Abdé invested in France from Luxembourg

Abdé received four or five loan offers. Three were poor: a 30% deposit, very strict criteria, and even one bank demanding a pledge over the full price. Another looked fair, but reading it in detail he saw it did not cover the works. The last was excellent.

The flat had two bedrooms. Abdé created a third and let it as a house share, each room with its own rent. One of them has its own bathroom and toilet, an extra comfort compared with the other two, which share theirs.

The works worried him, all the more from a distance. Abdé threw himself into them: wiring plan, layout plan, following up with the workers. He spent evenings reading up on the boiler, heating, windows and energy ratings. For his search, he also relied heavily on virtual viewings.

Creating the third bedroom meant touching a wall. In a 1907 building, a structural engineer studied the original plans: even a wall that does not look load-bearing may have become so over time. The owners’ general meeting had to approve it. Abdé added a condition precedent to the preliminary contract and attended the meeting before signing it. The works came to about €50,000.