.

Ask for the proposed lender's checklist before commissioning translations or ordering certified copies. CCF's published list, for example, includes evidence of the contribution, recent payslips and account statements, and schedules for existing loans. Crédit Mutuel separately identifies business, pension and asset evidence. These are useful starting points; neither list establishes that a particular overseas borrower is eligible.

Use the following matrix to allocate the work. Add a responsible person, document date and outstanding question to each row. You can assemble most borrower evidence before finding a property; the transaction-specific items follow when there is an identified purchase.

Prepare evidence for each proposed borrower, including someone whose income is not being used in the initial calculation. Explain differences in surname, address or marital status across records. If you have recently moved, the current address and the address on last year's tax return may legitimately differ; attach a short explanation and the relevant supporting record.

Distinguish citizenship, current residence, tax residence and intended use of the French home. Buying a Paris apartment does not itself explain whether you are remaining in London, relocating from New York or buying a second home. Record any planned move and whether your employment, business remuneration or pension payments will change before or after completion.

If a company will own the property, confirm the proposed borrower and beneficial owners early. The adviser, lender and notaire should be working from the same ownership proposal. A personal application cannot simply be treated as approval for a subsequently introduced entity.

An employee's file can begin with an employment contract, recent payslips, annual tax or earnings records and corresponding salary credits. For UK applicants, a P60 may help explain annual employment earnings; for US applicants, a W-2 may play that role. Neither replaces the lender's requested current evidence. Separate fixed salary from bonuses, commissions and equity awards, and explain any recent change in employer or compensation.

For directors and business owners, connect company performance, your ownership percentage, remuneration decisions and personal receipts. Company turnover, retained profit and a dividend received personally describe different things. Accounts, distribution records and bank credits should explain the relationship without counting the same income twice. Provide interim figures where they are needed to explain a material change since the latest completed accounts.

Pensions, investment distributions and rent need their own supporting records. An investment sale can produce cash for the purchase without creating recurring income for repayments. List every income stream in its original currency and period, then show the conversion assumptions separately.

For loans within the HCSF framework, the usual limits are a 35% debt-service ratio and a 25-year term, subject to defined provisions and limited lender flexibility. The assessment uses accepted income and includes relevant borrowing costs, including borrower insurance. A private-bank relationship does not automatically remove those constraints. Have the lender confirm the applicable treatment rather than calculating capacity from gross worldwide receipts.

For each asset, record its owner, current value, currency and availability. A portfolio may be marketable but pledged elsewhere. A pension may be valuable but unavailable for the purchase. Business cash may belong to the company. State those restrictions beside the amount so that the contribution schedule does not treat every asset as spendable cash.

For each liability, show the outstanding balance, payment, currency, maturity and security. Include overseas mortgages and other borrowing, plus relevant guarantees or commitments for the lender to assess. A property valuation alone tells the bank little about the debt attached to that property or its monthly effect on your household.

Explain both how the wealth arose and how the specific completion money reaches you. A business sale agreement may establish the origin of wealth; the settlement statement and subsequent account records connect it to today's balance. For a gift, inheritance or company distribution, assemble the underlying records and explain ownership and any repayment obligation. Confirm each recipient's evidence requirements before transferring the money.

Consider a fictional €2.4M purchase with €220,000 allowed for acquisition and initial financing costs. That allowance is a planning assumption, not a French tax rate or a quotation. Assume a €1.5M loan is available net for the acquisition, with no further deductions from its proceeds. The buyer therefore needs €1.12M for the €2.62M total project.

The file should show how that requirement is funded, including money already paid. In this example, €240,000 has been paid toward the price from savings. The remaining €880,000 is covered by €620,000 of savings still available and €260,000 of net investment-sale proceeds. A separate €180,000 reserve remains outside the purchase budget and is assumed unpledged.

The €240,000 is part of the €1.12M contribution. Adding it again would overstate the buyer's requirement. If sale proceeds have not settled, or the lender withholds fees, update the schedule before treating the file as funded.

Give the bank the property address, agreed price, intended use and proposed ownership, followed by the purchase agreement and requested technical documents. Depending on the transaction, those may include plans, diagnostic reports, co-ownership information, leases, works estimates or construction contracts. The valuation and legal assessment must concern the property you are actually buying, including its dependencies and proposed use.

A chalet with building works, a furnished property subject to an operating lease and an apartment acquired through an SCI raise different questions. Identify those features before asking for terms. If the price includes furniture or the project includes renovations, show the allocation and ask which elements the financing covers.

Have the notaire align the financing condition with the loan being sought: amount, term, rate ceiling, deadlines and required evidence. Service Public distinguishes a firm, unreserved offer meeting the contractual requirements from a preliminary agreement in principle. Keep the application and any subsequent changes consistent with the contract, and seek timely advice if a deadline is at risk.

Ask whether insurance is required, which risks must be covered and what proportion of each borrower's debt must be insured. Obtain the lender's requirements and compare them with the proposed policy, including overseas residence, occupation, age limits and exclusions. Equivalent cover from another insurer may be possible; acceptance depends on meeting the lender's criteria.

Confirm medical formalities with the insurer because exemptions and underwriting requirements depend on the case. Supply medical information through the insurer's designated confidential process. Track insurance acceptance separately from the bank's assessment of income and security: progress on one does not establish completion of the other.

Use a schedule based on outstanding decisions rather than a universal promise of approval within a fixed number of weeks. Overseas records, valuation, entity review, insurance and security preparation can have different lead times. Assign responsibility and a target date to each item, then work backwards from the contractual deadlines.

For a French residential mortgage subject to the statutory offer process, the ten-calendar-day reflection period begins the day after receipt; acceptance is possible from the eleventh day. Allow for that period when coordinating completion. The accepted offer, satisfied release conditions and the notaire's funds request are separate steps.

• Initial assessment: identify borrower eligibility, requested financing and gaps in the evidence.
• Lender review: obtain credit, valuation, insurance and security decisions as required.
• Formal offer: check the loan terms, European standardised information sheet and outstanding conditions.
• Acceptance and release: complete the applicable formalities, reconcile final funds and confirm the release arrangements with the bank and notaire.

Lead with a short transaction summary: borrowers, property, loan request, recurring income, liabilities, contribution and unresolved points. Reference each material figure to a document in an indexed folder. Keep original-currency figures visible and label annual versus monthly amounts. That allows an assessor to reproduce the calculation without guessing which statement or exchange rate you used.

Use complete, legible files and descriptive names with dates. Confirm which documents need translation, certification or an original; do not assume that every English-language record needs a sworn translation. Maintain an outstanding-items list and replace superseded versions clearly. Explain a large transfer, unusual distribution or employment change before it appears to contradict the summary.

If an earlier application failed, preserve the original submission and any written explanation. Identify what has changed in the evidence or proposal before making another approach. Clear presentation can resolve a misunderstanding; it cannot make an ineligible borrower, unsupported income or unacceptable security meet a bank's policy.

BlueVectis helps international buyers seeking financing from €1M prepare the transaction, present the evidence to relevant banking contacts and coordinate the financing through to release. The work begins with understanding how your income, assets and purchase fit together, then making that explanation usable by the people assessing the loan.

Before an initial discussion, have the purchase location and price range, requested loan, residence, income sources, main liabilities and available contribution to hand. Identify any approaching contract deadline or previous lender response. From there, the document request can be tailored to the actual transaction and the questions a prospective lender needs answered.