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Short answer
With a mortgage, allow about three months from signing the preliminary contract, the compromis, to signing the final deed, the acte authentique, at the notaire. A cash purchase usually takes about two months. After you sign the compromis you have a 10-day cooling-off period, and a loan condition in the contract gets your deposit back if your mortgage is refused. The French mortgage offer then has its own 10-day wait before you can accept it, so build that into the timetable.
Sources: Emaille-Bricard notaires on completion timing; Service-public.fr, April 2026.
What are the steps to buying a property in France?
The order below is the usual one for a UK or international buyer who needs a mortgage. The French terms are the ones your estate agent and notaire will use, and each is in our glossary.
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Before you view
Get prequalified before you view seriously
French agents and sellers often ask early on whether your finance is in place. Getting prequalified tells you whether your case fits what lenders want on deposit, income and age, so you and the agent do not waste time on a purchase that cannot be financed. Ideally you then have a decision in principle from a lender, obtained through one of the leading, reputable specialist mortgage brokers and lenders we work with, before you make an offer. Some buyers also show sellers an attestation de financement, a financing certificate. It is not a loan offer and does not bind the bank. Our financing certificate guide explains what it is worth.
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Once you choose a property
Make a written offer
You make an offre d’achat, an offer to buy, by letter or email. Once the seller accepts it, the seller is bound to sell to you at that price. No money can change hands at this stage. French law says a payment made with an offer makes the offer void, so be wary of anyone asking for one.
Source: Service-public.fr on the offre d’achat (Code civil article 1589-1).
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Signing the contract
Sign the compromis or a promesse unilatérale
The preliminary contract is usually a compromis de vente, which binds both buyer and seller. The alternative is a promesse unilatérale de vente, which binds the seller and gives you an option to buy. A promesse signed privately rather than before a notaire must be registered within 10 days. Either way you pay a deposit, the dépôt de garantie, usually 5% to 10% of the price. The notaire holds it, not the seller.
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The first 10 days
Use the cooling-off period if you need it
As a private buyer of a home you have a 10-day délai de rétractation, a cooling-off period. It starts the day after the signed contract is first presented to you by registered letter, or the day after it is handed to you. To withdraw within that time you send a registered letter.
Source: Service-public.fr on the compromis and promesse, 10 April 2026 (Code de la construction L271-1).
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Usually 45 to 60 days
Rely on the loan condition
If you are borrowing, the contract should include a condition suspensive d’obtention de prêt. This makes the purchase conditional on getting your mortgage. The legal minimum period is one month, and 45 to 60 days is typical. You must apply in good faith for loans that match the amount, rate and term written into the contract. A firm loan offer satisfies the condition. If the loan is refused, your deposit is refunded. This is where being prequalified pays off, because the figures in the contract should be ones a lender is likely to accept.
Source: Service-public.fr on the loan condition, 24 August 2026.
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With the contract
Read the diagnostic reports
The seller must supply a file of diagnostics, the dossier de diagnostic technique. Depending on the age, location and type of property it can include:
- the energy performance rating, the DPE, valid for 10 years
- lead, for homes built before 1949
- asbestos, where the building permit predates 1 July 1997
- electricity and gas, where the installation is over 15 years old
- non-mains drainage such as a septic tank
- termites, in zones set by the prefecture
- natural and technological risks, including radon
- airport noise
- dry rot information, in risk zones
- an energy audit, for houses rated E, F or G
- a logbook for the home, for permits from 1 January 2023
Read them before your cooling-off period ends and ask the notaire about anything unclear. The DPE matters if you might let the home to a tenant as their main residence: new or renewed leases are banned for homes rated G from 2025, F from 2028 and E from 2034. The way the DPE is calculated for electric heating changed on 1 January 2026, moving about 850,000 homes out of the F and G bands.
Sources: Service-public.fr on diagnostics; Service-public.fr on rental bans; economie.gouv.fr on the 2026 DPE change.
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Within the loan condition period
Apply for the mortgage and accept the offer
Once the compromis is signed, the specialists we work with take your full application to the lender and work through to a firm loan offer, the offre de prêt. French consumer law, the loi Scrivener, then sets the pace:
- The offer is sent to you free of charge on paper or another durable medium and stays open for at least 30 days.
- You cannot accept it for 10 days, the délai de réflexion. The wait starts the day after you receive it, so an offer received on 1 February can be accepted from 12 February.
- You accept by a dated and signed letter sent by post unless the lender agrees another method.
- If the purchase does not complete within 4 months of your acceptance, the loan falls away.
Sources: Service-public.fr on the loan offer; DGCCRF.
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About 3 months after the contract
Sign the acte authentique
The sale completes when the acte authentique is signed before the notaire. A few days to a week before, the notaire asks for the balance of the price and the costs. Any payment to a notaire over €3,000 must be made by bank transfer to the notaire’s account at the Caisse des Dépôts, and an international transfer can take up to five working days, so send funds early. Under anti-money-laundering rules the notaire must check where both the loan and your own money come from, so keep a clear record of your deposit.
If you cannot be in France on the day, you can sign a notarial procuration, a power of attorney, fully remotely by video with a qualified electronic signature. The deed itself cannot be signed remotely, so someone signs it for you under the procuration.
Sources: Notaires de France on payments; Ministère de la Justice on remote procurations.
Can I use my own notaire?
Yes. You can appoint your own notaire at no extra cost, even when the seller already has one. When two notaires act on a sale they share the same regulated fee between them, so the total you pay does not go up.
Source: Efficience notaires, 25 February 2026. What the notaire’s fees are made of is in our buying costs guide.
Who pays estate agent fees in France?
An estate agent, the agent immobilier, must hold a professional licence called the carte T, issued by the local chamber of commerce and valid for three years. The agent also needs a financial guarantee, liability insurance and a written mandate from the client, and cannot be paid before the sale completes. Ask to see the card.
Agents set their own fees but must display their maximum fee schedule including tax. Adverts show the price including fees, marked FAI for frais d’agence inclus. Where the buyer pays the fee, the advert must also show it as a percentage of the price excluding fees.
Industry estimates that we have not been able to confirm from an official source suggest fees commonly run from 3% to 10% of the price and average about 4.5% to 5%. They also suggest the seller pays in about 70% of sales. Check who pays on any property you view.
Source: DGCCRF on the rules for estate agents.
Can I buy in France from the UK after Brexit?
Yes. Living in the UK does not stop you buying in France. What Brexit changed is how long you can stay. UK nationals can spend up to 90 days in any 180 across the Schengen area without a visa. The EU’s Entry/Exit System has been fully live at the border since 10 April 2026. The ETIAS travel authorisation is not live yet and is due to cost €20 for three years.
Owning a French home does not extend that limit. A 2023 law that would have given British second-home owners a long-stay visa as of right was struck down by the Conseil constitutionnel in January 2024, and nothing has replaced it. For longer stays you need a visitor visa: a VLS-T for three to six months, or a VLS-TS for over six months.
Sources: ABTA, 17 August 2026; Sénat on visitor visas. Position checked 28 September 2026.