Taking the plunge....buying a chambres d'hotes. Advice needed please

Property & Home
,
1

Hi All,

My first post, so please go easy on me :slightly_smiling_face:

Lockdown has shown us that we want more out of life and after a lot of reflection, we have decided we want to set up home in France, running a Chambres d’hotes and enjoying all the benefits of living in France.

Background, we love working hard, both work in marketing so recognise the need to find a unique position and have just finished renovation project all done by ourselves, so confidence is high on being able to take on our next challenge.

We have some equity, some savings, but we are really at a crossroads on how to finance the rest of the purchase. Resi mortgage, commercial mortgage etc etc, we cant seem to find the best place to go for some advice and find whats going to be suitable for us.

Main things we could really do with some advice on is:

  1. Can we get a resi mortgage and still run a Chambres d’hotes
  2. Are commercial mortgages a realistic way to finance a chambres d’hotes - I suspect this means full business plans (when we haven’t done this before and will be using transferrable skills to make this a success)
  3. Do you know of a good mortgage broker, we can speak to for some advice on our situation
  4. Do you have any experience about financing a chambres d’hotes when you are not purchasing with cash and what the process was like

Any of the above, you can help with would be amazing.

Look forward to hearing from you

Ed

2

Not advice but a couple of points that might help you.

First, lending is more regulated in France than in the uk for instance.
Under French law lenders are obliged to ensure that an individual’s
total repayments do not exceed one third of their income. Any bank you
apply to for a mortgage or personal loan will want to see full details of
your income and any other loans you are paying off and your other
commitments.

But second, French banks will not normally offer a residential mortgage on a
property that is or has until recently been registered as a gite business.

You do not mention Brexit so presumably you will not be affected. Good luck with your plans. It is a brave time to be thinking of entering the tourist industry.

2 Likes
3

There are all sorts of rules for the running of Chambres d’Hotes, not relating to finance.
For instance, if you are going to offer evening meals, you are supposed to eat with your guests, this is to differentiate yourselves from hotels.
Have you thought about the cleaning routine required because of Covid?

1 Like