Notes on the IFP mortgage calculator
Introduction
As you know French mortgage companies lend on a slightly different basis to those based in the UK. You can take advantage of low European interest rates but you must also satisfy the French consumer law to ensure you can afford to repay the mortgage and maintain a good standard of living.
How much can I borrow?
To ensure that you can afford to repay the French mortgage your total outgoings (debt ratio) must not exceed 33% of your gross income*. To give an approximation of how much you can borrow please use the mortgage calculators below.
* There is some flexibility in this system and the debt ratio can be extended up to 40% dependant on your earnings and circumstances. Please contact us to learn more.
If you are thinking of borrowing money to buy a house in France, this calculator will help to determine the monthly payments for a standard mortgage, where the interest rate and monthly payments are fixed over the term of the loan.
The calculator will further display (controlled from the Display Options panel), three different types of calculations for the mortgage:
- Yearly Mortgage Payment Schedule - a calendar of payments due over the whole period of the loan, summarised by year.
- Monthly Mortgage Payment Schedule - similar to the above, but all monthly payments are shown.
- Mortgage Comparison - monthly payments for mortgages with different terms (i.e. length of loan, amount borrowed and interest rate).
Note: although this calculator is for Euro loans to buy houses in France, the calculation is a fairly standard one, and the same calculator can be used for US Dollar, British Pounds or any currency mortgages of the fixed rate and payment type.
Inputting the mortgage terms to the calculator
To use the calculator simply replace the default values with your own.
Note: in all cases, just input the figures, without currency symbols, commas or percentage signs.
- Loan Amount: this is the amount of money (in Euros) you intend to borrow. Example - if you are looking to borrow Euro 1.5m, then input, 1500000
- Interest Rate: the interest rate charged by the lending institution. Example - if the fixed rate for the loan is 8.5%, then input, 8.5
- Mortgage Length: the length of the mortgage, in number of years. This must be a whole number (e.g. 2.5 years is not possible), and the minimum is 1 year. Example - if the loan period is 15 years, then input, 15
- Start Date: select the month and year for the first payment of the loan.
Having input the values above, then choose which type of calculation you would like to see (see below).
Display Options
Yearly Mortgage Payment Schedule: This will display a calendar of payments due over the whole period of the loan, summarised by year. For each year, the table displays:
- The year
- Beginning Balance : the balance of the loan (excluding interest payments) at the beginning of the year.
- Payments : total of payments made through the year. (N.B. Column 3 = Column 4 + Column 5).
- Principal : the proportion of the payments made that is attributable to repayment of the loan principal.
- Interest : the proportion of the payments made that is attributable to interest charged.
- Cumulative Interest : the accumulated interested charged from the beginning of the loan period.
- The sum total of all payments made for the duration of the loan, is then shown in the final row.
Monthly Mortgage Payment Schedule: This is a similar calculation to that above, but here the payment schedule is shown for every month, with annual sub-totals given also.
Mortgage Comparison: This automatically calculates the monthly payments for a range of terms, symmetrical around those input for the given mortgage. (The input terms are highlighted in green in each table). For this calculation there are stricter rules on what values can be input, as follows:
- Loan Amount: must be greater than Euro 10,000 Example - if the given mortgage is for an amount of Euro 800,000, then calculations will also be made for 9 amounts, ranging from Euro 300,000 to Euro 1.3m
- Interest Rate: must be greater than 1.5% Example - if the given mortgage interest rate is 5.5%, then 7 different rates will also be calculated, ranging from 4.75 to 6.25.
- Mortgage Length: must be 3 years or greater. Example - if the given mortgage has a 15 year term, the monthly payments for 10 and 20 years will also be calculated.