Buying property in France remotely: the buyer’s guide, from search to deed

Can you buy a house in France without visiting it?

Yes. No rule obliges you to view a property before buying it, and every step can be taken without going there in person: the offer and the preliminary sale agreement (compromis de vente) by electronic signature or power of attorney, the authentic deed by remote notarial power of attorney or, within France, at a notaire (the public officer who draws up the deed) near where you live. No condition of nationality or residence applies. Whether it is a chalet in Megève, a house in Arcachon or an apartment in Nice, buying remotely follows the same mechanics.

The law protects the remote buyer just as it does the buyer who views in person: the mandatory diagnostic reports and the risk report (état des risques) annexed to the compromis, a ten-day cooling-off period, and checks by the notaire on the title, the planning position and pre-emption rights.

The law cannot look at the property for you, however. Between private individuals, the deed of sale generally excludes the warranty against hidden defects (garantie des vices cachés), unless the seller acted in bad faith: what has been neither seen nor checked is bought as it stands. When buying remotely, three things cannot be delegated:

• the written brief, because only you know what you could not live with day to day;
• the decision, taken on documents, on video and, preferably, after a decisive viewing;
• the authorisation of transfers, always to the notaire and never on the strength of a mere email.

What are the steps of a remote property purchase in France?

A remote purchase follows the steps of a conventional one; only the way each is taken changes:

1. Framing the project, by video call or phone, then a written brief.
2. Financing, confirmed by an agreement in principle before the first offer.
3. Shortlisting from documents: listings, professional networks, off-market properties, prices compared with actual sales.
4. Live video pre-viewings, with an analysis sheet for each property.
5. The documents gathered before any travel: diagnostics, risk report, co-ownership, planning.
6. The decisive viewing, grouped into a single trip.
7. The written offer and the negotiation, with no payment of any kind.
8. The compromis, signed electronically or by power of attorney, followed by a ten-day cooling-off period.
9. The period subject to conditions: mortgage, pre-emption rights, further documents.
10. The authentic deed, by power of attorney or, within France, at a notaire near you, with funds wired to the notaire alone.

Each phase is set out in the steps of buying property in France.

How do you prepare a remote property purchase?

By fixing three things in writing before any search begins: the full budget, the financing and the brief. Remotely, this framing replaces the exploratory viewings that a buyer on the spot makes without thinking about it.

The full budget, not just the price

• the purchase price, once negotiated;
• the acquisition costs, commonly called “notary fees”: around 7 to 8% of the price on existing homes, 2 to 3% on new-build, to be worked out with the calculator;
• renovation works, priced before the offer as soon as they go beyond a cosmetic refresh;
• the trip for the decisive viewing, and the exchange rate if your funds are in another currency;
• holding costs: property tax (taxe foncière), service charges, insurance, upkeep and, for a second home, a residence tax (taxe d’habitation) that communes in high-demand areas (zones tendues) may raise by 5 to 60%.

Financing, above all from abroad

In 2026, mortgage rates stand between 3.2 and 3.5% over 20 years, and banks apply the rules of the Haut Conseil de stabilité financière, France’s financial stability council: a debt-to-income ratio of 35% at most, insurance included, and a term of 25 years at most. Some also lend to non-residents, generally with stricter requirements: a larger down payment, income that must be documented and sometimes translated, a longer assessment. Obtain an agreement in principle before the first offer: a seller who has never met you will judge how serious you are by that document.

The written brief, the filter for the whole search

What is not written down will not be filtered. The brief sets the use of the property, the maximum budget, costs included, the areas down to neighbourhood level, the type of property, the essential criteria and those that can be negotiated, the practicalities of daily life (station, airport, schools, fibre broadband) and the calendar, with two or three possible windows for your trip. If you are leaving Paris for Lyon, Bordeaux or the coast, the guide to leaving the Paris region helps you choose the city before the property.

Viewing by video: what the screen shows, and what it hides

A well-run video viewing rules out unsuitable properties without any travel; it is not enough to decide on. The image conveys the layout, the apparent condition and the finishes; it flattens sound, ignores smells and misleads on room sizes.

Insist on a live viewing, not a film

An edited film shows only what the seller has chosen. A live viewing by video call lets you direct the camera: open a cupboard, move in on a crack, step out onto the landing, all without wide-angle mode.

The costliest blind spot is often the season: a villa at Cap Ferret filmed in July says nothing about the peninsula in winter, and a chalet in Courchevel filmed in summer says nothing about its access under snow. The guides to buying in the mountains and buying by the sea cover these questions in detail.

What should you check on documents before travelling?

Everything that is written down: diagnostics, the risk report, co-ownership documents, planning documents and price. Gathered before the decisive viewing, these documents reveal what no viewing can show.

In co-ownership, if the documents that the law requires to be annexed to the compromis are missing, the ten-day cooling-off period runs only from the day after they are provided.

The price, address by address

A price can be checked from a distance just as well as on the spot: the actual sales recorded by the tax authority, the DVF register, are public and can be searched address by address. They tell you what buyers have paid, whereas a listing tells you what the seller hopes to get.

A city median is not enough. In Biarritz, the median price of houses sold in 2025 came to €7,900/m², yet a tenth of those sales closed below €4,700/m² and a tenth above €14,200/m² (DVF / DGFiP via data.gouv.fr, April 2026 release, 2025 sales). Between those bounds, the address, the view, the condition and the plot set the price: only a sale-by-sale comparison shows whether an asking price holds. Home Select publishes its market benchmarks as open data.

Making an offer and signing the compromis de vente remotely

The purchase offer and the compromis can be signed without travelling, by electronic signature or by power of attorney, with the same effect as in person: the Code civil (the French Civil Code) recognises an electronic signature on the same footing as a handwritten one, provided the process identifies the signatory and guarantees the integrity of the document. What changes is the care taken over the reading: signing online takes a moment, but a misread clause binds you for years.

The written offer states the price, the conditions precedent and a period of validity. It comes with no payment: the Civil Code makes void any unilateral undertaking to buy a property for which a payment is demanded or received (article 1589-1).

Once the compromis is signed, a non-professional buyer has ten days to withdraw, starting the day after the compromis is notified to them, without having to give a reason. Pay the deposit to the notaire, never to the seller. Before signing, check three clauses:

• the mortgage condition precedent: a month at minimum by law, often 45 to 60 days in practice, and more for a non-resident;
• the long-stop date for the deed, compatible with the arrival of your funds;
• the furniture included, and the possibility of a final walk-through just before the deed.

How does remote notary signing in France work, and how do you protect your funds?

Remote notary signing in France takes two main routes, which let you sign the authentic deed without going to the office that receives it: a notarial power of attorney taken by video call or, within France, signing at a notaire near where you live who takes part in the deed. Either way, the sale has the same effect as a signature in person, and funds are wired only to the notaire.

Remote notarial power of attorney

Since a decree of 20 November 2020, a notaire can draw up a power of attorney remotely: the notaire takes your consent by video call and you sign electronically. The power of attorney names who will sign for you, often a member of the notaire’s staff. From abroad, your notaire will tell you which form is accepted: a remote notarial power of attorney, or a power of attorney signed locally before a notary or an authorised official, then apostilled or legalised depending on the country.

A notaire near you

Within France, you can sign at a notaire of your choice near where you live, who takes part in the deed alongside the notaire handling the sale, without increasing the costs: the two notaires share the fees for the deed.

Funds: wire only to the notaire

On the day of the deed, the price and the costs must be available in the notaire’s account, and the notaire also checks where the money comes from; funds sent from abroad are therefore wired several days beforehand. Before any transfer, confirm the office’s bank details by telephone, on a number you have looked up yourself in the directory of notaires.

How do you manage a property bought remotely?

By arranging, before you sign, everything that will have to work without you. On the day of the deed, each link in the chain must be in place:

• energy, water and internet contracts and home insurance, taken out for the day of signing;
• keys, codes and instructions, handed to the person you have appointed;
• works: quotes signed remotely, the ten-year builder’s insurance certificate (assurance décennale) checked, photographic follow-up at each stage;
• letting: a long-term let follows the DPE timetable, while a furnished holiday let (meublé de tourisme) falls under the framework tightened by the law of 19 November 2024 (registration, the local authority’s rules, the co-ownership regulations).

If you entrust rental management to a professional, check that they hold a professional card bearing the “gestion immobilière” (property management) endorsement. For the rest, the Home Select concierge service takes over after the keys, with vetted providers: watching over the property in your absence, seasonal openings, coordination of works and administrative assistance, including for non-residents, billed by time spent and on a quote accepted before each assignment. For a holiday home, see also how to buy a second home.

How does Home Select run a search remotely?

Outside Île-de-France, Home Select runs the search under the direction of its management and draws on a network of 15,000 professional partners (agents, notaires, managing agents). The search is conducted remotely, video viewings included, up to the decisive viewing: you travel only for that, with the viewings of the shortlisted properties grouped into a single trip.

1. A first conversation by video call or phone, then the written brief; the search is launched within 24 hours.
2. The hunt across the whole market: Home Select monitors 1,700 listing sites automatically, receives at least 100 off-market properties every day from its partner network and makes its first proposals within 48 hours of the mandate being signed.
3. A commented video pre-viewing and an analysis sheet for every property shortlisted.
4. The price analysed address by address against DVF sales, then the negotiation, in which Home Select secures 6% off the asking price on average.
5. Securing the compromis (review, diagnostics, co-ownership) and coordinating the notaire, the mortgage broker and the surveyors.
6. Support through to the deed and afterwards: tradespeople, administrative formalities, settling in.

Home Select takes a search to an accepted offer in 45 days on average, with 3 viewings and about 15 hours of your time, against 40 viewings or more, 6 months and around 150 hours for a buyer searching alone. Home Select publishes its fees: 2.5% incl. VAT of the net purchase price (the price paid to the seller, excluding any agency commission) on the Exclusive offer (exclusive mandate), minimum €10,000 incl. VAT, for every budget; 1.5% incl. VAT on the Confidential offer (simple mandate), reserved for projects of €2m and above: the same full service, but only off-market properties are presented to you. Nothing is due before the purchase: everything is settled at the signing of the authentic deed.

Home Select’s search mandate is signed electronically, with a fourteen-day cooling-off period when it is concluded remotely; it renews month by month up to a limit of twelve months and can be terminated at any time on seven days’ notice (the mandate, clause by clause). The method is the same on the Côte d’Azur, in the Alps or on the Atlantic coast. The city pages, from the property finder in Nice and the property finder in Saint-Malo to Saint-Tropez, Megève, Annecy, Arcachon and Deauville, detail each market, with prices to back them up. If you are buying property in France from abroad, the page on an English-speaking property finder describes the same journey, run in English.