1. Overview

Buying an old wreck to restore in France is the dream of many international buyers.

Not only does it provide access to the property market at a generally modest price but it is an exciting adventure, and it also provides the opportunity to place your own stamp on the property.

However, property renovation is not necessarily a cheaper option than buying an already restored property.

Most who tread this path underestimate the costs of renovation and often leave themselves in financial difficulty.

Accordingly, we devote many of these pages to a review of the different forms of financial assistance that may be available to you.

The pages will be of particular interest if you are relocating to France on a permanent basis and you propose to use registered building professionals to carry out the work.

They will also be of interest if you are proposing to let property in France.

We also tell you how you can get initial free architectural and planning advice for your project and how you should then go about appointing your own architect.

We provide some guidance on what you should be looking out for in building estimates as well as some limited pricing and costing information.

Building control standards in France are less precise than is the case in the UK, but we take you through the main quality standards that apply.

We also show you the building guarantees that you should be looking for from the builder and what to do in the event of a dispute.

Next: Grants for Property Renovation