The French property taxes a foreign owner actually pays each year

A French property tax bill is not one line, it is two different taxes with two different logics, and a foreign owner of a second home pays both while a French resident of their own main home now pays only one. Here is the honest shape of each, with the figures that could be verified, dated and sourced.

"Taxe fonciere" (the property tax): the one every owner pays, resident or not

"Taxe fonciere sur les proprietes baties", French for built-property tax, is an annual property tax owed by whoever owns a built property on 1 January of the tax year, regardless of where that owner lives or whether the home is ever rented out. It is set on a notional rental value of the property (the "valeur locative cadastrale", the cadastral rental value) multiplied by a rate voted locally, commune by commune, so two similar villas in two different towns can carry very different bills. The national average bill across all French properties, of every type and size, was about 1,117 euros in 2025, projected to about 1,125 euros in 2026. That average is close to meaningless for a market like Saint-Tropez or Cap Ferrat: it is dragged down by millions of ordinary apartments and modest houses, and a high-value villa on a large plot in a sought-after commune will owe a materially larger bill, precisely because the tax is based on that property's own cadastral value and the commune's own rate, not a national number. Communal rates themselves run from roughly 15% to over 60% of the cadastral base, with Paris near 20% and Marseille near 43% as reference points. There is no single "French property tax rate": you confirm the commune's own rate and your specific property's cadastral value, never a national average, and if you already own in a market like Saint-Tropez, treat the figure above as a floor for an ordinary home, not a guide to your own bill.

"Taxe d'habitation" (the residential tax): gone from your main home, still due on your second one

"Taxe d'habitation", a residential occupancy tax, used to be owed by whoever occupied a home on 1 January, owner or tenant. Since 2023 it has been abolished for a "residence principale", a main home. It was never abolished for a "residence secondaire", a second home, and remains fully in force on second homes in 2026: this is exactly the case for a foreign owner's French villa, which is a second home by definition. So a French resident telling you "we don't pay taxe d'habitation anymore" is only describing their own main home. On your second home in France, you still owe it every year, calculated the same way as before: the property's cadastral rental value times a rate set by the commune.

The extra charge some communes add on top of that second-home tax

A second, separate decision some communes make: on top of the base taxe d'habitation described above, article 1407 ter of the French tax code lets communes in a "zone tendue" (a designated high-demand area, broadly a built-up zone of over 50,000 residents where housing is scarce) vote a surcharge of between 5% and 60% of that base tax, specifically on second homes, meant to push owners toward putting empty homes into the long-term rental market. As of 2026 more than 1,000 communes apply this surcharge, including some at the maximum: Paris, Lyon and Nice at 60%, Bordeaux and Nantes at 40%. It is layered on top of the taxe d'habitation second-home bill, not a third tax, but whether your specific commune applies it, and at what percentage, is a fact about that commune this year that you confirm directly, never assumed from the town's reputation.

How this differs from a US property tax bill

A US owner is used to one property tax, billed by the county, at an effective rate that in 2026 averages around 0.99% of home value nationally, ranging roughly from 0.29% in Hawaii to about 2.23% in New Jersey. France splits the equivalent burden into two named taxes with different triggers (ownership versus second-home status) and layers a discretionary local surcharge on top of one of them. The practical consequence: comparing "French property tax" to "US property tax" as if they were the same single number understates the French second-home bill, because the US comparison has no equivalent of the taxe d'habitation second-home surcharge at all.

The day you sell: capital gains tax depends on your residence

The two taxes above are annual and apply while you own the villa. When you eventually sell it, a different tax applies once, on the gain: French real estate capital gains tax ("plus-value immobiliere"). The standard structure, verified 30/07/2026: 19% income tax on the gain, plus social charges, with taper relief that exempts the gain from income tax entirely after 22 years of ownership and from social charges only after 30 years, and a progressive surtax of 2% to 6% on net gains above 50,000 euros. Where residence changes the bill: EU, EEA and Swiss residents pay social charges at 17.2%. Following a French social security financing law effective 1 January 2026, non-EU/EEA residents (which, since Brexit, generally includes a UK owner not affiliated to an EEA health scheme, and any US owner) instead pay a higher CSG component, 10.6% instead of 9.2%, bringing their total social charges to roughly 18.6%. On top of the tax itself, a seller resident outside the EU/EEA must appoint a "representant fiscal" (a mandatory tax representative) whenever the sale price exceeds 150,000 euros, an extra cost and an extra step in the sale that an EU-resident seller does not face. These are the structural rules as they stand today; rates, thresholds and the EU/non-EU distinction have moved before and can move again, so confirm the figures in force at the time you actually sell.

What to actually do before you buy or budget

Ask the seller's notaire or the local mairie for the property's current taxe fonciere and taxe d'habitation bills, not a national average, and ask explicitly whether the commune applies the zone tendue surcharge and at what percentage this year. Both taxes are billed annually in the second half of the year and both are due whether or not the villa was rented, so they belong in your fixed running costs, not your rental-income model. Capital gains tax is a separate, one-time question to plan for before you sell, not before you buy, and depends on how long you hold the property and where you are resident at the time. To see what the same villa could earn against those fixed costs, estimate it free in three questions, or compare it with a market with no equivalent of either tax.

The honest disclaimer

This is general information, not tax or legal advice, and we are not tax advisers. Property and capital gains tax rates are set locally or nationally, change most years and depend on your specific commune, residence and nationality, so confirm this year's figures with the local mairie, a notaire or a qualified cross-border tax professional before you rely on them. Where a figure could not be verified, we said so rather than guess. Sources, verified 30/07/2026: French taxe fonciere national average bill and communal rate range, 2025 and 2026 projections (Cafpi, Journal du Net, published 2026); taxe d'habitation abolition on main homes since 2023 and continuation on second homes in 2026 (French public finance guidance, Arkendia, La Residence, 2026); zone tendue second-home surcharge under CGI article 1407 ter, 5% to 60%, and the Paris/Lyon/Nice/Bordeaux/Nantes rates cited for 2026 (published French tax simulators, 2026); US average effective property tax rate and state range for 2026 (Motley Fool, Bankrate, Tax Foundation, 2026); French real estate capital gains tax structure, 19% income tax, taper relief at 22 and 30 years, surtax bands above 50,000 euros (Fiscaloo, Finalib, 2026); the 1 January 2026 CSG increase for non-EU/EEA residents from 9.2% to 10.6% under the 2026 social security financing law, and the 150,000 euro mandatory tax representative threshold for non-EU/EEA sellers (Letulle, published 2026).

Published 30/07/2026. Figures generated from our live benchmark data and updated on recalibration.