Enter the price and choose the department: the calculator sets out the transfer taxes, the notaire’s regulated fee with its VAT and the property security contribution, to the cent and in euros. What the French call frais de notaire is mostly tax passed on to the department, the commune and the State; the notaire keeps only a small part. It covers an existing home in mainland France or Corsica, not a new home sold with VAT and not the overseas departments, where the notaires’ scale is different. Buying in the UK instead? There is no notary fee there: see the first question below.
Enter the price
Use the price that will appear in the deed of sale (acte de vente). Transfer taxes are charged on that price, or on the property’s real market value if that is higher. Furniture sold with the home is not subject to transfer tax if it has its own price and is listed and valued item by item in the deed: in that case, enter the price without the furniture.
Choose the department
From 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2028, departments may raise their transfer tax from 4.50% to 5%. On 1 June 2026, 86 of the 96 departments of mainland France charged 5.00%; nine stayed at 4.50% (Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Ardèche, Charente, Drôme, Lozère, Oise, Hautes-Pyrénées and Saône-et-Loire) and Indre charges 3.80%. On top come the communal tax of 1.20% and the State’s collection fee, 2.37% of the departmental duty. These rates may change on 1 January 2027. If you do not know yet where you will buy, the calculator works at the most common rate.
First-time buyer: tick the box
The increase to 5% does not apply if the home will be your main home and you have not owned your main home in the two years before the purchase: you then pay the department’s ordinary rate, 4.50% almost everywhere, and as little as 4.00% in Savoie for a first property you undertake to live in as your main home for at least five years. The test looks at France only, so a buyer moving from abroad may qualify, and income and financing play no part. A married couple under a community-of-property regime must both qualify; joint buyers in indivision each benefit in proportion to their share, which the calculator does not split.
Disbursements, formalities and discounts
The notaire also charges fees for formalities and passes on disbursements, the sums paid on your behalf (surveyor, managing agent of the building, civil-status documents and so on). They vary from one purchase to another: copy the figure from the notaire’s quote. An office may grant a discount of up to 20% on the part of its fee worked out above €100,000; if it does, the same rate applies to all its clients and must be displayed.
Rounding
Each amount is rounded to the nearest cent, a half cent being rounded up, and totals are the sum of the rounded amounts. Your notaire’s statement may differ by a few euros because of its own rounding.
Transfer taxes = price × departmental rate + price × 1.20% + departmental duty × 2.37%.
Notaire’s fee before VAT = 3.870% up to €6,500, 1.596% from €6,500 to €17,000, 1.064% from €17,000 to €60,000 and 0.799% above, bracket by bracket, plus VAT at 20%.
Security contribution = 0.10% of the price, at least €15.
Notaire fees = transfer taxes + fee including VAT + security contribution + disbursements and formalities.
Example: a €180,000 house in the Dordogne
At 5.00%, the departmental duty is €9,000.00, the communal tax €2,160.00 and the collection fee €213.30: €11,373.30 of transfer taxes. The notaire’s fee is €1,835.45 before VAT and €2,202.54 with it, and the security contribution €180.00. Total: €13,755.84, or 7.64% of the price, before disbursements and formalities. A first-time buyer making it their main home pays 4.50%, which brings the transfer taxes down to €10,451.97 and the total to €12,834.51.
