About caramellos

Status:

Expatriate  

Gender:

Female

Currently Lives:

Citizen Of:

United States

Dual Citizen Of:

United Kingdom

Some Forum Posts:

France: Purchasing a house:

Hi again, My partner and I are homeowners in the UK, and while he grew up with the concept that flat living was the way to go and big cities were preferable, after having found enjoyment in the sleepy village near a big city nature of our current location and feeling the frustration of confined UK housing, we are certainly keen to purchase a house outside of Paris in a relatively nearby town or city. We would like to know what sort of costs and hurdles we face in acquiring a mortgage, we are still a relatively young couple so while we are selling our house at a profit, we will still need a mortgage and would like to save some of the money we get for our daughter and other life events. When playing with estimators online, we saw there was some ridiculous fee like 25,000 euros for a 300,000 euro home in Paris, does this hold true in the surrounding areas? Are we misinterpreting something? We viewed it as akin to a particularly egregious version of Stamp Duty at the time, but may just be ignorant of the process in general. How do mortgages and the process work in France? We will also look to potentially add on to a property we purchase. In the UK this is relatively easy due to the popularity of former council housing and the lack of space otherwise, but my partner's parents mentioned struggling intensely to get a small building added to their vacation property in the west of France - is it difficult and expensive to simply get permission to extend one's house or modify the structure?

France: Moving to Paris, but where?:

Hi again, I posted a year ago when my partner and I were looking to over just before or after the birth of our daughter to the south of France. Our daughter is now going to be 7-8 months by the time we make the move, as we had essentially decided not to, pollution and care for cities in France when compared to much of England was quite depressing to us. My partner is a parisian native but has lived in boulogne most of his life so only knows the city itself. We are still keen to avoid pollution ano areas that seem seedy to us by English or American standards. Fortunately for us this is contrary philosophy to why most people move to Paris and housing in cities surrounding Paris seem to be decently affordable compared to the prices of cities near London that we dealt with up until now. We are hoping to get advice on good cities to live in around Paris. Could anyone advise if a particular city west or south of Paris has any combination of the following? -Easy transport links into western Paris, public or car -A village or close knit atmosphere -less pollution than main city Paris (neither of us are asthmatic but we notice the pollution right away when we visit family) -residential areas with decent terrain area per house (probably 500 or greater but 400 can be acceptable for the right house), but also able to walk to local amenities -Low crime I will create a separate topic to address our financial queries.

France: Pregnant and Moving to France:

Hi, I am an American, 10 weeks pregnant living in the UK currently with dual US/UK citizenship. As my family is in the US and my partner's family is in France, we have no one in the UK really but each other, so we've decided we want to move to be closer to family and France is the most logical choice as neither of us have to get a visa to settle there. We are considering moving to the south east of France, preferrably within 2 hours drive of Beziers but we aren't 100% on where. We are both in IT, with me being a system admin and my partner being a senior java engineer. We've seen there's a technology hub around Sophia Antipolis which may be a bit far from where we're looking, but we may consider it if that's where the jobs are and it pays well enough. There are a few worries and uncertainties for us, which can be summed up in the following: 1. We have a mortgage on our current house, we know it's possible to sell at a small profit (though possibly not to the full extent of our initial downpayment on the house), but we're not sure when, and if we should sell before securing employment or purchasing a house in France. If we did this, we would downsize our belongings and rent until we found something, but would it make more sense to sell our house after we've already confirmed employment and housing in France and just move straight across? We live in a big city with a housing crisis already, so I do not doubt we will be able to take our house from advertising to completion within a few months, but there is the worry of needing to get everything done in time so that we do not end up spending or wasting excess money. Our budget will be tight and all money from our house here will go into moving and purchasing a place in France. 2. Is it sensible to make this move before or after the baby comes? I worry about setting up French antenatal care, I have been learning French for the past year but I would still not be able to arrange these appointments myself in French, though my partner or a relative potentially could. At the same time though, is there any sense in sitting around waiting for 3 months? If I give birth here, it will just be my partner and I raising the baby, to have his family nearby for moral support would be far more preferred. 3. Are there any limitations for me as a dual UK/US citizen that would prevent me from settling in France? My partner and I are unmarried and it may be a couple of years before we can do so, but with my UK citienship I should currently be allowed under EU law to come and go freely in the EU. Any advice on any or all of these points would be deeply appreciated!

Date Joined:

6/18/2015

Total Posts:

5

Posts/Day:

0.01