Investing in property
in France from the Netherlands

French banks apply the HCSF standard to residents of the Netherlands: a 35% debt-to-income ratio, insurance included, and a term of 25 years at most. Your income in euros spares them the currency risk, but not all of them accept non-residents, and some ask for a high down payment: searching alone, Lois, who lives in Amsterdam, was told that expats were not supported, and one bank asked him for a 25 to 30% down payment. The choice of banks and the way the application is presented make the difference.

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

The €150,000 exemption on the capital gain remains open to French nationals, under conditions. The exemption for a former main residence also applies, because the Netherlands is in the European Union: sale by 31 December of the year following departure at the latest, with no letting or lending of the home in the meantime. The two cannot be combined. On the Dutch side, the reduction for double taxation is calculated in your return: its amount depends on the rest of your wealth and on your loan.

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

Before buying through a French SCI, have a Dutch tax specialist check how your shares are declared in box 3 and how the reduction for double taxation applies there.

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

As a Dutch resident, you declare your French property in box 3 of your tax return (aangifte inkomstenbelasting), at its market value, and your mortgage as a debt. Box 3 does not tax your rents: it taxes at 36% a flat-rate return on your wealth (6% for property in 2026, 5.88% in 2025), above €59,357 per person in 2026 (€57,684 in 2025). The treaty then obliges the Netherlands to remove from this tax the share that corresponds to the French property: this is the reduction to avoid double taxation, calculated in the return. If your actual return is lower than this flat rate, you can ask for it to be used instead.

After several rulings of the Hoge Raad, the Dutch Supreme Court, the tax authority must use your actual return when it is lower than the flat rate. A law on actual return (Wet werkelijk rendement box 3) was adopted by the Tweede Kamer on 12 February 2026, for entry into force planned on 1 January 2028. The Senate (Eerste Kamer) has postponed its vote pending a corrective law: the text and its date may still change. In this draft, property would be taxed each year on its rents, and on the gain realised at sale rather than on its annual rise in value. How the reduction for a property in France will apply there remains to be clarified.

The 30% rule (expatregeling) allows your employer to pay you up to 30% of your salary tax-free, for 5 years at most; this cap falls to 27% in 2027, unless you have benefited from it since 2023 or before. It also allowed you to be treated as a non-resident for box 3: your French property did not appear there. This option disappeared on 1 January 2025. If you had the 30% rule before 2024, you keep this option until 2026 inclusive, as long as the rule applies; afterwards, your French property goes into box 3 as for any resident.

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