Southwest France Property is a real estate search agency based in Lectoure in the heart of Gascony in the Midi-Pyrénées. We do not affiliate ourselves to one agency but instead remain unbiased giving access to many reputable independent estate agencies which enables us to find the perfect French property for our clients. Our multilingual sales team fluent in English and French have many years experience in property sales. We are able to help you with every step of your house purchase, making it as simple as possible for you either to start a new life here in France, or to become the owner of your own beautiful second residence.

The compromis de vente is a preliminary contract which is signed when purchasing a house in France. Once signed, this is a legally binding contract between the purchaser and the vendor. A deposit, normally 10% of the purchase price, is paid to the notaire. Also at this stage any purchase conditions (clauses suspensives) are written into the compromis de vente. Following this stage the purchaser is given a seven day cooling off period in which to reflect their purchase.

The acte de vente is the final completion of the house purchase when the balance of the purchase price and the notaire’s fee are required. These are paid to the notaire before signing the acte de vente. Normally both the purchaser and vendor are present at the final signing. At this point you become the new owners of your dream home in France!

A notaire acts impartially between vendor and purchaser to conclude the transaction on behalf of the State.

Many property sales are handled by one notaire, and it is acceptable for the vendor’s notaire to act for both the purchaser and the vendor. However the purchaser may appoint his own notaire at no additional cost and the notary fees are simply split between notaires. Notaires are required to have insurance to protect both their professional responsibilities and their clients against any errors.