Why I chose to buy my dream studio apartment in France (as a Singaporean)

Many people would have argued that I started my apartment hunt in France a tad prematurely. I barely had any substantial savings, I just met the minimum requirements of securing a bank loan, and to top it off, I just switched jobs, which is usually a no-go for banks to give out loans during probation periods.

"Stop looking, you cannot afford to buy much anyway." My boyfriend sighed at me in frustration as he looked at me obsessing unhealthily over hundreds of property listings. It's true, I tend to hyper-focus on stuff when it becomes a part of my to-do list because I want it finished. I don't like dragging things out.

So the 4-month search I endured was hell for me, to say the least. Most people take 6 months to a year to find their dream property at the right price, and if there's anything I learned from the 4 months over hundreds of different listings, it's how much I can afford and what I don't want.

It was love at first sight when I saw the listing for the first time. It had to be luck, fate, or maybe even magic, because it was not listed on Seloger (France's equivalent to PropertyGuru), which I usually keep my eye on. It was an exclusive listing from the website of a quaint real estate agency that I just randomly decided to check because I was bored.

They had a 3D tour of the place available, and my heart was palpitating in excitement as I clicked around. You guys know I love my weird tiny studios, but this one was a beast of its own.

It was an attic apartment with an official 32m2 area size due to the roof's slope, and it has two mezzanines; a 5m2 mezzanine that serves as an office, and a whooping 25m2 mezzanine that was used as a sleeping space and closet.

If we want to count the actual floor area, it's 75m2, but if we take the slope into consideration (as it is an attic), it's about 63m2. It also comes with a garage and a basement.

I don't know about you, but that's a lot of space for me, it was basically double what it was listed.

We called the real estate agent almost immediately.

The real estate agent wasn't super keen to take us on initially. The property was actually under offer a month or so prior, but the buyer was refused a bank loan, so he wasted quite a bit of time on that deal.

"Is the bank willing to loan you?", he asked on the phone. This was before I checked with the bank actually, most of them said no as I was on my notice period.

But this property was far cheaper than any we've seen so far, so I would have a substantial amount of downpayment for it. I was willing to bet they would give me the loan and waive off some conditions.

So I told a little white lie, and we got a viewing appointment.

Before we viewed the place I was already designing the apartment. It was one that had a lot of potential, and designers and architects probably share this feeling of thrill when they come across a project that they know would be fun and special.

I had an idea of how I wanted to utilise the space, the viewing is just a confirmation of whether my optimisations would be possible. We had viewed a few apartments prior to this, and the viewings tended to be short because we either hated the layout, the neighbourhood, or the agent themselves.

This rendezvous was different from all our previous visits.

The neighbourhood was in a calm area 10 mins away from the main bus that takes us to the city centre. There were many historical buildings built or restored from the early 1900s, but the area itself has had a lot of history and it was just good vibes overall.

The building itself needs some love, but it was holding up a lot better than the properties in the main city. They recently renovated the main staircase, but it was the tiniest staircase to exist, with a 10 to 15-cm step width. Going up the stairs in tip-toes was difficult enough, going down the stairs was scary, and that's an understatement in itself. We got used to it though, on our second visit.

That was all we could nitpick about the place, because when we went into the apartment it was everything we expected it to be. 

Does it need renovation? For sure. But it was charming and rustic, and the layout had a lot of potential despite its challenges.

Not much is known about the history of the building, but the official records state that this building was 'built' in 1983. I believe it was a restoration that happened during that time, as the area used to be filled with small beer breweries with rows of traditional timber-framed architecture for its worker residents.

One or two of these buildings along the same street were lucky enough to be worked on by famous architects, and proudly reflect the art nouveau era of when it was restored. 

There are a total of 6 apartments in my building, so not that many neighbours, and not that many co-owners. For apartment purchases, this is a jackpot.

You know the home is the one when you walk in and just feel like you need to have this place.

It's the first and only time I truly let myself go during a viewing. I was opening windows, climbing the mezzanine, checking the water tank with my phone torch; it felt like home. What sealed the deal for us was the fact that there was a working fireplace in the apartment, which made this place a double rarity.

The agent could tell our sincerity and how keen I was, and he sent us all the documents he had on the place before he went on vacation, which helped me out a lot because I had to do two things now: Make an offer, and go to the bank.

I took my sweet time reviewing the documents, to say the least. As you can see from my screenshot, it was a lot of paperwork to go through, each folder has at least three documents, all in French. I've never been more grateful that paperwork is now digital.

I had just started my new job too so I didn't really have the luxury to be fixated on my property purchase. The agent was on vacation for a good amount of time anyway, and I was the only one to have viewed the apartment prior. I won't have any competition.

But when the listing was removed from their website, I panicked a little and texted the guy. Thankfully, it was still available. He simply removed it because he was on vacation and didn't want annoying calls disturbing him.

"Are you ready to make an offer?", he asked. Perhaps this was a sales tactic, but I didn't care. I was too deep into designing the place; I had to buy it. 

We negotiated on the price, settled on a fair offer, and the agent could finally go on his way to tell the good news to the property owner and kickstart the process.

The appointment with the bank was surprisingly smooth. With the required documents in hand and the price negotiated, it was much easier to have them take me seriously and for myself to have more clarity on the loan. 

I was really mentally worn out from all the bank meetings I had to go to. The real estate community in France always recommends contacting a mortgage broker to help you compare rates and negotiate better loan conditions, but the process is long and overwhelming for locals, so it's even more so for a non-resident. I see why many first-time buyers just give up and just take a small L.

The week after the agent called with expected good news; the seller had accepted my offer and my conditions, and we could start the legal process of property transfer. But there comes a new problem: The bank I went to ended up rejecting my mortgage request.

Getting a mortgage loan is always one of the most complicated endeavours one can go through. It was very easy for banks to turn foreigners like me away, and understandably so.

The first mistake I made was to go to a cooperative bank. They come with a magnitude of benefits, including no early repayment fees on loans, and faster approvals. Unfortunately for me, I got humbled real quick because I forgot I wasn't considered a low-risk resident in this bank's eye.

These banks give out loans using their clients' capital, so their risk tolerance is extremely low. I was upset at the rejection, but after my mood settled I thought, "Ah, that makes sense.".

After seeking advice from friends who have bought property as a foreigner, I started looking at bigger banks that have loan departments that specially deal with non-resident loans. Admittedly, I should have done this first. But the world of non-resident buyers is a very small one so, how would I have known? 

You live and you learn.

I got myself a list of banks with non-resident loan departments, mostly validated recommendations with sources here and there, and started knocking on their doors.

It was a pretty brutal process each time, having to re-introduce myself to each bank, repeat my situation, and re-submit all of my documents over and over again. Waiting for their decision was also a painful bout of uncertainty.

Now, it is important to note that I just started my probation since I got a brand new job in between making an offer. This was a huge deal for some of the banks and cut me off quite a few options, but there were a few who just thought it was a minor detail and they were willing to give me a loan anyway.

Unfortunately for me, the interest rates were rising quite rapidly and being a foreigner means paying an unspoken "foreigner tax" where you will be charged a higher interest compared to the locals, as the loan advisor needs to sweeten the deal to get approvals from their branch director. 

The banks always need to win.

At the end of the day, I ended up taking a loan from back home in Singapore mainly because the interest environments are better back home. I would have liked to take a loan in France so I wouldn't have to deal with the currency exchange and fees, but after doing the math, it wasn't worth it (it's more than 1per cent difference in interest, that is a lot when compounded, I rather take the FX risk).

Signing the legal papers was another long and tiring process. Both the seller and the buyer need to be present in order to sign the Compromis de Vente, which basically confirms my intention to purchase the property and the seller's intention to sell to a specific party (me), as well as all the technical terms of the deal. Signing this document takes almost 2 hours, and it's a document that's more than 30 pages long in complex legal French.

I got a signing appointment a month after my offer was accepted. It was to be expected since it was during the height of France's vacation season. Thankfully, I've been living in Europe for a while now. I learned to have a lot of patience, no point trying to rush things.

One thing that made me extremely nervous was the transfer of funds from Singapore to France. Regardless of whether you transfer it directly from bank to bank or use a wire transfer service, because it's a large sum, you'll be subjected to checks (anti-money laundering prevention). 

It's good that I've worked in banking and finance for some time, so I know of these regulations, but it's definitely stress-inducing and my unfortunate decision to go with the Singapore loan was eating into me. The worst case scenario that could happen was my funds getting detained, and never seeing the light of day.

The draft of the compromis also brought to my attention the flaws of the apartment. It is more than 40 years old, and the last renovation was done sometime in the 2000s.

Things like having to change the entire electrical wiring and making sure that the structural pillars remain safe were something I noticed while viewing the apartment, and the reality of the cost and time it'll take to complete the works made me realise that my renovation ideals are actually very ambitious.

Singaporeans who bought an old resale would feel me. I am budgeting a generous amount for renovations, but most of the renovation work will be necessities rather than aesthetics.

Anyway, I digress. Once my signature inked the paper, it all became very real.

Signing the compromis was an interesting experience, because there were still open topics that could result in me backing out of a sale, and it got a bit heated at some point because my notary was quite insistent on me paying a reduced administrative fee (She managed to save me 175 euros).

All fees are to be borne by the buyer by the way. So if you're buying in France, don't be surprised by the extra you need to pay for engaging in notaries, title deeds, and what have you.

And remember how I was sure the building was not built but restored in the 1980s? This became a huge topic of contention because anything built in France before 1949 could contain lead or asbestos. The asbestos test came back negative, but it seems like a lead test done in a 2017 diagnostic came back positive for the exterior.

Because of this, the seller has to redo the diagnostic study that was submitted. If it comes back positive, the 10-day cooling period restarts as it would be new official information not made known to the buyer(me) during the signing of the intention of sale.

The next thing I was prompted to research was the fireplace. Whether I should keep it became a complicated decision as many laws and cities in France are slowly outright banning it due to fire risks and negative ecological impact. 

I did request a chimney sweep before the property handover, as that is the requirement from the insurance company for them to consider insuring the property from fires. I fully intend to keep and restore it to keep the heritage of the region, on top of adding a wood stove oven into the masonry structure for home cooking uses.

There was a whole warning from friends about keeping the fireplace, as big cities in France are quite hell-bent on banning this method of heating homes due to fire risks and higher carbon outputs, and making it a national law.

Personally, I find that a bit ludicrous, as less than five per cent of homes are heated using wood in France, and also the fact that fireplaces can be less costly and produce less carbon footprint than modern heaters when managed right.

It does make sense for heavily densely populated cities, but for suburban homes and rural areas, I would think this ban is extreme and unfair. But the gist of my research is that it is allowed as long as you clean it yearly, so I'm not going to worry about this for now.

So on day number 8 of my cooling period, when I was eager for its end, the notary came to me with some news: The diagnostic report for the lead came back positive, so I 'benefit' from a restart of the cooling period.

I had to lament this fact. I wasn't in a rush to get my keys since I was not moving in immediately and needed to renovate the place, but the longer this dragged on, the more it felt like this purchase wasn't going to manifest.

Anyway for interested buyers reading this, the lead report generally checks for areas where lead is present and could be consumed, namely pipes and paint. The pipes were PVC so the only positive came back on the paint.

It's usually not a cause of concern, while lead can be poisonous, it's only so when consumed or inhaled. Lead was mixed into the paint in the past to speed up drying and increase durability, and it's a consumption risk because lead is sweet, so children had a habit of licking and eating chipped paint scraps which led to poisoning.

What this means for me is that I need to ensure that contractors and everyone else present during renovation wear protective gear if we're removing it, the toxic dust must be contained and disposed of safely, and if I choose not to remove it, I need to maintain the paint to prevent degradation that would lead to risks mentioned in the report.

Blah blah yadi yada aside, the TLDR was that it wasn't a big deal, but we went back to day 1 of the cooling period because of this, so the wait continued.

The notary finally came back with the date to sign the Acte de Vente, which means I can finally get my keys and be a full-fledged homeowner. This was almost 2 months after signing my Compromis de Vente, and when they e-mailed me with the appointment, I hadn't paid yet.

"I will send you the transfer instructions as soon as I get it," said the notary assistant. And she did send it over to me as soon as she could, less than a week before signing the acte.

For those not familiar with international money transfers, that's a freaking tight deadline. If I make any mistakes in planning my international transfer, I will have to delay signing the Acte de Vente and the collection of my keys.

I was very happy to follow the transfer instructions and send the money over internationally, using Wise as my to-go trusted money transfer service (Not an ad, have been using them for years, love them to bits). 

It is important to note that there is a limit to what Wise can transfer before you're subjected to checks. Currently, this is set at 100,000 GBP, which is about S$170.000. Since that was a relatively large amount of money, plus my own bank having a hard limit of S$200,000 for instant PayNow transfers, I had to strategically split my payment into two.

To simplify things, I made a transfer of S$170,000 to France from Singapore, and paid the remaining amount with my hard-earned euros in my European account. Wise is regulated and compliant in both France and Singapore, and France has pretty strict regulations thanks to TRACFIN (the anti-money laundering association in France). 

The money needs to be in the notary's bank account before the signing of the acte, so this was the best solution.

Many readers might question why I wouldn't just send the money directly from my Singapore bank to France, and it's two simple reasons why. One, the bank's exchange rate sucks. Two, Singapore banks are not regulated in Europe nor have robust banking infrastructures internationally, which will result in delays from additional checks and not meeting regulations. 

A middleman service like Wise which is regulated in both Singapore and Europe (and many other countries) will make transfers safer and quicker. So if you're buying overseas properties and wondering what's the best way to get your money over, I highly recommend Wise. 

At the time of writing, to my knowledge, no bank is that well-connected internationally, because different entities have their own infrastructure and policies. But I don't want to nerd out on banking in this article. 

Basically, banking and money transfers are two separate products. I will use the bank to keep my money, and use a specialised money transfer service to transfer my money, end of story.

The time had come for me to sign the Acte de Vente, and before the signing, I had to visit the apartment one last time as a visitor to confirm the state of things (like the apartment not being blown away from a tornado) before signing the ownership transfer.

The agent has kindly scheduled the viewing first thing in the morning, with the seller present as well. We took a look at the electricity and water metre readings, realised there might be a small leak somewhere, but decided to pretty much go ahead with the purchase because I'll be renovating the studio anyway.

The seller was so kind enough to give me two surprises; The first, was a guidebook in English about settling down in the region, a vintage 1996 copy, so old that the contents of the book mentioned French frac, which doesn't exist anymore. The second gift, the original wooden door to the attic that she preserved and kept for decades. She decided to leave it with me in the garage instead.

She also let me browse her photo album documenting her renovation of the attic apartment. I won't show everything to protect her privacy, but here's one of the photos to show you what the attic was like before she renovated it.

During the signing of the Acte de Vente, we went through the documents and the conditions of sale once more. It's not too different from the Compromis de Vente, except that there are more details on the additional fees I needed to pay due to the co-ownership transfer.

The signing went smoothly, the keys were handed over to me, and the real estate agent was very kind to gift myself and the seller a beautiful bottle of Cremant (sparkling wine). We are in France, and congratulations to me, I am a homeowner now.

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This article was first published in Stackedhomes.