Fees collected by legal professionals in France are set to decrease, including those paid to notaires. However, savings will only be significant on small transactions while most Paris real estate buyers won’t notice much change at all.  Starting in May, buyers in France will benefit from ever-so-slightly reduced notaire fees on their purchase. Part of the Macron Law passed last year, a decree published […]

The French government recently passed a tax measure aimed at encouraging the transformation of vacant offices into housing in Paris. Over 800,000 square meters of office space in the city are reportedly unoccupied. New finance laws for 2016 include a tax measure intended to push commercial property owners to convert offices in Paris into housing. […]

French deputies are supporting an amendment that may make it illegal for tenants to sublet their properties on short-term rental websites such as Airbnb without their landlord’s explicit approval.

Paris officials want to instate a fivefold increase on occupancy tax on vacant secondary residences to encourage owners to sell their properties or rent them out. Last month, the City of Paris voted in the principle of increasing the occupancy tax — taxe d’habitation ­— on vacant second homes in the capital. The tax would […]

As of January 1st, 2016, property purchased in Paris is subject to an increased purchase tax — or transfer tax. This tax has increased by 0.7% for the purchase of housing, office or commercial property. While the vast majority of French departments had already taken this step, Paris is the latest to apply an increased […]

In more good news for the real estate sector, sales of new-build properties have been soaring since the beginning of the year. The French real estate market, struggling since the 2008 crisis, is on the mend. An increase of 19.3% in sales of new property was recorded in the first quarter of 2015, with real […]

While policymakers just signed an environmental agreement during the Paris Climate Talks, certain policies are already in place in France to promote energy-efficient housing. With environmental concerns weighing increasingly on lawmakers’ decisions, France has been steadily developing and implementing ecological incentives for homeowners to improve their properties’ energy performance in the last few years. A recent […]

Some decisions on local taxes taken at the municipal level this year in France will affect homeowners in 2015 and 2016. New increases in residential taxes (taxe d’habitation) and property tax (taxe foncière) as well as surtaxes on second homes and building lots are part of the program.

Marilyn Benichou, Senior Counsel of Paris law firm De Gaulle, Fleurance & Associés explains some changes to French regulations about capital gains tax that apply to non-residents. From January 1st 2015, the French government introduced a number of changes to the capital gains tax regime, by means of the revised Finance Law 2014 and the […]