The 51 terms to know to invest in French property from abroad: tax status, rental income, resale, financing and purchase, each with an example.
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A person whose tax residence is not in France: their home, main activity and centre of economic interests are abroad. They remain taxable in France on their French-source income, such as the rents and capital gains of a property located in France.
Example: You live and work in Geneva and let a studio in Lyon: you are a non-resident, and the studio’s rents are taxed in France.
Non-resident taxation →An agreement between France and another country to prevent the same income being taxed twice. For property, rents and capital gains are generally taxable in the country where the property is located; the country of residence exempts them or grants a tax credit, depending on the terms of the treaty.
Example: A Swiss resident who lets an apartment in Thonon-les-Bains declares the rents in France, then applies the France-Switzerland treaty so as not to be taxed twice.
Tax treaties by country →Floor rate applied to a non-resident’s French-source income: 20% on the part of net taxable income up to €29,579, and 30% on the part above (2025 income, declared in 2026). The threshold will be revalued for 2026 income.
Example: With €8,000 of net taxable property income in France, the tax is at least €1,600 (20%), unless you opt for the average rate.
Simulate the tax on your rents →The option, on request, to replace the minimum rate with the average rate calculated on the household’s total worldwide income, if it is lower. You must then declare this worldwide income and be able to justify it.
Example: A couple with modest income abroad can thus pay less than 20% on their French rents.
Non-resident taxation →Social contributions due on top of the tax on rents and capital gains. They are 7.5% if you are affiliated to the social security of a European Union country, the EEA, Switzerland or the United Kingdom (and to no French scheme), otherwise 17.2% for unfurnished lets and 18.6% for furnished lets (from 2025 income).
Example: An employee covered by Swiss social security pays 7.5%; an expat in Dubai pays 17.2% on unfurnished rents.
Non-resident taxation →An accredited intermediary who answers for the capital gains tax in place of the seller. It is compulsory if the sale price exceeds €150,000 per seller, if the seller lives outside the European Union, Iceland and Norway, and if the capital gain is not fully exempted by the length of ownership.
Example: An expat in Singapore who resells for €200,000 an apartment held for 8 years must appoint a tax representative.
Simulate the resale capital gain →Rents are not withheld by an employer: the corresponding tax is paid through monthly or quarterly instalments, debited from your bank account, calculated from your last return. A non-resident is subject to them like a resident.
Example: In the first year of letting, you pay no instalment, unless you create one in your tax account. The tax is then paid the following year, after your return, and the instalments start in September.
Non-resident taxation →A local tax paid each year by the owner of the property as at 1 January, whether or not it is let. The notice arrives at the end of summer. It is one of the costs to include in the yield calculation. The “household waste” portion can be re-invoiced to the tenant.
Example: Its amount varies greatly from one city to another: ask the seller for the latest property tax notice before making your offer.
Calculate your yield →A tax due on a furnished property that is nobody’s main residence: pied-à-terre, property kept for holidays. If the property is let all year as the tenant’s main residence, the owner does not pay it. For seasonal lets, or if the furnished property has no tenant on 1 January, the owner pays it. Some municipalities increase it. Each owner must declare the occupancy of their properties on impots.gouv.fr before 1 July.
Example: An expat who keeps an apartment in France for summer stays pays it every year.
Non-resident taxation →An annual tax due if your net property wealth, as at 1 January, exceeds €1,300,000. A non-resident is subject to it only for properties located in France, and the debts linked to their purchase are deductible.
Example: Three apartments in France worth €1,500,000, with €400,000 of mortgage still owed: net wealth of €1,100,000, no IFI.
Non-resident taxation →Simplified regime for unfurnished lets, open if rents do not exceed €15,000 a year: a 30% allowance is applied to account for costs, without justifying them.
Example: With €9,000 of annual rents, only €6,300 is taxed.
Simulate the tax on your rents →A regime where you deduct the costs actually paid: loan interest, works, property tax, insurance, management fees. It becomes attractive when costs exceed 30% of rents.
Example: A property bought with a mortgage and significant works often produces a low taxable income under the actual regime.
Non-resident taxation →The status of someone who lets a furnished property without making it their profession: their furnished rental receipts do not exceed €23,000 a year, or remain below the household’s other earned income. It is open to non-residents. Rents are taxed as business profits, under micro-BIC or the actual regime with depreciation.
Example: A 3-bedroom apartment let as a furnished house share generally falls under the LMNP.
Non-resident taxation →Simplified regime for furnished lets. The allowance is 50% for long-term furnished lets and classified tourist furnished lets, up to €77,700 of receipts (2025 income) and €83,600 (2026 income). It is 30% up to €15,000 for unclassified tourist furnished lets.
Example: With €12,000 of rents on a long-term furnished let, €6,000 is taxed.
Simulate the tax on your rents →Under the LMNP actual regime, each year a portion of the property price (excluding land) and the furniture is deducted. It cannot create a deficit; the excess is carried forward without time limit. On resale, the property depreciation deducted is added back to the capital gain (sales since 15 February 2025). The furniture depreciation is not, and student or senior serviced residences are excluded from this rule.
Example: Thanks to depreciation, many furnished lets pay almost no tax on rents for years.
Non-resident taxation →A company that holds one or more properties. Under income tax, each partner is taxed on their share; under corporate tax, the company pays the tax itself. An SCI whose furnished rents exceed 10% of its total receipts moves to corporate tax.
Example: Two expat brothers can buy an apartment building together through an SCI to organise how they hold it.
Non-resident taxation →The ratio of annual rents to the total cost of the purchase (price, notary fees, renovation works). Gross yield ignores costs; net yield deducts them (property tax, co-ownership, management, insurance).
Example: A property costing €120,000 all-in and let for €800 a month has a gross yield of 8%.
Calculate your yield →What is left each month once the mortgage payment, costs and taxes are paid. A “self-financing” property has zero or positive cash flow: the rents cover all the expenses.
Example: Maurena, a Swiss resident, makes about €500 of cash flow a month in Thonon-les-Bains.
Maurena’s project →On unfurnished lets under the actual regime, when costs exceed rents. The part that does not come from loan interest is set against overall income up to €10,700 a year (€21,400 for certain energy renovation works paid in 2026 and 2027). The rest is carried forward against property income for the following 10 years. You must keep letting the property until 31 December of the 3rd year that follows, otherwise the benefit is clawed back. For a non-resident, overall income includes only French-source income.
Example: Major maintenance or improvement works in the first year create a deficit that then wipes out the tax on rents for several years.
Non-resident taxation →A status that applies when the household’s furnished rental receipts exceed €23,000 a year and also exceed its other earned income. For a non-resident, from 2026 income, professional income received abroad counts in this comparison if it is taxed there. LMP entails social contributions and a different capital gains regime from LMNP.
Example: An investor who keeps adding furnished lets can slip into LMP without having chosen it: to be monitored every year.
Non-resident taxation →A furnished property let to passing guests, by the night or by the week (short-term rental). It must be declared at the town hall, and some cities regulate this activity heavily; a national online registration is due to become compulsory in all municipalities. If classified, it falls under the same micro-BIC as long-term furnished lets (50% allowance, up to €83,600 of receipts from 2026 income); if unclassified, the allowance falls to 30% and micro-BIC stops at €15,000.
Example: Julien, who lives in the United States, lets a renovated 2-room apartment short-term near the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.
Julien’s project →A furnished lease of 1 to 10 months, with no security deposit, reserved for tenants in vocational training, higher education, apprenticeship, internship, civic service, job transfer or temporary assignment. It cannot be renewed or tacitly extended, but its length can be changed once, without exceeding 10 months in total.
Example: Handy for letting to work-study students or to employees on assignment between two seasons.
Calculate your yield →In a house share, each tenant signs their own lease for their room and access to the shared areas. One housemate leaving does not call the other leases into question, and each is liable only for their own rent.
Example: Corentin, who lives in Canada, lets a 4-bedroom apartment as a house share in Montpellier.
Corentin’s project →Insurance taken out by the landlord that covers unpaid rent and often legal costs. If you take it out, you cannot also ask for a guarantor, unless the tenant is a student or an apprentice: the guarantee would be void.
Example: From abroad, it spares you from handling a late payment yourself from another time zone.
Calculate your yield →A mandate given to an agency or a manager to look after the property: finding tenants, inventories, collecting rents, reminders, minor works. Fees are generally a percentage of the rents collected. Letting fees are shared with the tenant, within caps set by decree.
Example: It is often the solution chosen by expats who cannot travel for a tenant’s move-in.
Calculate your yield →Money paid to the managing agent for the upkeep and running of the building: cleaning, lift, insurance, communal heating. A part, known as recoverable, is re-invoiced to the tenant with the rent.
Example: Before buying, read the minutes of the last three general meetings and the charges paid over the last two financial years: the seller must hand them to you.
Calculate your yield →The annual meeting of co-owners that votes on the budget, the works and the building’s decisions. From abroad, you can vote by post, take part by video conference if it is offered, or give a proxy to a person of your choice, other than the managing agent.
Example: An expat can follow the meeting by video from Singapore and vote on the works without travelling.
Our clients’ projects →The gain made on the resale of a property. For a non-resident, it is taxed at 19%, plus social contributions (7.5% or 17.2% depending on your affiliation), and the tax is withheld by the notary. Allowances for length of ownership apply from the 6th year: exemption from tax after 22 years, from social contributions after 30 years.
Example: An apartment resold after 10 years already benefits from an allowance on tax and on social contributions.
Simulate the resale capital gain →Exemption of the net capital gain up to €150,000 per seller, once only, for a property held directly. It is reserved for nationals of the European Union or the EEA, French people included, who were resident in France for at least 2 years in a row. The sale must take place no later than 31 December of the 10th year following departure, or without time limit if you have had free use of the property since at least 1 January of the year before the sale.
Example: A French citizen who left for Dubai in 2020, after at least 2 years of residence in France, can use it for a sale up to 31 December 2030.
Simulate the resale capital gain →An extra tax of 2% to 6% when the taxable capital gain exceeds €50,000 per seller, after the allowance for length of ownership.
Example: A taxable capital gain of €80,000 bears a 2% surtax, i.e. €1,600.
Simulate the resale capital gain →Total exemption, with no cap, of the capital gain on the property that was your main residence at the time of departure. The sale must take place no later than 31 December of the year following departure, the property must not have been let or lent in the meantime, and you must settle in the European Union or in a country that has signed with France an information exchange agreement and a tax collection assistance agreement (this is the case for the United Kingdom and the United States, not for Canada, Switzerland, the Emirates or Singapore). It cannot be combined with the €150,000 exemption.
Example: Having left for London in March 2026, you have until 31 December 2027 to sell your former apartment tax-free, provided it has been neither let nor lent in the meantime.
Simulate the resale capital gain →To calculate the capital gain, the purchase price can be increased by 7.5% for acquisition costs and by 15% for works if the property has been held for more than 5 years, without supporting documents. If your actual costs or works are higher, you can use those instead, with the invoices. The 7.5% flat rate applies only to a purchased property, and actual works already deducted from your rents cannot be added.
Example: A property bought for €200,000 and resold after 6 years has its retained purchase price raised to €245,000 thanks to the two flat-rate allowances.
Simulate the resale capital gain →The amount you finance from your own savings. It often covers the notary fees. For an expat, banks generally ask for a higher down payment than for a resident.
Example: In her video testimonial, Maurena, a Swiss resident, explains that she bought in Thonon-les-Bains with a down payment of about 1.6%.
Our clients’ projects →Rules set for banks by the Haut Conseil de stabilité financière: a debt-to-income ratio of 35% at most, insurance included, and a term of 25 years at most (27 years with a 2-year deferral for a new-build purchase or one with works of at least 10% of the cost). Banks may depart from them for 20% of their new loans each quarter, but mainly for the purchase of a main residence: a buy-to-let investment rarely benefits.
Example: French banks apply these rules to expats, often with extra requirements on the down payment.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →The share of net income devoted to mortgage payments, insurance included. The HCSF standard limits it to 35%. In practice, banks often add 70% of the expected rents to income.
Example: With €5,000 of net income a month, payments must not exceed €1,750.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →A period at the start of the loan during which the capital is not repaid. With a partial deferral, you pay only interest and insurance; with a full deferral, you pay only insurance, and the interest is added to the capital. Useful during the works, before the first rents.
Example: Olivia, who lives in Bangkok, obtained a 24-month full deferral during the renovation of her property in Manosque.
Olivia’s project →What the bank requires to be repaid in case of default: a mortgage charge on the property, a guarantee from a specialist body, or a pledge (savings, for example a life insurance policy, blocked as collateral).
Example: An expat can offer a life insurance policy as a pledge to reassure the bank.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →Insurance that repays the loan in the event of death or disability. It is counted in the debt-to-income ratio. You can choose an insurer other than the bank’s (insurance substitution) if the cover is equivalent.
Example: Changing borrower insurance can noticeably reduce the total cost of a 25-year loan.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →The total cost of the loan expressed as an annual rate: interest, insurance required by the bank, and arrangement, guarantee and brokerage fees included. This is what you should compare between two offers, not the interest rate alone.
Example: Two offers at 3.6% can have different APRs depending on the insurance and fees.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →The bank’s written proposal that sets all the conditions of the loan. You cannot accept it before a 10-day reflection period that starts the day after you receive it, and the bank must keep it open for at least 30 days.
Example: An offer received on the 1st of the month can only be accepted from the 12th: factor this into the signing schedule, especially if you send the acceptance back by post from abroad.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →An intermediary who looks for a loan for you from several banks and puts the application together. They must be registered with ORIAS. They are paid by the bank, by you, or by both, and you owe them nothing before the funds are released.
Example: For a non-resident, the broker is mainly useful for targeting the banks that accept your country of residence.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →A loan on which only the interest is repaid throughout its term, the capital being repaid in one go at the end. It is often secured by a pledged investment that will be used for this repayment. For the IFI, the deductible debt of an interest-only loan decreases each year.
Example: The payments are lower than with a standard loan, but the total cost in interest is higher.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →Sums paid at purchase on top of the price, mainly transfer duties paid over to the State and local authorities. For older properties, allow about 8% of the price (from 7.5% to 8.5% depending on the amount).
Example: For a €150,000 apartment, allow about €12,700 of notary fees.
Calculate your yield →A preliminary contract signed between buyer and seller, which sets the price and the conditions of the sale, including obtaining the loan. If you buy a property for non-professional purposes, you have a 10-day cooling-off period, which runs from the day after the signed agreement is handed over or notified.
Example: The preliminary agreement can be signed remotely, by proxy or electronic signature.
Our clients’ projects →The final deed of sale signed at the notary, which transfers ownership. An expat can sign it without travelling thanks to a power of attorney. If the purchase is financed by a loan with a mortgage charge, the power of attorney must be notarised.
Example: An expat in Montreal can sign the deed without coming to France, by giving a power of attorney to a clerk of the notary’s office, through a deed signed at the consulate or remotely with the notary.
Our clients’ projects →A property sold without a public listing, offered directly by an agent, a notary or a network. Less competition, so often more room to negotiate.
Example: Alexandra, who lives in London, bought an off-market duplex in Deauville.
Alexandra’s project →A survey that rates a property from A to G according to its energy consumption. The least efficient properties are gradually leaving the rental market in mainland France: no new lease or renewal for class G since 1 January 2025, for class F from 2028 and for class E from 2034. A bill currently under review could soften these rules.
Example: A property rated F or G can be a good deal if the works are costed before the purchase.
Our clients’ projects →A clause in the preliminary agreement that makes the sale void if you do not obtain your loan within the stated period (at least one month). The sum paid at signing is then returned to you in full, provided you applied for a loan matching what the agreement states (amount, term, rate): otherwise, you may lose it.
Example: For a non-resident, allow a fairly long period: banks often take longer to respond.
Simulate your borrowing capacity →An entire building comprising several let units, bought in one go. The price per square metre is often lower than for apartments bought separately, but the upkeep, insurance and major works for the whole building are your responsibility.
Example: Jean-Rémi, who lives in the United States, bought a building of 4 units and 3 garages in Gaillac.
Jean-Rémi’s project →Converting a large property or a building into several independent units, to increase rents. Depending on the case, it requires planning permission, the agreement of the co-ownership and, in some municipalities, a permit to divide. Each unit created must measure at least 14 m² and 33 m³.
Example: Maurena divided a former medical practice into two units in Thonon-les-Bains.
Maurena’s project →Converting a commercial or professional premises into housing, or the reverse. Planning permission is needed (prior declaration or building permit depending on the works), to be obtained before starting. To convert housing into professional premises in large cities, a change-of-use authorisation is also required.
Example: Olivia, who lives in Bangkok, converted a former medical practice into housing in Manosque.
Olivia’s project →
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