mcbrewster

We are UK residents trying to get a mortgage on a holiday home in France.
We had an in-principal decision with BNP Paribas cancelled a week later because they said they're now closing their International Buyers department.
We bank with HSBC UK and have an account with HSBC France as well, but HSBC France says they not able to give any type of loans to UK Residents despite of their nationality. (Due to Brexit)

Anyone have any suggestions on where to turn next?

EuroTrash

Have you looked into remortgaging/taking out equity with your existing mortgage provider on your UK home (if you have one)?
If all your income is sourced from the UK you will likely find it difficult to obtain a loan in France.

Pulaski

Generally lenders look for income in the same country as the loan, and so finding finance for a property in France when your income source is in the UK is likely to be extremely difficult, or just impossible, especially as what you want to achieve is now from outside the EU. Not only has Brexit likely complicated matters for you, but at this time, due to the tense state of the global economy, rising interest rates, inflation, and the war in Ukraine, lenders are choosing to end programs which they see as most risky, so lending for second/ holiday homes, cross-border lending, etc.

The most likely way to borrow funds to buy a home in France is now going to be to borrow in the UK, secured against property in the UK .... Borrowing in one country against property in another country is even harder than borrowing in one country relying on income from another, basically because, in your case, lenders in the UK don't have the capability, legal (solicitor) support, or experience to register a mortgage in France when the lender is in the UK.

EuroTrash

To add to that, I think mortgage acceptance criteria in France are a little different to the UK. A property loan in France is not quite the same concept as a mortgage in the UK, it is basically like any other loan and the priority is to ensure that customers can keep up repayments for the duration, French banks have zero interest in repossessing property to clear mortgage debt because the property market is not the same. And it's diffcult for French lenders to assess with any certainty the long term security of an income source from a foreign economy and in a different currency, what with the uncertainty around the future exchange rate, plus they don't have sufficient knowledge to predict with any confidence the stability and performance of the foreign economy over the term of the mortgage, which inevitably is going to be a factor right now with recessions and possibly worse in the air. Then there's the difficulty of pursuing debtors in a foreign country.
If you feel your UK income would be seen as gold standard, or indeed if it's more of a global income than UK based, you could try a French mortgage broker (courtier en prêt immobilier), but for all the above reasons you might find it easer in the UK.

Blowting

Hi. It’s a long time ago o did it but credit Agricole came through for us

mcbrewster

Anybody had luck with any French banks lending holiday home mortgages to foreigners at the moment?

Pulaski

Chatter Static

You could try a specialist broker like CAFPI, you create a dossier with them and they then approach all the lenders they will know your odds from the get go. But as an non EU resident they’re going to have issues with debt collection on default although the house would have a hypotheque on it they prefer to get the money at source from your employer or whatever via the courts instead of repossessing as they can get the courts to deny you access to a second home on debt default as well.