Giving your children the bare ownership of a French home while you keep the usufruct cuts French gift tax and leaves nothing more to pay on your death. Here's who pays for repairs, why the wealth tax still bites, and how HMRC may see the same deed.
If you live in the UK and own a let French property through an SCI, the same rent can be taxed twice. The UK now plans a credit for the French tax, with claims from early 2028: what it could save, and what is still open.
In France you can’t lift a sitting tenant’s rent to market whenever you like: the law sets the timetable, and in tight-market zones even a new tenant’s rent is capped. We run the numbers on when keeping a good tenant beats chasing the market.
Every step of selling a French property while you live abroad, in order: the reports, the agent, the preliminary contract, signing remotely, the French tax the notaire takes, and the UK side.
French home prices fell 0.8% in the year to mid-2026, with houses down 1.3% and flats almost unchanged. We break down the notaires’ figures by city, explain why the 4% mortgage line matters, and what it all means if you sell or buy from abroad.
Most UK, US, Canadian and Australian sellers of French property need to appoint a représentant fiscal accrédité before the notarial closing. Here is the structural map — when the requirement applies, the three automatic dispenses, the post-Brexit shift, and what it costs.
Every foreign owner of French property pays taxe foncière annually. Here is the structural map for 2026 — how the bill is calculated, the October deadlines, the new-build exemption, and the secondary-residence surtax that catches owners off guard.
A cross-border comparison of UK Stamp Duty Land Tax and French frais de notaire in 2026 — the bands, the surcharges, the carve-outs, and concrete worked examples at £500K and €500K for primary residence, second home, non-resident and new-build purchases.
If you own French property and live abroad, you owe a French tax return by 21 May 2026 — even with zero rental income. Here is the box-by-box walkthrough, deadlines, and the five mistakes foreign owners make every year.
A non-EU passport holder can spend a maximum of 90 days in any rolling 180-day period in the Schengen Area. This is the rule that catches more foreign owners of French property at the border than any other piece of post-Brexit law — and the VLS-T visa is the legal way around it.
What does a Paris pied-à-terre actually cost a foreign owner in 2026? We walked through a representative €500,000 one-bedroom and added up every line — DMTO, copropriété, taxe d'habitation surtax, CSG/CRDS, exit CGT. The honest after-tax net yield is 2.1%, lifestyle value notwithstanding.