Investing in property
in France from abroad

French banks apply the HCSF standard to non-residents: a 35% debt-to-income ratio, insurance included, and a term of 25 years at most. What changes from one country to another is how the application is received. Income in euros, in Austria or Greece for example, avoids currency risk; income in another currency, including in the European Union (Czech koruna, Romanian leu), is often treated with caution. Some banks refuse residents of countries they consider risky: countries on the French list of non-cooperative States and territories, countries subject to sanctions or flagged by the FATF or the European Commission for money laundering. Prepare documents from your country, translated if needed: employment contract, payslips, local tax notice, account statements. A loan in your country’s currency from a French bank is only allowed if you mainly receive your income, or hold assets, in that currency, and few banks offer it; most applications are financed in euros.

Also read: which banks lend to expats and how much down payment to plan for.

Three French rules depend on your situation. The €150,000 exemption on capital gains on a home is open to French nationals and to nationals of the European Union or the EEA who have been domiciled in France for at least two years in a row, once only, for a sale by 31 December of the 10th year following departure at the latest (or later if the home has remained available to you); for another nationality, only if your country’s treaty contains a non-discrimination clause that applies to your case. The exemption for a former main residence, sold by 31 December of the year following departure at the latest, without having been let or lent in the meantime, applies for a move within the European Union, or to a country that assists France with information exchange and tax collection; never to a non-cooperative State. The two exemptions cannot be combined. Finally, if your worldwide income is modest, ask for the average rate: it is calculated with the French scale on all of your income, and applies if it is lower than 20% or 30%.

Also read: how the rents of a non-resident are taxed.

Warning: depending on your country, a French SCI may be treated as a company, and not as direct ownership. Your rents and your capital gain may then be taxed there differently than in France, and the treaty may not apply as expected: to be studied with an adviser in your country before buying through a company.

The right choice depends on your project and your country: compare with the rental income tax calculator.

France has signed a tax treaty with more than a hundred countries. To find out whether yours is one of them, open the page International conventions on the impots.gouv.fr website and choose your country: the text of the treaty can be downloaded there. The articles to read are those on income from property (often article 6), on capital gains (often article 13) and on the elimination of double taxation (towards the end of the text). Among our members’ countries, Japan, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Morocco, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and New Zealand have one; Taiwan has an agreement of the same type, applied by a French law of 2010. Angola, Belize, Mozambique and Laos do not have one. Jersey has only an information exchange agreement, which also covers pensions, and the convention with French Polynesia covers only income from movable capital: for your rents and your capital gain, it is as if there were no treaty. Without a treaty, France taxes you under its law, and your country may also tax you under its own: only an adviser in your country can say whether it deducts French tax there.

The reduced rate of 7.5% (the solidarity levy, without CSG or CRDS) is reserved for people affiliated to a compulsory social security scheme of a country of the European Union, the EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), Switzerland or the United Kingdom, and not dependent on any French scheme. Among our members’ countries without a dedicated page, this is the case for Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Malta, Estonia, Croatia and Iceland. Everywhere else, in Japan, Brazil, Morocco or Thailand for example, it is 17.2% on unfurnished rental and on capital gains, 18.6% on furnished rental. Jersey is not part of the United Kingdom, and French Polynesia is not in the European Union: their local schemes do not give entitlement to the 7.5%. Voluntary membership of the Caisse des Français de l’étranger changes nothing.

There is no official list of countries whose residents banks refuse: each bank decides. But they rely on public lists. The French list of non-cooperative States and territories for tax purposes, set by order (article 238-0 A of the General Tax Code), has eleven States and territories since the order of 15 April 2026, including Panama, Russia and Vietnam (listed with effect from 1 July 2026); moving there also closes the exemption for a former main residence. In addition there are the asset freezes and sanctions of the European Union (register of the Treasury Directorate General), and the countries flagged for money laundering by the FATF and by the European Commission. If you live in Switzerland, Dubai, Canada, Luxembourg, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia or another country that has its own page, read that page instead: the links are at the bottom of this page.

The steps of the ImmoPourExpat method, from the first call to letting →