12. House Buying Fees & Taxes in France

1. 12.1. Notaire Fees
2. 12.2. House Buying Taxes
3. 12.3. Calculation of Charges
4. 12.4. Reducing Your Costs

12.1. French Notaire Fees - 'Frais de Notaire'

The total charges payable for the purchase of an existing older property are between 7% and 10% of the purchase price. In the case of a new property, the charges are around 3.5%, although, in this case, VAT on the purchase price is also payable.

Although they are often referred to as ‘notaire fees’ (frais de notaire), in fact the actual fee is only about 1%! The rest comprises registration taxes and disbursements.

The notaire fees are regulated by the government and vary according to the sale price of the property.

Broadly speaking, where no mortgage is being used to fund the purchase the rate is around 1%, although a scale rate is used, as follows:


Table: Notaire Scale Rates

Fraction of sale price	Rate
Up to €6,500	4.784%
Between €6,501 and €17,000	1.9734%
Between €17,001 and €30,000	1.3156%
From €30,001	0.9867%

VAT (TVA) is added to the fee, at the usual rate of 19.6%.

Based on these rates, for a property being purchased for €250,000, you would pay approximately 1% in actual notaire 'fees', and the higher the sale price, the lower the proportionate amount of the fee.

Clearly, there may be other professional fees payable (solicitor, avocat, financial advisor, building surveyor, land surveyor) depending on your circumstances. If a land surveyor is required it is not unusual for their fees to be met by the seller.

In addition, you may also be asked to pay additional notaire fees on top of the basic charge if you require specialist advice, or there are complicated clauses to be included in the sale contract, over and above the general contract provisions that ordinarily apply. Thus, if there are particular servitudes that need to be included, additional fees may be payable. Generally, a notaire will obsorb these extra responsibilities within the basic charge, but this cannot always be guaranteed, although the notaire should advise you in advance if they are payable. If you have any doubt about it, then ask!

There are also a number of ancillary disbursements payable by the notaire that arise mainly from land registration, enquiries to the local Council, and to the national land agency (called SAFER). They will normally only total a few hundred euros.

In the next section we consider the house buying taxes that are payable in France.