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Empty room with white walls, open double doors and light wooden floor (illustrative photo)

10 octobre 2026

Renovate before selling your apartment, or sell as is?

Diagnostic reports, co-ownership, capital gains, DPE: the key points for deciding without haste.

There is no single answer: before any sale, the law requires diagnostic reports and honest disclosure to the buyer, but the works recommendations in the DPE (energy performance certificate) are for guidance only. Tidying and cleaning are almost always worthwhile, freshening up is decided case by case, and major works deserve to be costed through quotes before any decision. The safest course is to have your apartment valued as it stands before incurring any expense.

Diagnostic reports, DPE, energy audit: what the law requires in any case

Whether you renovate or not, the seller provides a technical diagnostic file (dossier de diagnostic technique), appended to the pre-sale agreement (promesse de vente) or, where there is no such agreement, to the notarial deed of sale (acte authentique). For an apartment, it includes in particular the energy performance certificate (diagnostic de performance énergétique, DPE), the lead exposure report if the building was constructed before 1949, the asbestos report if the building permit predates July 1997, and the reports on gas and electricity installations more than fifteen years old. The details are set out in our article on the mandatory diagnostic reports for selling an apartment.

The DPE given to the buyer must be no more than ten years old; those carried out between 1 January 2018 and 30 June 2021 have no longer been valid since 1 January 2025. The listing shows the energy class and the climate class of the home, together with the estimated amount of its annual energy costs. For a property rated F or G, it carries the statement “logement à consommation énergétique excessive” (home with excessive energy consumption). The works recommendations that accompany the DPE are for guidance only.

The energy audit (audit énergétique) is required for the sale of an individual house or of a building belonging to a single owner, rated E, F or G (class D will be covered from 1 January 2034). If you are selling an apartment in a co-ownership building (copropriété), you are not asked to provide one.

Tidying, freshening up, major works: three levels to distinguish

Tidying and cleaning

Decluttering, cleaning thoroughly, repairing a handle, renewing a seal: these steps cost little and require no authorisation.

Freshening up

Repainting in a neutral shade, repairing a damaged floor: this is decided case by case. Does the defect really detract from the viewing? If the buyer is likely to redo everything to their own taste, it is often better to refrain.

Undertaking major works

Refitting a kitchen or a bathroom, redoing the electrics, rearranging the layout of the rooms: these projects require a substantial budget and delay putting the property on the market. Nothing guarantees that the sale price will cover the expense. Before committing yourself, ask for quotes.

Should you carry out works to improve the DPE?

Buyers look at the energy rating, especially if they are buying to let: it has no longer been possible to let a home rated G since 1 January 2025, and class F will be affected from 2028.

Before undertaking works to gain a class, check your current rating. On 1 January 2026, the coefficient applied to electricity in the DPE calculation fell from 2.3 to 1.9. An order (arrêté) of 19 August 2026 lowers it to 1.7 on 1 January 2027. According to the ministerial press release of 31 August 2026, no home will see its rating downgraded, and that of many homes heated by electricity may improve. DPEs that are currently valid remain so and can be updated free of charge, without a new visit from the diagnostic inspector, on the website of the Ademe DPE-Audit Observatory (from 1 January 2027 for the coefficient of 1.7).

On the link between the DPE and price, the notaires of France (French notaries) referred, on 8 December 2025, to a study on “green value” (valeur verte): in 2024, homes rated G sold on average for less than those in class D. These averages do not tell you what your apartment would be worth after works.

In a co-ownership building, which works require authorisation and who pays for the works voted?

Works inside your apartment

You are free to do as you wish with your private portions, provided you respect the co-ownership regulations (règlement de copropriété) and the rights of the other co-owners: non-load-bearing partitions, internal doors, floor coverings, kitchen, bathroom. On the other hand, works that affect the common parts (making an opening in a load-bearing wall, for example) or that alter the external appearance of the building (changing windows, creating an opening, fitting bars, air conditioning) require authorisation from the general meeting of co-owners (assemblée générale). It is obtained before work begins, by a majority of the votes of all the co-owners. Some works also require a planning authorisation (autorisation d'urbanisme).

Without this authorisation, the works are irregular and the managing agent (syndic) can oblige the co-owner to restore the premises to their previous condition.

Works voted by the co-ownership

Provisions for expenses not included in the forecast budget, such as works voted at a general meeting, are owed by whoever, seller or buyer, is the co-owner at the time they fall due. You therefore pay the calls for funds issued before the sale, and the buyer those issued afterwards. You may agree on a different allocation, but that agreement has effect only between the two of you: it is not binding on the managing agent. Sums paid into the works fund (fonds de travaux) are not refunded to the seller.

The buyer receives, no later than the signing of the pre-sale agreement, the minutes of the general meetings of the last three years and the multi-year works plan (plan pluriannuel de travaux) or its draft.

Do works reduce capital gains tax?

The question does not arise for your main residence, the sale of which is exempt. It mainly concerns second homes and let properties.

Where the capital gain (plus-value) is taxable, the purchase price used for the calculation may be increased by certain works expenses, under the conditions laid down by the French General Tax Code (code général des impôts):

  • they are expenses for construction, reconstruction, extension or improvement;
  • you bore them, the works were carried out by a contractor and are evidenced by its invoices;
  • they have not already been taken into account for income tax and are not dépenses locatives (expenses of the kind normally borne by a tenant).

The tax authorities specify that maintenance and repair expenses are not accepted, nor are works carried out by the owner personally or materials the owner has bought.

If you sell more than five years after the purchase, you may use, in place of the actual amount of the works, a flat-rate increase equal to 15% of the purchase price, without having to prove that they were carried out. Keep your invoices, and ask your notaire to calculate the tax in your situation before deciding on a project.

Selling as is: what should you tell the buyer and how do you set the price?

Honest disclosure

Selling as is does not release you from the duty to inform. The French Civil Code (code civil) requires a party who knows information that is decisive for the other party's consent to communicate it to them. It also provides for the warranty against hidden defects (garantie des vices cachés): the seller is liable for hidden defects that make the property unfit for its use, or that diminish it to such an extent that the buyer would not have acquired it or would have paid a lower price for it. The seller is not liable for apparent defects, which the buyer was able to see for themselves. The buyer has two years from the discovery of the defect to take action.

The deed may provide that the seller does not warrant against hidden defects, but the Civil Code reserves this possibility for defects of which the seller was unaware. And if a report such as the lead, asbestos, gas or electricity report is missing or no longer valid when the notarial deed of sale is signed, the seller cannot be released from the corresponding warranty. In practice, disclose what you know: water damage, water ingress, works carried out. Your notaire will take care of the wording.

A price set with quotes in hand

The price of a property in need of renovation must take its condition into account. Two elements help to set it: contractors' quotes for the main works, which give the buyer a verifiable order of magnitude, and a valuation opinion (avis de valeur) of the property as it stands, based on comparable sales. Our article Property prices in Beausoleil: where to find the real figures explains where to consult the prices actually recorded.

You can then compare the price achievable as is with the cost and duration of the works. If the difference does not clearly justify the expense, selling the property as it stands is a reasonable decision.

In Beausoleil and the towns near Monaco

In Beausoleil, Cap-d'Ail, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, La Turbie or Menton, many of the properties put up for sale are apartments in co-ownership buildings. Two consequences follow: the energy audit does not apply to these units, and any project that alters the external appearance of the building goes through the general meeting.

For second homes, which are found in the area, the main residence exemption does not apply: the question of works invoices and the 15% flat rate is worth raising with the notaire.

Some owners live in Italy or Monaco. For a seller who is not domiciled in France for tax purposes, the capital gain is subject to a levy at the rate of 19%, to which social levies (prélèvements sociaux) are added; the tax is paid by the notaire at the time of the sale. The appointment of a tax representative (représentant fiscal) may be required, except in particular for sellers domiciled in a European Union Member State such as Italy. Monaco falls under a specific tax treaty: persons of French nationality who reside there are, subject to exceptions, taxed in France on their income as if they were domiciled in France. Your notaire will check your situation. Finally, overseeing building works from a distance takes time.

How Transal Properties supports you

Our estate agency is located at 10 boulevard de la République, 06240 Beausoleil. Before any decision on works, we can visit your apartment and give you a free, no-obligation valuation of the property as it stands. This valuation opinion gives you a basis for comparing the two options, with quotes in hand. If you decide to sell, we support you through to the signing at the notaire's office. For any tax or legal question specific to your situation, your notaire remains the person to consult.

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

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