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

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12.1. French Notaire Fees - 'Frais de Notaire'

In calculating the transaction costs of buying property in France, it is important to distinguish between fees and taxes and between older and new property.

In summary, the total fees and taxes payable for each is as follows.

• Older Property - The total fees and taxes payable for the purchase of an existing older property are between 7% and 10% of the purchase price, excluding estate agency fees.
• New Property - You will pay around 2% in fees and registration taxes, plus VAT at the rate of 19.6% on the purchase price (except for sales between private individuals), excluding estate agency fees.

Although these total fees and taxes are often referred to as ‘notaire fees’ (frais de notaire), in fact the actual notaire fee itself is only about 1%, (although it does work out at more for low value transactions under, say, €100,000). The rest comprises stamp duty registration taxes and disbursements.

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

A scale rate for notaire fees (excluding taxes) is used, as follows:

Table: Notaire Scale Fee 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%

These fees area subject to VAT (TVA), 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' (excluding taxes), and the higher the sale price, the lower the proportionate amount of the fee.

If a mortgage is being obtained for the purchase then you should budget around 2% of the loan in fees and costs, comprising include registration costs, the additional professional fees of the notaire (0.26%) and the lenders fee.

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

In addition, 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, you may also be asked to pay additional notaire fees on top of the basic charge.

Generally, a notaire should and will obsorb these extra responsibilities within the basic charge, but this cannot always be guaranteed. However, the notaire is legally obliged to 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 rural land agency (called SAFER). They will normally only total a few hundred euros.

In the next section we consider the house buying stamp duty land registration taxes that are payable in France.

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