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PROPERTY

Five things to know about renting out your French property

Many people who buy a second home in France hope that as well as it being a pleasant bolthole, they will also generate some rental income. But it's a bit more complicated that just posting an advert and waiting for the money to roll in.

Five things to know about renting out your French property
Your French holiday home could be a source of income. Photo: AFP

While of course renting out your holiday home – either on a long-term or a short-term basis – is perfectly legal in France, there are several things that you need to consider first.

1. Short-term or long-term rental?

For most people who want to keep some time for themselves at their place in France, short-term rentals are the most attractive option. However, the income stream is always a little unreliable, so if your circumstances have changed and you need to make some money then long-term rental might be the better option.

There’s no limit to how many days per year you can rent your second home for, but if it’s a short-term lease, the same tenant cannot stay for longer than 90 days.

If your property is furnished, you also cannot offer long-term rental agreements of less than one year (or three years if it is unfurnished), so you’re looking at a reasonably long-term commitment.

If you’re planning to rent out your place on a long-term basis, be aware that the law in France is heavily weighted in the tenant’s favour. If you end up with a bad tenant you may find it difficult to get rid of them (especially in winter, the law prevents landlords from evicting tenants who are in arrears between the months of November and March). 

2. Register the property

If you decide to rent out your home, you will need to tell your local mairie and register the property as a rental property. You will also need to apply for a ‘non professional SIRET number’ to prove that you are properly registered as offering rental accommodation. This can be done at your local tax office.

If your property is in a zone tendu (an area where there is a housing shortage) the mairie may require authorisation to make the change, and there may be charges involved. You can find a list of zones tendu here.

3. Tax

You may think that if your permanent residence is outside France, you don’t need to contact French tax authorities. But the law states that if you’re earning money from your French property then you will have to start making annual tax declarations.

There are some quite generous tax breaks for landlords in France, meaning that you might end up not having to pay very much, but you still need to hand over tax declarations. You will need to tell the tax authorities in your home country about this income as well, but double taxation deals between France and most other countries mean that you won’t be taxed twice on the same income, you simply need to tell two sets of tax authorities about it.

As the building owner, you will continue to pay taxe foncière even if it’s rented out, but if you lease on a long term-basis the taxe d’habitation will then be paid by the tenant.

READ ALSO Essential information about the French annual tax declaration

4. Professional landlord or amateur?

This isn’t about whether you conduct yourself in a professional manner, it’s about what type of accommodation you are renting and the type of tax you pay.

With income from a rental property you either pay tax under the Micro regime or the Réel regime.

There are quite a few rules around this, but basically Micro is more straightforward but Réel, which involves declaring yourself as a professional landlord, has more financial advantages such as a lower tax rate and deductions for mortgage costs. It is nonetheless a complicated process, so we would suggest you get professional advice.

5. Extra costs

As well as taxes on your income from the rental, there are extra costs to consider. Insurance is not compulsory for landlords in France but is strongly advised.

It’s not just to cover breakages but to protect yourself if, for example, your tenant seriously injures themselves falling down the stairs and launches legal action against you. This type of scenario will not be covered by standard home insurance, and some home insurance contracts specifically forbid renting the property out, so you will need specialist landlord insurance.

If you are not based near the property you will also need to consider who will clean the place between rentals and arrange for keys for the tenants. In some areas, especially those popular with tourists, there are agencies that provide these type of services but in other places finding someone to do this kind of irregular work with short notice can be difficult.

And finally . . . a word about Airbnb

Renting out your property via Airbnb is perfectly legal, with some people using the platform for year-round holiday lets and others just letting out their property for a few weeks of the year while they themselves are away.

However, local authorities in several parts of France, including Paris and Strasbourg, have enacted special rules to curb the ‘Airbnb effect’ that was pricing so many local people out of the rental market. So make sure you check local rules first if you plan to use Airbnb. 

Member comments

  1. Wondering how all this applies to doing vacation rentals on Air BnB? And if you have to net a specific amount before paying tax on earnings?

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COST OF LIVING

What is considered a good salary in Paris?

The higher-paying jobs are heavily concentrated in the French capital, but set against that is the high cost of living - especially the cost of renting or buying a home. So what is considered a 'high-earner' in Paris?

What is considered a good salary in Paris?

Centrist Renaissance candidate Sylvain Maillard, running for re-election in France’s snap parliamentary elections, was trying to highlight the high cost of living in the capital in a debate on RMC Radio 

“You have extremely expensive rents [in Paris], between €1,500 and €1,700, and then there are all the charges and taxes to pay,” he said.

But what most people seized on was his comment that anyone earning €4,000 a month after tax would not be considered rich in Paris – he predictably was accused of being out of touch with French people’s lives.

There’s no doubt that €4,000 a month is good salary that most people would be happy with – but how much do you need to earn to be considered ‘rich’ in Paris?

National averages

Earlier this year, the independent Observatoire des Inégalités calculated poverty and wealth levels in France.

READ ALSO How much money do you need to be considered rich in France?

According to its calculations, to be considered ‘rich’ in France, a single person with no dependants needs to earn more than €3,860 per month, after taxes and social charges. Around eight percent of single workers have this sum deposited into their bank balance every month, it said.

A total of 23 percent of workers take home €3,000 or more every month, while the top 10 percent clear €4,170. 

To be in the top one percent of earners in France in 2024, one person must bring in at least €10,000 per month. After taxes and social charges.

The median income – the median is the ‘middle value’ of a range of totals – of tax households in mainland France is €1,923 per month after taxes and social charges, according to INSEE 2021 data, which means that a ‘rich’ person earns about twice as much as a person on the median income, according to the Observatoire.

Paris situation

About 75 percent of people living in Paris earn less than €4,458 per month, according to Insee data – so according to those calculations, 25 percent of Parisians earn the equivalent of the top 10 percent in France. 

But that city-wide average still hides a wide degree of variation. In the sixth arrondissement, the median income is €4,358 per month, after tax. In the seventh, it’s €4,255.  Further out, those bringing home €4,600 a month in the 19th and 20th arrondissements are among the top 10 percent in wealth terms.

But still, the median income in Paris is €2,639, significantly higher than the €1,923 France-wide median.

That would mean – using the Observatoire des Inégalités’ starting point for wealth – that a Paris resident, living on their own, would have to bring home €5,278 per month to be considered ‘rich’. 

France is a heavily centralised country, with many of the highest-paying industries concentrated within the capital, meaning there is much more opportunity to secure a high-wage job if you live in Paris.

Cost of living

Even these figures should all be taken with a pinch of salt because of the relatively high cost of living in the capital, compared to elsewhere in France. Paris is objectively an expensive place to call home.

In 2023, France Stratégie published a report on the disposable income of French households, after housing, food and transport costs were deducted. It found that, on average, people living in the Paris region had more left to spend, due to higher incomes and despite the fact that housing costs more.

It’s the income paradox in action. A person with a take-home salary of €4,000 per month has more money to spend if they live and work outside Paris. But they’re much more likely to earn that much if they live and work in Paris, where it’s not as valuable. 

Someone who earns a ‘rich-level’ salary in Paris might not appear rich – because they live in an expensive area, and a surrounded by very wealthy people in property that’s out of reach all-but the fattest of wallets. But they’re still earning more than twice the median income in France.

And that’s what Sylvain Maillard was getting at, clumsily as he may have expressed it.

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