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Here in France people only ever do fixed rate, generally for 20 or 25 year mortgages. I have never heard of someone buying a home with a variable rate loan, not sure if it's even legal.

It might have been a pretty good deal for the people who bought homes with 25 year 0.7-0.9% interest rate mortgages these last few years.

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As an Australian, fascinating! I would guess that Tue majority of home loans here are variable.

Another question - with a normal fixed interest loan for 30 years, does that normally include paying off the principal? I.e after the 30 years, the loan is paid off?

Here, fixed interest usually don't pay down the loan whereas a variable loan pays down 100% of the principal after the 30 years

Yes you do pay down the principal. Non-amortized mortgage loans might exist but if they do they're definitely marginal.

Variable rate loans do exist in France and they were relatively popular 15-20 years ago (up to 38% share).

https://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/quickview.do?SERIES_KEY=304.RAI.M....

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