We only offer you off-market properties

What is called an off-market property, and where do they come from?

An off-market property is a property for sale whose existence is not publicly circulated: no portal, no window display, no social network, no address disclosed. It moves between professionals and qualified buyers, often on condition of discretion, sometimes for months before being published, sometimes without ever being published.

These properties do not come from nowhere, and knowing their origin is what makes them judgeable. Each provenance says something about the seller, their timetable and their room to negotiate, and that is information a public listing would precisely not have given.

How do you actually gain access to these properties?

Through a professional who receives them, and because the buyer they present is credible. Those are the two conditions, and the second is the one foreign buyers most underestimate: a confidential property is not shown to whoever asks, it is shown to whoever the seller can afford to show it to.

Credibility is demonstrated by a file, not by an intention. A signed search mandate, proving the approach is serious and framed. Financing under way, with a bank agreement in principle, or proof of available funds where the purchase is in cash. Written criteria, precise enough for a professional to know immediately whether a property matches. And real availability to view, which at a distance means having already arranged who can go on site.

The vigilance obligations of article L561-2 of the Monetary and Financial Code bind the notary as well as the estate agent: the buyer's identity and the origin of funds are verified, off-market or not. Putting those documents together early is not a formality endured, it is what makes an offer executable at short notice.

On what conditions does a buyer genuinely reach these properties?

A seller who refuses a listing also refuses viewings driven by curiosity. The filter is therefore not money alone, it is the ability to decide quickly on a clear file. A buyer whose budget, financing and criteria are written down goes ahead of a wealthier buyer still discovering their project as they view.

No sum may be asked of you before the transaction is actually concluded: article 6 of the law of 2 January 1970 forbids it to any professional holding a mandate. An entry fee, a subscription or file charges to "access the network" are therefore unlawful, whatever wording is used.

Do you buy more cheaply off-market?

Not mechanically, and any promise to the contrary deserves suspicion. What off-market shifts is the number of people facing you and the time you have, not the property's value. A seller who chooses discretion is not a seller in a hurry to undersell: some are in a hurry and some wait a year.

The last line is the real trade-off, and it can be worked on. With no listing there is no price history, no reference photo, no time on market to invoke. Two solid sources remain: the property value declarations database, published as open data since 2019 from notarised deeds, which gives prices actually paid at the address and in the street, and the lender's valuation, which will cost the property before granting finance. A bank valuing below the agreed price is the most useful warning a buyer can receive.

Which deadlines apply, even to a sale with no listing?

Discretion shortens the introduction, not the procedure. Between signing the preliminary contract and signing the deed, the timetable is the same as for a property seen in a window, and the three deadlines that govern it are matters of public policy: neither the seller nor you can waive them.

What off-market really shifts happens earlier: the time spent searching, positioning yourself and negotiating. A discreet seller often grants a second viewing and a negotiated deed date, which a contested property never offers. That is where the weeks are won, not in the procedure.

What does distance change in an off-market search?

It changes the tempo, and off-market is a market of tempo. A confidential property is shown to a few buyers, sometimes over a single weekend, and the buyer who answers within twenty-four hours is not the one who answers the following Thursday. Three preparations make all the difference.

• Financing processed before the first viewing, agreement in principle or proof of funds: that is what allows an offer in forty-eight hours rather than three weeks.
• Someone able to view within two days and produce a full record, continuous video, measurements, communal areas, noise at the real hour.
• The signing route prepared from the preliminary contract onwards, notarised power of attorney or remote appearance, whose transmission is counted in weeks depending on the country of residence.

How do you check a property that has left no public trace?

Exactly like any other, with one nuance: nothing will come from an online search, so everything has to come from the documents. The discipline is stricter because no external signal will correct a misreading.

• The seller's title deed and the land charges certificate, which the notary requests: they say who may sell, and what must be cleared before the deed.
• The complete technical survey file, with validity dates, and the private floor area certificate in a co-ownership: a shortfall of more than five per cent opens the price-reduction claim under article 46 of the Act of 10 July 1965, for one year.
• The last three years of general meeting minutes and the association's arrears position, which announce the calls for funds to come.
• The planning information statement, for easements and neighbouring projects no photo would show.
• The prices paid in the street and in the building, taken from the property value database, absent any comparable on the property itself.

What are the traps of a confidential sale?

The phrase off-market sells well, and that is precisely what makes it a phrase to check. Four situations recur, and all of them can be detected before the viewing.

1. The false off-market: a property already published elsewhere, sometimes for months, presented as confidential. A search on the address, the floor area and the price is often enough to find it, and an old listing entirely changes the price discussion.
2. The unlicensed intermediary: presenting properties for a fee falls under the Act of 2 January 1970 and requires a professional licence, a financial guarantee and insurance. Asking for the licence number and the holding firm's name takes a minute.
3. The sum demanded in advance: access fee, subscription, file charges. Section 6 of the same Act forbids it as long as the transaction is not concluded and recorded in writing.
4. Secrecy invoked against verification: confidentiality covers the circulation of information, never the documents the seller must hand over. A refusal to produce the surveys or the meeting minutes is not a discretion clause, it is a signal.

Does a sale without a listing escape any obligations?

No, and that is the point every buyer should check first. What triggers the seller's obligations is not advertising, it is the sale. A property transferred without the slightest listing remains subject to exactly the same regime as one displayed in a window.

One rule further protects the buyer against an over-eager intermediary: section 6 of the Act of 2 January 1970 forbids any intermediation professional from receiving any sum before the transaction is actually concluded and recorded in a written instrument. An entry fee, a subscription or file charges demanded for access to a selection of properties fall outside that framework.

What exactly does a confidentiality clause commit you to?

To not circulate what you have been shown: the address, the photos, the asking price, the seller's identity, sometimes the very fact that the property is for sale. The undertaking is contractual, it is read and negotiated like everything else: its duration, its scope, the people it allows to be informed.

This point deserves settling before the first viewing, and rarely is: a clause forbidding you to inform third parties must expressly carve out your adviser, your banker, your notary and the professional representing you. Without that carve-out, you are signing away the ability to have what is offered to you checked.

No confidentiality clause can set aside a statutory duty to inform. The surveys, the co-ownership documents, the declaration of intent to sell and the notary's checks apply whatever discretion the parties have agreed.

Which mistakes cost the most off-market?

They all look alike: the scarcity announced makes a buyer skip a check nobody would have skipped on a listed property. The remedy fits in one sentence: off-market, you speed up the decision, never the checking.

The sixth mistake is not a buyer's mistake: it is believing that a property shown off-market has been checked by whoever shows it. An introduction is not an audit. The checks remain yours, carried by the notary and by the partner buying agent holding the carte T.

What does French Realty do to open this access, and what does it not do?

The starting point is the personal study offered: it converts the project into written criteria precise enough for a professional to know, on reading, whether a property matches. That precision is what makes a buyer file circulate, far more than an intention expressed in general terms.

French Realty then frames the file, picks the partner buying agent best placed in the target area, reads the viewing reports with you, prepares the questions to put to the seller and the managing agent, and coordinates the notary and the bank. The partner buying agent, holding the carte T, carries out the search, the viewings and the negotiation under their own responsibility and financial guarantee; French Realty informs, guides and coordinates.