Reader TTS

SPECIALIST AGENTS CAN PAY UP TO 60% OF THEIR PROPERTY'S VALUE WITHIN WEEKS THROUGH A NEW INITIATIVE Property owners looking for interim finance until their house sells can now receive

up to 60% of its value within three weeks thanks to an initiative being pioneered in France by specialist finance agents. Called vente avec complément de prix, investors effectively buy the

house from its owner, who then has up to a year to sell the property and receive the remaining 40% of cash from their house. One of the agencies leading the charge with this offer,

PraxiFinance, says the cost of such a deal is around 6% of the final selling price. Read more: Good news for buyers and sellers as French mortgage rates fall and are open to negotiation “It

is more expensive than many bridging loans from banks, but getting a fast bridging loan from a bank in France is not possible for most people,” Ella Intini of PraxiFinance told The

Connexion. “Banks have their own strict procedures to follow and if you do not fall into the categories on the forms they have – for example if you do not have a tax residency in France – it

takes longer and the chance of being turned down at the end of the process is high.” She said some people use the vente avec complément de prix solution to quickly close on another

property, but they are in a minority. “Most people use it because they are in a tight corner and need money quickly – to pay the taxman, or to deal with family emergencies are common

examples,” she said. “Again, for people in that sort of situation, getting a bank loan can be complicated, and the length of time it takes to sell a house in France has gone up.” If the

house does not sell after a year, the arrangement can usually be extended for up to five years, although most investors have a three year limit. Vendors can stay in their house after signing

the deal by paying a rent to the investor. “If a house has not sold after three years there is a big problem with it – either it has special features not everyone wants to pay for, or the

price is too high,” Ms Intini said. To qualify for vente avec complément de prix, the property being sold must have a minimum value of at least €400,000 and be situated in metropolitan

France. “Most of our investors also insist on the property being in an area with a dynamic property market, so it will be difficult for a restored rural farmhouse in the middle of Aveyron,”

said Ms Intini. Read more: Is French property slump ending? : Key points in latest notaire review Investors who work with PraxiFinance are a mix of individuals, many of whom come from the

world of finance, or large property funds looking to diversify their portfolios. They almost all visit properties themselves before committing to the deal, and although the process can start

with the vendor’s estimate of the property’s worth, it has to be backed by an official valuation from a surveyor. Similar conditions apply to the handful of other companies in France which

specialise in vente avec complément de prix arrangements. Ms Intini said the arrangement was relatively unknown before being “discovered” in the last 18 months, when the property market

tightened in many parts of France.