How Much do I pay the Notaire?

When you buy a property in France you need to cover not only the price of the property but also the costs involved in the buying process - estate agent's fees [See How Much do I pay the Estate Agent?]and Notaire's fees.

The conveyancing cost consists of notaire's fees, land registry fees and stamp duty - and all are payable to the notaire.

If you're buying property under construction or less than 5 years old, these charges would normally amount to between 2% and 4% of the purchase price.

If you're buying property over 5 years old these can amount to between 6% and 8% of the purchase price (on a sliding scale with higher priced properties attracting a lower overall percentage).

As well as these conveyancing costs there are costs for registering the bank's charge if you have arranged a loan from a French lender. This varies according to the amount of the loan, €1,659 for a loan of €150,000 for example.

The notaire's fees and the stamp duty are based on fixed national tarifs and charges should not vary between different notaires. However, if you are buying a property direct from the Notaire without passing through an estate agent, the notaire will charge a sales commission fee.

None of these fees can be included in the amount of the loan so you need to have some capital put to one side to cover these costs.