If you have just discovered this site – bienvenue, you are in the right place. The English Investor is a free resource for English-speaking investors buying, holding, letting and selling property in France, written by someone who does all four of those things personally and reads the law in the original. Every article is grounded in French law, verified against official sources, and written in plain English – the practical knowledge that notaires, estate agents and expat forums usually leave out, often because nobody ever asked them the question in English. Find your situation below and jump straight in.
I’m Buying (or Thinking About It)
The order of operations matters more in France than almost anywhere else – sign the wrong preliminary contract, or skip the wrong check, and you are committed before you realise it. These will keep you out of the classic traps:
- How to buy property in France: the complete step-by-step guide – the full process, from offer to keys.
- Compromis vs promesse de vente – the contract decision every buyer faces first.
- Getting a French mortgage as a non-resident.
- What the 2026 estate-agent ruling means for buyers.
I Own and I Let (or Want To)
Letting in France is a regulated sport, and the rules changed more in the last two years than in the previous ten. This is the rulebook, from the tax regime you choose on day one to the day the relationship sours:
- The LMNP furnished-letting guide – the tax regime most foreign landlords use.
- The new Jeanbrun amortisation regime (2026) – depreciation finally comes to unfurnished letting.
- The complete short-let / Airbnb playbook and the primary-residence rules.
- How to verify a tenant’s income documents – before the tenancy, not after.
- The eviction process, start to finish – and the squatter rules.
I Need the Tax Picture
The part nobody enjoys, made as painless as it can honestly be made – and kept current, because the rules genuinely do change every year:
- The non-resident French tax return, explained – and how to fix a mistake after filing.
- IFI: the French wealth tax on property.
- The DPE energy rules and the letting ban.
- Capital gains tax when you sell – the non-resident rules, rates and reliefs.
- Taxe foncière: the annual ownership tax, explained.
I’m Structuring, Selling or Passing It On
For the long game – the holding structure you choose at the start quietly decides the tax bill at the end, and French succession law has opinions about your estate whether you ask for them or not:
- The ultimate SCI guide – and the CCA library, starting with the associé’s reimbursement right.
- French inheritance law for foreign owners.
- Selling as a non-EU resident: the accredited tax representative.
Who writes this? A lawyer qualified in New York, England & Wales and Paris, with degrees from Georgetown Law and Sciences Po, more than a decade in private practice, and French property held through my own SCIs – so the advice here has been tested on my own tax returns and my own tenants. Anonymous by professional obligation, which is exactly why every claim on this site is backed by a source you can check. More about me and how I work.
Stay Up to Date
French property law moved faster in the last eighteen months than in the previous decade – Le Meur, the DPE calendar, Jeanbrun, the 2026 tax changes – and the cost of working from last year’s rules is real money. The newsletter is how you keep up without living on Légifrance: one email with each new guide, no spam, unsubscribe anytime. Subscribe here. And for the day-to-day – new rulings, deadlines, the occasional war story – follow me on X.
Need One-to-One Help?
I take on a small number of private consultations for cross-border French property questions. Tell me about your situation and I will tell you honestly whether I can help.