Do you have to take out a conventional mortgage to get a mortgage?

Verified 16 October 2026 - Public Service / (Prime Minister)

To grant you a mortgage, the bank may require a guarantee to protect against the risk of non-repayment. The conventional mortgage is one of the possible bank guarantees. It's real estate. In the event of non-repayment, the bank may seize the property and sell it for repayment. We explain.

FYI

The bank may prefer to impose another type of bank guarantee on you. It exists the special legal mortgage of the lender of money and the bank guarantee.

The conventional mortgage on a mortgage is a guarantee that the bank can impose on you to finance the purchase of a mortgage. real estate.

The mortgage is on the real estate. It can be a property that already belongs to you or the property for which the bank gives you the credit.

If you do not repay the credit within the stipulated time, the bank can seize the mortgaged property and sell it for repayment.

Please note

We must not confuse the bank guarantee with borrower insurance a mortgage. Borrower's insurance only intervenes in case of non-repayment of the mortgage due to death, disability, incapacity, or possibly loss of employment.

The conventional mortgage requires the intervention of a notary.

You must contact a notary to instruct him to write the mortgage and have it registered with the land advertising service.

Who shall I contact

Notary

Please note

The conventional mortgage should not be confused with the judicial mortgage, which is decided by a judge in favor of a creditor.

The conventional mortgage has the same duration as the mortgage.

However, the mortgage remains on the land advertising service for 1 year after the end of the repayment of the credit.

In that additional year, it is ineffective because the credit is repaid.

At the end of this additional year, the registration of the mortgage automatically disappears, without you having to pay any fees or make any procedure.

You may need to have the conventional mortgage lifted (i.e. cancel the mortgage) before that date, in the following cases:

When you sell your property without paying off your mortgage in full
When you sell your property before the end of the registration of the mortgage, the duration of which corresponds to the initial duration of your credit, to which must be added 1 year
Sometimes when you do repurchase of your mortgage.

For this, you must obtain a mortgage release (i.e. get the mortgage canceled).

You can obtain it either in agreement with the bank or the credit repurchase agency, or, if no agreement is possible, by decision of the judge.

In any case, you will have cost of release to pay. The amount of these fees depends on the value of your original credit.

The cost of setting up the conventional mortgage is in particular consisting of the remuneration of the notary, the property advertising tax and the formalities costs.

You can estimate the cost of setting up a conventional mortgage using a simulator:

Calculate the cost of a mortgage on a home loan