Taxe Foncière and French Property Taxes Explained (2026)

France funds its municipalities through property taxes, and foreign owners are liable on exactly the same basis as locals — residence and nationality are irrelevant. What confuses newcomers is the 2023 reform : the taxe d'habitation disappeared for principal residences but survived for second homes, which is precisely what most foreign-owned properties are. Since then, many communes have voted the maximum surcharges.

Here is what lands in your letterbox (or, better, your online tax account) each year, and how to keep every bill under control.

The taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties is owed by whoever owns the property on 1 January — sell in March and you legally owe the whole year, though sale deeds universally prorate it between seller and buyer at completion.

Key facts :

• It applies to houses, apartments, garages and outbuildings ; a separate (small) tax covers non-built land;
• Bills arrive late August-September, payment due mid-October (about 5 days later online);
• The amount varies enormously by commune — the rate is voted locally. Rough 2026 orders of magnitude : €900-1,800/year for an average house in a rural or mid-size town, €1,500-3,000+ in cities like Bordeaux, Marseille or Nîmes, often less in Paris intra-muros (low municipal rate on small cadastral values);
• New constructions enjoy a 2-year exemption (partial in some communes) — it must be claimed within 90 days of completion;
• Landlords note : the taxe foncière is the owner's burden and cannot be recharged to a residential tenant, except the household waste collection share (TEOM), which can.

The formula : cadastral rental value ÷ 2 × communal rate.

• The cadastral rental value (valeur locative cadastrale) is the theoretical annual rent your property could produce, per the land registry's records — based on surface, comfort elements and a location category. It is revalued nationally every year by indexation on inflation (recent years : +7.1% in 2023, +3.9% in 2024, +1.7% in 2025), which is why bills climb even when local rates are frozen;
• A 50% abatement covers notional maintenance costs;
• The communal rate is voted each year by the municipality — this is where the big differences (and the big increases) come from.

What you can check and challenge : the surface and comfort elements on file. Extensions, pools and outbuildings raise the value (and are increasingly detected by the tax authority's aerial-imagery AI) ; conversely, errors in your favour — a recorded surface larger than reality, a demolished outbuilding still on file — justify a claim. Claims go through your online account or the local tax office, generally by 31 December of the year following the bill.

Since 2023, the taxe d'habitation sur les résidences secondaires (THRS) applies only to furnished dwellings that are not the occupant's principal residence — the typical foreign-owned holiday home falls squarely in scope. It is owed by whoever has the use of the property on 1 January (owner, or long-term tenant of a furnished second home).

The sting is the surcharge : in « zones tendues » (high-demand housing areas — some 3,700 communes including virtually all of the Côte d'Azur, the Basque coast, the Alps, Paris and every major city), municipalities may add a surcharge of 5% to 60% on top of the base THRS. Paris, Nice, Bordeaux, Biarritz, Saint-Malo, Annecy and most tourist hotspots have voted the maximum 60%.

Realistic budgets in 2026 : a two-bedroom apartment on the coast commonly generates €1,000-2,500 of THRS with surcharge ; large villas in premium communes can exceed €5,000. Combined with the taxe foncière, annual carrying taxes of €3,000-8,000 for a substantial second home are now normal in sought-after areas — worth factoring into any keep-or-sell decision on an inherited property (see our guide to selling an inherited French property).

Exemptions are narrow : professional obligation to live elsewhere, moving to a care home, or a property genuinely uninhabitable.

An empty and unfurnished dwelling escapes the THRS but triggers a vacancy tax instead :

• TLV (taxe sur les logements vacants) in zones tendues : after 1 year of vacancy, 17% of the cadastral rental value the first year, 34% from the second — deliberately punitive;
• THLV elsewhere, if the commune votes it : after 2 years of vacancy, at the local taxe d'habitation rate.

A property occupied more than 90 consecutive days in the year escapes both. For owners keeping a French property empty « for later », the arithmetic increasingly says : furnish it (THRS applies instead), rent it, or sell. Involuntary vacancy — a property genuinely on the market at a fair price without takers, or needing major works — is exempt, but you must document it.

Since 2023, every owner of French residential property — resident or not — must file a declaration of occupancy (« Biens immobiliers » section of your account on impots.gouv.fr) stating how each property is used : principal residence, second home, rented (to whom), or vacant. It drives which taxes you are billed.

Points for foreign owners :

• You need a French tax number (numéro fiscal) and an online account — non-residents obtain one through the non-residents tax office (SIPNR) ; the notaire's completion paperwork usually triggers its creation for new buyers;
• The declaration is required once, then again after every change (new tenant, property sold, change of use);
• Failure to declare carries a €150 fine per property — but the practical risk is worse : being billed as vacant or second home when an exemption applied.

The mechanics :

• Go paperless early : bills to a French holiday home letterbox go unread ; activate the online account and email alerts;
• Payment : online payment works from foreign cards/accounts ; better, set up monthly direct debit (prélèvement mensuel) — it requires a SEPA account (any eurozone account works, and many UK/international banks offer SEPA-capable euro accounts);
• Deadlines 2026 : taxe foncière mid-October ; THRS mid-December. Late payment costs a 10% surcharge;
• Reductions : the taxe foncière has age/income-based relief for residents but little for non-residents ; the main lever is checking the cadastral data and claiming errors. On the THRS, the only real lever is the property's status — a property rented out long-term (furnished or unfurnished) shifts the tax burden away from you;
• When selling : the notaire prorates the taxe foncière at completion ; the THRS stays with whoever held the property on 1 January, no proration by law (negotiable in the deed).