Renting versus buying in France
Droits de mutation are set by the département, and most départements raised the rate in 2025. Three levels are now in use: 5.09% in a handful of them, the standard 5.80%, and 6.31% where the maximum permitted increase was adopted. Pick yours above, a point and a quarter of a €280,000 purchase is over €3,400.
What the French call frais de notaire is mostly not the notaire's fee. The droits de mutation is a tax collected on the state's behalf and is the bulk of it; the notaire's own emoluments and disbursements are the further 2.2% shown here as other buying costs. Together they are the 7% to 8% that any French buyer expects to add to the asking price.
These rates apply to an existing home. A new-build is sold with VAT instead and pays a much lower transfer duty, so a purchase in the neuf market costs far less to enter than this page shows.
Agency commission of 4% to 6% is usually already included in the displayed price rather than quoted separately, which is why it is easy to forget that it exists. It is real money on the way out, and the selling-cost line above charges it.
Rent increases on an existing lease are capped by the IRL index, so the rent-growth default of 2% sits below house-price growth of 2.5%. A sitting French tenant is protected against exactly the rent escalation that makes buying win over a long stay.
Taxe foncière is calculated from a cadastral rental value times municipal rates, so it behaves as a flat annual bill rather than a percentage of what you paid. France has no mortgage insurance in the American sense: lenders require assurance emprunteur, a life and disability policy, and usually a caution guarantee from a body such as Crédit Logement.