Notaire fees on French property sales rise

A total of 97 French departments have now decided to apply increased notaire fees on property sales, since this was permitted last year.

Only Indre, Isère, Morbihan and Mayotte have opted not to do so, thus keeping the droits de mutation taxes in these areas at 5.09% as opposed to 5.8%.

Despite the common name, notaire fees, at a total of about 7-8% of the sale price in the case of non-new-build properties, are collected by notaires but consist mostly of tax passed to the department, commune and central state, with only a modest amount going to the notaire as a remuneration.

The department’s part is from 3.8 to 4.5%, the commune’s 1.2% and the central state’s 0.095% to 0.1125%.

The rest of the fees consist of the notaire’s émoluments (around 10% of the fees) plus paying back sums advanced by him or her for administrative tasks, plus costs of formalities for registering the sale.

It is worth noting that first-time buyers are exempt from the increased fees when they are buying a main home.

Also, the fees are much reduced for purchasers of new-builds, where there is very little tax.