Buying a house and land in the French Alps - where do I start?

[mulranno]

decided to change our lifestyle and instead of the big extension on our small hse in the UK have decided to take a lifestyle decision instead we have put an offer on a house in the French Alps (2 bed needs work) with "building land" which we plan to sell on. have never done this before any advice out there or websites I should be accessing

Through work, I know a lot of people who have done this kind of thing.

'angloinfo' and 'frenchentree' are two web sites I keep hearing about but have never had a look

Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas do mortgages for non-residents / English speakers

Before you start throwing money around and making huge decisions - take a look at the expat board here on mn. The grass isn't always greener - and it certainly isn't if you've got no money left!

I'd be cautious about relying on the building land - there may be restrictions to its use which make it hard to sell on locally. Do you speak French ? Language and cultural differences can be really frustrating. Also what looks attractive in the busy ski and short summer holiday season may become a dead end hole come May and November.

Oh...I am not moving out there just looking to buy a holiday home like the Alps as we can get almost year round use ski and summer. Dont speak a word of the lingo but will learn and plan to rent the house out when we are not using it

Wow, would love second home in the alps, you lucky things. PS I think it's a great idea - always nice to have somewhere you can escape to.

I would employ a good bilingual solicitor who knows the French legal and planning system inside out and ask him/ her to check the building restrictions for the land carefully. It may be worthless if there is no hope of obtaining planning permission, or if some other factor (e.g., position in unprotected avalanche run-off area, to be dramatic) makes it un-buildable on.

PS you might want to ask the seller if there is a reason he/ her has not sought to sell the building land separately or develop it him/ herself.

Did you end up buying the house?