The moment you sign the contrat de réservation on an off-plan ski apartment, your financial plan pivots from "save enough to buy" to something considerably more dynamic: a phased payment schedule that unfolds over the next 18 to 30 months, with your mortgage funds released in tranches rather than all at once. This catches a surprising number of non-resident buyers unprepared — not because the system is complicated, but because it works nothing like a standard residential mortgage in the UK, US, or Australia.
Understanding how French banks fund VEFA (Vente en l'État Futur d'Achèvement) purchases — and what the interim interest charge looks like on a monthly statement — puts you in a position to plan your cashflow properly, choose the right deferral structure, and avoid any gaps between a developer's payment demand and your bank's response time.
The Legal Framework Behind VEFA Stage Payments
VEFA stage payments are not a matter of developer preference — they are set by the French Code de la Construction et de l'Habitation. Article R.261-14 defines the maximum cumulative percentages a developer may call at each construction milestone:
- 35% of the total price on completion of foundations
- 70% when the building reaches weathertight stage (hors d'eau, hors d'air — roof on, windows in)
- 95% on completion of interior works
- 100% at delivery of the keys
These are ceiling figures. A developer may call less than the legal maximum at any given stage but cannot exceed it. On most French Alps new-build residences, the schedule tracks closely to these limits, which means your bank's disbursement pattern will follow the same milestones. The developer is also required by law to hold a garantie financière d'achèvement (GFA) — a formal completion guarantee backed by a bank or insurer — so that even if the developer encounters financial difficulty, your investment is protected and construction will be completed.
From Reservation to Acte de Vente — Where Your Money Goes First
At reservation, you typically pay a holding deposit of up to 5% of the purchase price. Crucially, this does not go directly to the developer — it is held in an escrow account by the notaire until the formal deed of sale (acte authentique de vente) is signed, usually two to four months later. During this window, you arrange your mortgage, and no bank funds move at all.
At the acte de vente, your bank formally commits the full loan amount and your remaining personal deposit equity is transferred through the notaire. From this point forward, each developer appel de fonds (call for funds) triggers a corresponding release from your approved mortgage envelope — provided the developer submits architect certification confirming the milestone has been reached.
How the Bank Releases Funds at Each Milestone
When the developer completes a certified construction stage, they issue a formal appel de fonds to the buyer. You forward this to your lender, which verifies the documentation and releases only the tranche required to meet that specific demand. The funds go directly to the developer's notaire-held account — they do not pass through your personal accounts at any stage.
This staged release is a significant consumer protection. You do not pay for construction that has not yet happened. Each tranche is locked to a milestone independently certified by the project architect. The system also means your total exposure grows incrementally: at the foundations stage, only a fraction of your mortgage is in play; the bulk of the loan is only deployed once the building is substantially complete.
Typical Disbursement Timing on a French Alps New-Build
Most ski residences in the French Alps run on a construction timeline of 18 to 30 months from the acte de vente to keys. A buyer reserving a unit in a newly-launched development might see the foundations call around months six to nine; weathertight around months 15 to 18; interior completion around months 22 to 26; delivery shortly after. Buyers reserving into a residence where construction is already underway will move through this schedule faster — sometimes keys within 12 months of signing.
Intérêts Intercalaires: What You Actually Pay During Construction
During the construction phase, your bank is not charging the full monthly mortgage repayment — that only begins once all funds are deployed. Instead, you pay interest only on the amount actually disbursed. These are the intérêts intercalaires, and they are the defining financial feature of VEFA mortgage finance for off-plan buyers.
The formula is straightforward: (Amount disbursed × annual rate) ÷ 12 = monthly intercalary charge. Early in construction, when relatively little has been drawn down, these charges are modest. They rise at each milestone as more of the mortgage envelope is deployed — reaching their peak in the final months before handover, when only the last tranche remains undrawn.
A Worked Example
Take a €420,000 off-plan apartment in a Savoie resort, financed with a 25% deposit (€105,000 in own funds) and a €315,000 mortgage over 20 years at 3.75% — a representative rate for a well-qualified non-resident profile in June 2026. According to Capifrance and Cafpi rate data for June 2026, the average resident 20-year rate sits at 3.32%, with non-residents typically paying a premium of 25–60 basis points. Use our French mortgage calculator to model your own figures.
The full monthly repayment after delivery would be approximately €1,868/month. During construction, your monthly intercalary exposure grows in stages:
- After the foundations drawdown (bank releases roughly €42,000): around €131/month
- After the weathertight drawdown (total disbursed roughly €189,000): around €591/month
- After interior completion (total disbursed roughly €294,000): around €919/month
- At delivery, the full €315,000 is deployed and full amortising repayment begins at €1,868/month
These intercalary charges are substantially lower than the full monthly repayment and give most buyers a meaningful cashflow buffer during the build phase — particularly valuable when you are still servicing a mortgage or paying rent on your primary residence at home.
The Deferral Choice: Paying Monthly vs Capitalising Everything
Some French lenders — particularly those specialising in VEFA finance for non-residents — offer a franchise totale arrangement: rather than paying intercalary interest monthly, the bank capitalises those charges into the loan balance and the buyer pays nothing during construction. Full repayment begins only at handover.
This sounds appealing, but there is a real cost: capitalised interest inflates the outstanding mortgage balance. On a 24-month construction window with a €315,000 loan at 3.75%, capitalised intercalary charges could add roughly €12,000–€18,000 to the total amount outstanding at handover, depending on how quickly each tranche is released. Paying intercalary interest monthly as it falls due is the lower-cost approach if your cashflow allows it.
A middle path — franchise partielle — has the borrower pay the intercalary interest on each released tranche monthly but defer all capital repayment until delivery. This is the most common structure on standard non-resident French mortgages and represents a reasonable balance between cashflow management and total borrowing cost. Always confirm which structure your lender is offering — the monthly payment figure during construction differs significantly between the two.
Mortgage Approval Timing: Don't Leave It Too Late
French law requires you to hold a formal mortgage offer (the offre de prêt) before signing the acte de vente. The offer is valid for four months from issue, and you must observe a mandatory 10-day reflection period before accepting it. Non-resident applications typically take eight to fourteen weeks from initial submission to offer — longer than domestic French applications because of the additional documentation: foreign income verification, overseas bank statements, home-country tax returns, and in some cases certified translations.
The practical implication is straightforward: start your mortgage application the same week you sign the reservation contract, not two months later. Waiting even four to six weeks risks running out of time ahead of the acte de vente, which is typically scheduled two to four months after reservation. To confirm your borrowing capacity before you commit to a reservation, our guide to the HCSF 35% debt-to-income rule explains exactly how French banks calculate what you can borrow.
Insurance During Construction: A Cost Many Buyers Miss
French mortgage lenders require assurance emprunteur (borrower insurance covering death, disability, and incapacity) as a condition of the loan. The premium applies to the full approved mortgage amount from the date of the acte de vente — not just the disbursed portion — which means you pay insurance on the entire €315,000 even when only €42,000 has been released at the foundations stage. On a competitive delegated insurance rate of 0.25% per annum, that adds roughly €66/month to your construction-period outgoings on top of the intercalary interest. For a full breakdown of how to price borrower insurance correctly and delegate to a lower-cost provider under the Lemoine law, see our guide to assurance emprunteur.
Delivery and the 5% Withholding Right
The final 5% is the tranche where you hold the most leverage. Under French law, if you identify réserves (defects or non-conformities with the contract specification) at handover, you are entitled to withhold up to 5% of the total purchase price in a blocked escrow account until those issues are resolved. Your bank releases the corresponding mortgage tranche at this point, but payment to the developer is held pending remediation. This is a formal legal right, not an informal negotiation, and it is the primary tool for ensuring snagging is addressed promptly. For a detailed guide to the handover process and how to document defects correctly, read our post on the VEFA livraison in the French Alps.
The Structural Case for Off-Plan Finance
Taken together, the VEFA mortgage framework gives off-plan buyers a financing profile that is genuinely different from purchasing existing stock. Capital deployment is phased across the build timeline, intercalary charges are substantially lower than full repayments during construction, and the legal protections — GFA completion guarantee, milestone certification, 5% delivery withholding right, and the 10-year garantie décennale on structural defects — provide a level of consumer protection that resale purchases do not offer. For buyers weighing the two routes, our analysis of new-build versus resale investment strategy in the French Alps sets out the full comparison.
To explore current off-plan ski residences across the French Alps, browse our new-build ski property listings.
