Getting a French Mortgage as Americans, Episode 599

Categories: Moving to France, Provence

Antoine and Annie Ksadzhikyan from Los Angeles did something most people wouldn't dare: they bought a two-bedroom apartment in Nice, France, without ever setting foot inside it. No in-person visit, no open house, just FaceTime and a lot of research. In episode 599 of Join Us in France, they walk me through the whole process — the search, the offer, the financing, and what life actually looks like when you split your time between LA and the Côte d'Azur.

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How the Adventure Started

The idea came from a 2019 trip to Paris, Nice, and Greece. Antoine and Annie arrived in Nice with their young son Remy, wandered into an Italian restaurant, and ended up chatting with the Armenian owner about real estate. Something clicked. Nice had the beach, the city center, the international airport, and easy access to Italy. They wanted a pied-à-terre — a base for exploring France and Europe — and Nice made sense.

They came home, started researching, and emailed ten to fifteen agencies. A few didn't respond at all. If you've tried buying property in France as an American from overseas, that won't surprise you — French agencies often won't take you seriously until you walk in and shake hands. One agent did respond, and they kept the conversation going until March 2020, when the pandemic shut everything down.

The Sight-Unseen Offer

They never gave up on the project. While the world was in lockdown, Antoine spent months studying the Nice market online. He knew which neighborhoods he wanted — specifically the Carré d'Or, the walkable heart of the city — and which streets to avoid based on what you'd see from the balcony. When a two-bedroom apartment came back on the market in May 2020, he was ready.
They connected with Diran Doulakian at Keller Williams, an Armenian agent who showed them the apartment via FaceTime. One Monday morning in Los Angeles — Antoine was at a tire shop — their agent called to say the seller had accepted. The whole thing, from FaceTime tour to signed offer, took two hours.
The apartment came furnished, which is common in France for renovated properties and was a practical advantage for buyers who had never visited.

Getting a French mortgage as Americans

Here is where it gets interesting for anyone considering buying property in France as an American. Antoine and Annie needed financing for 60% of the purchase price — French banks typically require around 40% down from American buyers. They hired a courtier, a loan broker named Jerome, who shopped their dossier to eleven banks. Ten rejected them. The obstacle was not their finances but the fact that they had to do everything remotely during the pandemic. French banks, which are already conservative, were skeptical of people they had never met in person.

One bank said yes, and they ended up with a 20-year loan at 1.8% interest. That was a pandemic-era rate and no longer available today — Antoine mentioned that French rates are currently around 4%, still lower than what you'd find in the US right now.

A few things Antoine wants Americans to know before approaching French banks: French lenders care about income, not savings. A million euros sitting in a bank account means nothing to them if your income doesn't support the payments. They also factor in age — a 20-year loan requires that you'll still be under a certain age at the end of it. Antoine was 45 at the time of the purchase. Had they waited even a few years, they would have been offered a shorter term with significantly higher monthly payments.

Life Between Two Worlds

The Ksadzhikyans spend summers in Nice — Annie and Remy up to six or seven weeks, Antoine joining for about three. The apartment is 200 meters from the beach. They walk to the market, the bakery, the café. They have made friends over the years. It is a different pace from Los Angeles, and deliberately so.

As Antoine put it, he would do it all over again. They went back in January 2021 to see the apartment in person for the first time, and the moment they walked in, they knew they had made the right call.

Magazine segment: How to Make Plan Your Days in France?

I share thoughts from a recent two-week road trip through France, from Toulouse to Metz. The question I tackled: how do you make the most of your time when visiting? Business hours, realistic visit durations, the case for staying at least two nights in most places, and why you should always check museum hours before assuming anything is open.

More episodes about moving to France

#JoinUsInFrance, #FrancePodcast, #Francophile, #FranceTravelTips, #NiceFrance, #CotedAzur, #FrenchRiviera, #BuyingInFrance, #ExpatsInFrance, #PiedATerre, #FrenchRealEstate, #MoveToFrance, #AmericansAbroad, #FranceLife, #SightUnseen, #FrenchMortgage, #RealFrance, #VisitNice, #FrancophileLife, #FranceTravel

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Categories: Moving to France, Provence