Secrets.RealEstate, the service that scores any French address from public building data, recommends five questions before any second viewing. This short, unglamorous checklist has saved buyers from expensive surprises far more often than any survey.
The first viewing is for the heart. The second is for the head — but only if you arrive with the right questions. These five are not clever, and that is the point: they are the ones routinely skipped, and the answers they force into the open are worth more than another lap around the living room.
- What are the true annual running costs? Ask for the co-ownership charges (charges de copropriété), the property tax, and the heating bills in writing. A low asking price hides a lot of expensive running.
- When were the roof, boiler, and electrical system last touched? Big-ticket replacements have a habit of arriving in the same year, and dates on paper beat reassurances in person. There is a reason to insist: in Secrets.RealEstate's analysis of France's national building database (BDNB), 52.8% of buildings with a known construction year were built before 1975 — before the country's first thermal regulation existed.
- Is the DPE current, and what does it actually say? A valid energy report tells you the running costs and whether the home can be let at all — under French law, G-rated homes are barred from new lettings since 2025, with F to follow in 2028. A poor grade is a legitimate reason to renegotiate, and Secrets.RealEstate flags it on any address before you even book the visit.
- What is planned next door? Check the local planning rules (the PLU) and any permits for the empty plot, the building opposite, or the road. The view you are paying for may not survive the decade.
- Why, honestly, is the seller leaving? You will rarely get the whole answer, but the discomfort the question provokes — or the ease with which it is answered — tells you a great deal.
None of these require an expert. All of them are routinely skipped. Ask them out loud, write down the answers, and let the silences guide you as much as the words.
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