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31 octobre 2026

Capital gains on a second home in France: what tax is due on sale?

Rates, allowances for length of ownership, exemptions and the rules applicable to non-resident sellers

The capital gain made on the sale of a second home is taxed at 19% as income tax and at 17.2% in social levies, after allowances that increase with the length of ownership. Exemption is total after twenty-two years for income tax and after thirty years for social levies. The notaire (French notary) calculates the tax and pays it to the tax authorities at the time of the sale; specific rules apply to sellers who live outside France.

When is the capital gain on a second home taxable?

When you sell a property for more than the price at which you acquired it, you make a capital gain (plus-value). It is in principle subject to income tax and to social levies (prélèvements sociaux). The main residence is the exception: its sale is fully exempt.

The main residence is the home that you occupy habitually and actually, that is, for the greater part of the year, on the day of the sale. A holiday apartment, a pied-à-terre or a let property does not fall within this definition: its sale is in principle taxable.

These rules were checked on 3 October 2026; a loi de finances (Finance Act) may change them.

The main exemptions

Apart from the main residence and the length of ownership, detailed below, the law provides for several exemptions, each subject to specific conditions. Here are three of them:

  • The first sale of a home other than the main residence: provided that you have not owned your main residence during the previous four years and that you reinvest the price, within twenty-four months, in buying or building your main home.
  • Pensioners and holders of the carte mobilité inclusion bearing the invalidité endorsement (the French disability card): subject to conditions relating to income and assets.
  • Sales where the price does not exceed €15,000.

How is the capital gain calculated?

The gross capital gain is the difference between the sale price and the acquisition price, each being adjusted for certain costs.

The adjusted sale price

The starting point is the price stated in the deed of sale. You may deduct from it, on production of supporting documents, certain costs that you have borne in order to sell: the fees paid to an intermediary or to an agent, or the cost of the mandatory diagnostic reports.

The increased acquisition price

The acquisition price is the price you paid, as it appears in the purchase deed. If you received the property by gift or by inheritance, it is the value used to calculate the duties. This price may be increased by:

  • the acquisition costs, at their actual, documented amount or, for a property that was purchased, at a flat rate of 7.5% of the purchase price;
  • expenses for construction, reconstruction, extension or improvement carried out by a contractor, at their actual, documented amount and subject to conditions: in particular, they must not already have been taken into account for your income tax. If you sell more than five years after the acquisition, you may instead use a flat rate of 15% of the acquisition price.

If the home has been let furnished and taxed under the régime réel (taxation on actual income and expenses), the depreciation deducted during the letting is, save exceptions, deducted from the acquisition price, which increases the taxable capital gain.

What allowances apply according to the length of ownership?

The gross capital gain is reduced by an allowance calculated for each full year of ownership, from the sixth year onwards.

For income tax

  • 6% for each year of ownership, from the sixth to the twenty-first;
  • 4% for the twenty-second year.

For example, the allowance reaches 30% after ten years and 60% after fifteen years. Exemption is acquired at the end of twenty-two years.

For social levies

  • 1.65% for each year, from the sixth to the twenty-first;
  • 1.60% for the twenty-second year;
  • 9% for each year beyond the twenty-second.

Exemption is acquired at the end of thirty years. Between twenty-two and thirty years of ownership, only the social levies therefore remain payable.

What are the tax rates?

  • Income tax: 19% of the net taxable capital gain.
  • Social levies: 17.2% in total, that is, 9.2% of contribution sociale généralisée (CSG, general social contribution), 0.5% of contribution au remboursement de la dette sociale (CRDS, contribution to the repayment of the social debt) and 7.5% of prélèvement de solidarité (solidarity levy).
  • Tax on high property capital gains: it is added where the capital gain subject to income tax, after the allowance, exceeds €50,000. Its rate, from 2% to 6% depending on the amount, applies to the whole of the taxable capital gain.

Where the property is sold by a married couple or by several owners in indivision (joint ownership between heirs or co-owners), the €50,000 threshold is assessed on the share of the capital gain falling to each of them.

And the loi de finances pour 2026?

The loi de finances pour 2026 (Finance Act for 2026) changed neither these rates nor the scale of allowances. The increase in the CSG decided for 2026 on certain investment income does not apply to property capital gains.

Non-resident sellers: what specific rules apply?

If you are not domiciled in France for tax purposes, the capital gain on a property located in France remains in principle taxable in France, with the same calculation and the same allowances.

The rates

The levy is 19% for individuals, whatever the country of residence. Social levies are payable at the overall rate of 17.2%, unless you are covered by the social security scheme of another State of the European Union or of the European Economic Area, or of Switzerland, without being affiliated to a compulsory French scheme: being exempt from CSG and CRDS, you then pay only the solidarity levy of 7.5%.

The tax representative

A seller domiciled outside France must in principle appoint a representative accredited by the tax authorities (représentant fiscal), under whose responsibility the tax is paid. You are exempt from this requirement in particular if:

  • you are domiciled in a State of the European Union or, subject to conditions, in another State of the European Economic Area;
  • the sale price is less than or equal to €150,000 per seller (a married couple counts as a single seller);
  • the property, owned for more than thirty years, is fully exempt by reason of the length of ownership.

The representative may in particular be an accredited company, a bank operating in France or the buyer, if the buyer is domiciled in France for tax purposes. The representative's fees are deductible from the sale price.

Exemptions specific to non-residents

  • The former main residence in France. It may be exempt if you have transferred your tax domicile to a Member State of the European Union or to a State bound to France by agreements on administrative assistance and on the recovery of tax. The sale must take place no later than 31 December of the year following that transfer, without the home having been made available to a third party in the meantime.
  • A home in France, up to a limit of €150,000 of net taxable capital gain and of one residence per taxpayer. This exemption is reserved for nationals of a State of the European Union or, subject to conditions, of the European Economic Area, who were domiciled in France for tax purposes continuously for at least two years at any time before the sale. The sale must take place no later than 31 December of the tenth year following the departure from France, or without any time limit if you have had the property freely at your disposal since at least 1 January of the year preceding the sale.

These two exemptions cannot be combined.

In Beausoleil and the towns close to Monaco

In Beausoleil, Cap-d'Ail, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, La Turbie or Menton, an apartment in a co-ownership building (copropriété) is sometimes a second home or a let property. Where its owner lives in Monaco or in Italy, specific rules apply.

  • You live in Italy. As Italy is a member of the European Union, you are in principle exempt from appointing a tax representative. If you are covered by Italian social security and not by a French scheme, only the solidarity levy of 7.5% remains payable by way of social levies.
  • You are French and live in Monaco. According to the convention fiscale franco-monégasque du 18 mai 1963 (the tax treaty between France and Monaco of 18 May 1963), you are in principle subject to income tax in France as if you were domiciled there; the €150,000 exemption reserved for non-residents is then not open to you. Exceptions exist, for example if you can show five years of habitual residence in Monaco as at 13 October 1962 or if you have lived there without interruption since your birth.
  • You are Monegasque, or French and recognised as a tax resident of Monaco under that treaty. The capital gain falls under the regime for non-residents. According to the Bulletin officiel des finances publiques (the official published guidance of the French tax authorities), you are exempt from appointing a tax representative for a property located in the Alpes-Maritimes or the Var.
  • You live in Monaco and have another nationality. Monaco is a member of neither the European Union nor the European Economic Area: apart from the general exemptions mentioned above, a tax representative is in principle required.

For a resident of Monaco taxed as a non-resident, social levies are in principle payable at the overall rate of 17.2%. This article deals only with French tax: have your situation confirmed by your notaire (French notary).

Who calculates and pays the tax?

The notaire in charge of the sale calculates the taxable capital gain and the amount of the tax, prepares the return and pays the tax to the tax authorities. The return is filed, together with the payment, within the month following the date of the deed.

If you are domiciled in France, it then remains for you to report the amount of the taxable capital gain on your income tax return for the year of the sale.

Prepare the supporting documents early, in addition to the documents to be gathered at each stage of the sale: purchase deed, contractors' invoices, deed of gift or inheritance declaration (déclaration de succession).

Support from Transal Properties

Transal Properties welcomes you at 10 boulevard de la République, 06240 Beausoleil. Before any decision, we can provide you with a free, no-obligation valuation of your apartment. It gives you a basis on which to ask your notaire for a simulation of the capital gain. If you choose to sell with us, we support you through to the signing at the notaire's office. We do not provide personalised tax or legal advice: the final calculation and the advice are a matter for your notaire.

Laura-Lynn Nacher de Coster, Managing Director of Transal Properties

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