France's medical-questionnaire exemption for eligible mortgage insurance requires no more than €200,000 of insured borrowing per person and repayment before the borrower's 60th birthday. Those are the two cumulative tests set out by the official AERAS scheme. The headline property price is not the test.
That small distinction deserves attention before you finance an Alpine apartment. Two buyers can share a mortgage yet insure very different proportions of it. The choice affects the protection left to the survivor, the paperwork and the premium. A cheaper quotation may reflect less cover rather than better value.
For a non-resident second-home buyer, the sensible starting point is therefore a question: if one of us could no longer contribute, what would the other need the policy to do? The rules and official guidance below were checked on 17 September 2026.
Start with the bank's actual requirements
French borrower insurance, assurance emprunteur, can cover loan repayments or outstanding capital when an insured event occurs. Although it is not a universal legal requirement, banks generally require it for a mortgage. The French economy ministry lists death, loss of autonomy, permanent disability and temporary incapacity among the possible protections. Your own contract determines which apply.
Ask for the lender's fiche personnalisée before collecting quotations. As ABE Infoservice explains, this records the cover and insured proportions the bank requires for your particular borrowing. It gives an alternative insurer a concrete specification to meet. Without it, comparing offers can become a contest between attractive numbers attached to different promises.
Then request the insurance notice itself. ANIL, France's housing information agency, distinguishes this contractual document from the summary information sheet: the notice explains the insured risks and how a claim is triggered. Keep both. A neat summary is useful for comparison; it cannot answer every awkward question about a claim.
Tell the adviser how you intend to use the property, who will borrow and how each person earns their income. A family holiday home with occasional letting deserves an accurate description, not whichever box happens to produce the quickest illustration.
Two borrowers do not automatically mean equal protection
The insured proportion allocated to each borrower is the quotité. The French Banking Federation's Les Clés de la Banque guide gives a useful example: with 50% cover on each borrower, the death of one results in the insurer paying half the outstanding balance, subject to the policy. The surviving borrower still has debt to service.
Covering each borrower for 100% of the loan offers a different result for an accepted death claim: the outstanding mortgage can be repaid in full. It does not mean the family receives twice the loan. Nor should these percentages be confused with ownership shares in the property; discuss the ownership deed separately with the notaire.
Our practical suggestion is to start with the household after a loss. Would the survivor keep working? Would they want to keep the apartment? Could they afford the remaining mortgage as well as their main home? Do not let an equal split stand in for that conversation simply because it looks tidy.
Ask for the allocation to be shown separately for each guarantee. Agree the protection with the lender and adviser, then compare its cost. Changing the proportions halfway through a quotation exercise changes the thing you are pricing.
Apply the medical-questionnaire test to each person
AERAS describes the exemption by reference to the insured share of the cumulative outstanding credit, not merely the new loan. Eligible consumer mortgages finance residential property, or mixed residential and professional premises. Both the amount and repayment-age conditions must hold. Existing insured borrowing therefore needs to be included in the assessment.
ABE Infoservice also flags a technical exception: this statutory rule does not bind insurers governed by the Code de la mutualité. Have the provider confirm the regime applying to the proposed policy and your eligibility. Being under the financial threshold is not a reason to guess at a form.
There is a temptation to reduce an insured share to avoid medical underwriting. That would be a poor place to begin. First decide what protection the household needs; then establish the underwriting route. If a health history complicates the application, ANIL points buyers towards AERAS. Ask about that process early, rather than assuming a more difficult application means a purchase is impossible.
For a couple of different ages, build a separate line for each person: insured amount, other insured loans and age at the final repayment. One partner's eligibility tells you nothing conclusive about the other's.
Compare the premium over the years you expect to borrow
The economy ministry's mortgage-document guidance says the standard insurance information sheet should show estimated costs over the first eight years and the full loan term. Both figures matter. Someone expecting to retain their mortgage for decades has a different comparison to make from a buyer planning an early repayment.
Ask for the full premium schedule, not simply the opening monthly amount. ABE Infoservice explains that premiums may be based on initial capital or the remaining balance, and can vary during the loan. Read the actual euro payments over your expected borrowing period. Do not assume a falling mortgage balance guarantees a falling insurance bill.
The mortgage's taux annuel effectif global, or TAEG, includes the insurance guarantees required to obtain the loan. Keep optional cover visible alongside it when assessing your household's total outgoings. A headline borrowing rate alone cannot tell you what will leave the bank account.
For each quotation, use the same borrowers, loan term, insured proportions and start date. Record which guarantees are compulsory, which you have chosen, and any exclusions. Only then put the totals side by side. This is an exercise in comparing contracts, not a prediction that one provider will always be cheaper.
AERAS adds a useful caution about the standard information sheet: it is an information document, not an insurance offer. Keep the eventual acceptance and policy schedule with the comparison you used to make your decision.
Check the overseas life and the skiing
The application should describe your real life. Give the adviser your country of residence, occupation, working arrangements and the activities you expect to pursue. For a buyer who works abroad and spends holidays in France, our suggested questions are quite literal: can you join this policy while resident where you live, and what happens if illness or an accident occurs there?
Ask how a claim would be documented abroad. Would the insurer accept local medical reports? Might an examination in France be required? What evidence of earnings or inability to work would a self-employed applicant need? These are questions for the particular insurer, not reasons to assume that all non-residents face identical conditions.
Then describe the skiing properly. Piste skiing, ski touring and off-piste outings should be named individually in your enquiry, with any competition or professional activity disclosed. ABE's insurance guidance specifically warns readers to examine sporting exclusions. A reassuring reference to winter sports in a conversation is less useful than the relevant paragraph in the accepted contract.
For an existing policy, retrieve the original declarations before assuming they describe your activities today. Ask what must be reported if circumstances change. Keep the written response alongside the policy rather than relying on a recollection from the mortgage appointment.
A useful way to test the wording is to describe a realistic situation to the adviser and ask which clause answers it. The purpose is to understand the promise you are buying, including its limits, while everyone still has time to explain it.
You can change insurer, but keep the cover continuous
The Lemoine reforms allow borrowers within the applicable French consumer-mortgage framework to change insurance at any time. The economy ministry confirms that cancellation is free and the replacement must satisfy the bank's required guarantees. The bank's own insurance is not automatically the only acceptable option.
Service Public explains the procedure: send the substitution request to the lender as well as dealing with the insurer. A refusal must be explained. When the lender agrees, it has 10 working days after receiving the request to amend the credit agreement, including the revised TAEG.
Coordinate the dates in writing. Retain the lender's acceptance, the new policy's effective date and confirmation that the previous insurance ends as intended. Our recommendation is to track this as a small completion exercise, with named responsibility for each document. Simply cancelling a direct debit does not establish replacement cover.
Buyers borrowing through a company should check which rules govern their loan. Ask the adviser to confirm the applicable framework in writing before relying on consumer-mortgage rights. The ownership structure's name alone is not enough to settle the point.
For a purchase still under way, allow the lender and adviser time to assess an external policy before your contractual financing deadline. A right to choose is useful; a complete, timely file makes that choice easier to implement.
Bring the insurance decision into the property budget
Before making an offer, assemble one financing file containing the bank's requirements, both borrowers' proposed cover, the premium schedule and the outstanding questions. Keep the property budget beside it: purchase costs, furnishings, building charges and the cash reserve you want left afterwards. Insurance is one recurring commitment within that wider plan.
This approach applies to both resale and new-build purchases. For an off-plan home, ask the lender and insurer to confirm when cover starts and how premiums work while funds are being released. Obtain the answer for your specific loan; do not assume the date you receive the keys is the date every financing cost begins.
A good final check is to ask each borrower to explain the arrangement without looking at the quotation. Who is covered, for what proportion, against which events, and until when? If the answers differ, there is another conversation to have before signing. The mountain will still be there after the paperwork.
If you are matching a financing budget to an Alpine home, explore DOMOSNO's new-build ski properties or tell us about your property search. We can help narrow the shortlist while your lender or insurance adviser confirms the cover appropriate to your circumstances.
