Notaire Fees in France for Americans: What You Pay on a Home Purchase in 2026

Notaire fees (frais de notaire) are the closing costs a buyer pays on top of the price of a French property: the Notaires de France put them at 7% to 8% of the price for an existing home and 2% to 3% for a new build. Most of that money is not the notaire’s: for a sale, about eight-tenths is tax collected for the state, the department and the commune. This guide covers what the fees are made of, the 2026 transfer tax rates department by department, the national scale of the notaire’s own fee, who pays and when, what can be negotiated, and what an American buyer adds, as the official pages stood on October 12, 2026. For the purchase itself, from the offer to the keys, see how buying property in France works for Americans. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Rules change, and your situation may differ: always verify current requirements with the relevant French authorities or a licensed professional.

What Are Notaire Fees in France?

“Frais de notaire” is the everyday name for everything you pay the notaire when you buy: taxes, costs advanced on your behalf and the notaire’s regulated fee. ANIL, the national housing information agency, calls the name improper, and the profession’s own site says the fees are essentially made up of taxes paid to the state.

Service-public’s page on notaire fees, verified on August 5, 2026, lists four components, and the tax administration’s page on what you pay the notaire when you buy, updated on July 17, 2026, details the taxes.

Source: Service-public, notaire fees and impots.gouv.fr, fees paid to the notaire on a purchase.

The profession’s page on the notaire’s tariff, updated on March 19, 2026, gives the proportions for a sale: taxes are about eight-tenths of the bill, disbursements and formalities about one-tenth, and the notaire’s pay about one-tenth.

What Does a Notaire Do in a French Purchase?

A notaire is a public officer who drafts the deed of sale (acte de vente), collects the taxes on it for the administration and has it published at the land registry. In a French purchase the deed of sale must be signed before a notaire, so there is no way to buy without one and no way to skip the fees.

The role is not that of a US attorney: a notaire does not represent either party. During the weeks between the preliminary contract and the deed, the notaire checks the chain of title, confirms that no undisclosed mortgage weighs on the property, verifies the mandatory diagnostics and calculates the exact taxes and fees due at closing. You may appoint your own notaire next to the seller’s: the two share the regulated fee, and the Chambre des Notaires de Paris confirms that the sharing costs neither party more. To find one who works in English, see how to find English-speaking notaires and lawyers in France.

How Much Are Notaire Fees in France in 2026?

Count 7% to 8% of the price for an existing home (ancien) and 2% to 3% for a new build (neuf): those are the ranges the Notaires de France give for the two markets. The gap comes from the transfer tax, which is charged at the normal rate on an existing property and at a reduced rate on a new one.

Source: impots.gouv.fr, fees paid to the notaire on a purchase for the rates, and Notaires de France, purchase costs for the usual totals.

These percentages are orders of magnitude: the exact amount depends on the department, the price and whether you borrow.

The Transfer Tax: Rates by Department in 2026

The departmental share of the transfer tax is 5% in most of France in 2026. On the tax administration’s table of rates applicable on June 1, 2026, the latest published when this guide was written, every department is at 5.00% except the twelve below.

Source: Direction générale des Finances publiques, registration duties and taxe de publicité foncière, rates applicable on June 1, 2026.

To that share you add the communal tax of 1.20% (the same table lists the communes that have voted a reduction) and the collection costs of 2.37% of the departmental share. A department at 5% therefore gives the 6.32% the tax administration states as the maximum. By the same arithmetic, a department at 4.50% comes to about 5.81% and one at 3.80% to about 5.09%.

Departments vote their rate, so the table changes during the year: Mayotte, for example, appears at 3.80% on the May 2026 edition and at 4.50% on the June edition. Ask the notaire for the rate in force on the day of your deed.

The 2025 to 2028 Rise and the First-Time Buyer Exception

Since April 1, 2025, a department may raise its share from the old ceiling of 4.50% to 5%, for deeds signed until March 31, 2028. The measure is article 116 of the 2025 finance law (law n° 2025-127 of February 14, 2025), and each departmental council had to vote it. The local-government ministry’s page on transfer duties gives the same window as the tax administration. Service-public’s news item of April 2, 2025, which the site now flags as possibly out of date, wrote April 30, 2028, and counted about thirty departments applying the rise from April 2025. The June 2026 table shows it almost everywhere.

The rise is on the tax, not on the notaire’s pay: the national scale has not changed since January 1, 2021.

One group is spared. The maximum stays at 4.5% for a first purchase used as a main residence. Service-public describes the buyers concerned as those who have not owned their main residence in the two years before signing, where the property bought is meant to be a main residence. If you will live in the home you buy, tell the notaire and ask whether you meet the condition. A second home or a rental property pays the voted rate.

On a 400,000 euro home, half a point of departmental tax is 2,000 euros, plus 47 euros of collection costs.

The Notaire’s Own Fee: The Regulated Scale

The notaire’s fee on a sale is set by the state and is identical whichever notaire you choose. It is a sliding scale applied to the price, in force since January 1, 2021. The profession’s site states that the tariff was renewed unchanged for 2026 to 2028 by an order published on February 28, 2026, and applies until February 29, 2028.

Source: Service-public, notaire fees, scale for the purchase of real estate.

Service-public’s own example: on an apartment at 200,000 euros, the fee is 1,995.25 euros before VAT (251.55 + 167.58 + 457.52 + 1,118.60). VAT at 20% is added. The page also exists in English, in a machine translation.

The overseas departments have their own, higher scales, in force since March 1, 2024, and VAT on the fee is 8.5% there instead of 20%: the same purchase gives 2,426.58 euros before VAT in Guadeloupe and 2,714.05 euros in La Réunion.

Formalities carried out for the deed are billed on top, at amounts also fixed by law. And when a notaire acts as your agent, under a mandate to sell or to search for a property, that part of the work is paid by a fee that is no longer regulated: ask for its amount.

A Worked Example: A 400,000 Euro Existing Home

On a 400,000 euro existing home in a department at 5%, the taxes and the notaire’s fee come to about 29,986 euros, or 7.5% of the price, before disbursements and formalities. The figures below apply the official rates of the previous sections to that price. They are an illustration, not a quote.

Source: calculation from the rates on impots.gouv.fr, fees paid to the notaire on a purchase and the scale on service-public’s page on notaire fees, amounts in euros, rounded.

In the first column, 25,674 euros are taxes and 4,312 euros are the notaire’s fee with its VAT. Disbursements, formalities and, if you borrow, the cost of the loan guarantee come on top.

Notaire Fees on a New Build

On a new property or one bought off-plan (vente en l’état futur d’achèvement, VEFA), the transfer tax falls to 0.71% in total, which is why the whole bill is 2% to 3% of the price. The reduced departmental rate on the tax administration’s page is 0.70%, against 3.80% to 5% at the normal rate.

The tax administration gives the calculation for a new property at 100,000 euros: 700 euros of tax at 0.70%, 15 euros of collection costs (2.14% of 700) and 100 euros of land registry contribution, so 815 euros. The notaire’s regulated fee is added, on the same scale as for an existing home.

Lower closing costs do not make a new build cheaper overall: the developer’s price includes VAT at 20%. The profession’s site also notes that the seller may, by exception, agree to bear the fees of the deed, which some developers do in their programs.

Who Pays the Notaire Fees, and When?

The buyer pays. The profession’s site states that the costs of the deed of sale are, in principle, borne by the purchaser, and that the seller can accept them only by exception.

The money must be with the notaire before the signing. The profession’s rules forbid a notaire from receiving a deed without a sufficient sum on account to cover the costs, duties, regulated fees and negotiated fees. The Notaires de France describe the usual sequence: a provision is paid at the preliminary contract and the fees are settled on the day the final deed is signed, together with the price.

Any payment above 3,000 euros linked to a deed that goes to the land registry must be made by bank transfer. For an American buyer that means an international wire that reaches the notaire’s account in time: see how to move a large sum from the US to France and plan it weeks ahead.

What you pay before signing is a provision, not the final bill. After the formalities, the notaire draws up a final account and returns any surplus.

When you sell, the buyer pays these fees. What the seller pays through the notaire is different: the tax on a gain, which the notaire calculates and withholds from the proceeds. The guide to French property taxes for US owners covers that side.

What You Can and Cannot Negotiate

You cannot negotiate the taxes, and the notaire’s regulated fee is not open to haggling either: the profession’s site says discounts cannot, in principle, be negotiated between notaire and client. What exists is a regulated discount (remise) that an office chooses to offer, or not.

• The published discount. A notaire may give up part of the regulated fee, up to 20%, and only on the part of the fee calculated above a threshold: the profession’s site says no discount is possible when the property is worth less than 100,000 euros, and service-public describes the discount as possible when the service is above 150,000 euros. The office must display its discount rates and apply them to all clients in the same way. A discount is optional for the notaire. Ask whether the office has published one.
• Furniture. If the sale includes movable furniture (meubles meublants), its value can be deducted from the price on which the transfer tax is calculated. The Notaires de France describe this as a tolerance of the tax administration: the seller lists each item with its value, and the total cannot exceed 5% of the sale price.

The saving is small next to the tax: on the 400,000 euro example, the whole regulated fee is 3,593 euros before VAT.

If You Borrow: The Cost of the Loan Guarantee

A mortgage adds a second set of costs to the notaire’s bill. ANIL explains that the lender’s security, whether a mortgage (hypothèque) or a cheaper security that is exempt from land registry tax, requires a notarized deed whose costs are yours. ANIL also lists a third route: a loan guaranteed by a specialized body or a third party (caution). Ask the bank which one it requires and what it costs, and check that the cost appears in the overall effective rate (taux effectif global) of the loan offer.

The Paris notaires’ calculator asks whether you borrow, and with or without a mortgage guarantee. French banks generally expect the buyer to fund the notaire fees from savings, not from the loan: the guide to getting a French mortgage as an American explains the cash that requires.

What an American Buyer Adds: Translator and Power of Attorney

Two costs are specific to a foreign buyer: a translator at the signing if you do not read French well, and a power of attorney if you cannot be in France on the day.

The translator. The notaire must check that each party consents freely and has understood the deed and its consequences. The profession’s site answers the question directly: if the notaire speaks the client’s language, a translator is not necessarily needed, and if not, the assistance of a translator chosen by the parties is required, with the translator’s presence throughout the appointment noted in the deed. Ask the office early whether its notaire will sign with you in English.

The power of attorney (procuration). You can be represented at the signing. Since decree n° 2020-1422 of November 20, 2020, a French notaire can receive an authentic power of attorney by remote appearance: the profession’s site describes a secure video appointment and an electronic signature, on the system the office provides (consumer apps such as Zoom or WhatsApp are forbidden), after an identity check done beforehand. Only the power of attorney is signed this way: the deed itself is not signed from your living room.

The form matters when you borrow. The profession’s page on powers of attorney made abroad explains that an authentic one is required where the law makes it a condition of validity, and gives the creation of a mortgage as an example. A private one, written and signed by you, can be enough for acts where it is not, and your signature is then certified by a consulate or a public officer. The same page reserves the local-notary route to countries with civil-law notaries. For a document signed in the United States, see how to notarize and apostille US documents without flying back, and confirm with the French notaire which form will be accepted before you sign anything.

Buying does not give you the right to live in France, which takes a long-stay visa. The notaire will also ask where the money comes from. Having a French bank account that accepts Americans in place before the purchase makes both the wire and that check simpler.

How to Calculate Your Notaire Fees: The Official Simulators

Two free calculators give an estimate in a minute, and neither replaces the notaire’s written figure.

• ANIL’s simulator, the one service-public links to: it estimates the fees by type of purchase (land, existing home, new home) and by department. ANIL warns that the results are indicative and have no contractual value.
• The Paris notaires’ calculator, on the site of the Chambre des Notaires de Paris: it asks whether you are a first-time buyer, the type of property, how you finance, the price with the value of any furniture, and the department.

Then ask the notaire for the detailed written estimate that service-public advises for any procedure.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Budgeting the price alone. The fees are due in cash at closing, on top of the down payment and, for an old house, of the works a French farmhouse needs.
• Using an old rate. A calculation at 4.50% understates the bill in most departments since 2025. Check the department on the tax administration’s current table.
• Forgetting the first-time buyer cap. If the home is your first main residence, say so before the deed is drafted.
• Wiring the money late. The notaire cannot sign without the funds on account.
• Leaving the translator or the power of attorney to the last week. Both need to be arranged with the office in advance.

Practical Checklist

• Find the department’s rate on the latest table of the tax administration.
• Tell the notaire whether the home will be your main residence and whether it is your first.
• Ask for a detailed written estimate before you sign the preliminary contract.
• Ask whether the office has a published discount on its regulated fee.
• If furniture is included, ask the seller for an itemized, valued list.
• Ask whether the notaire will sign with you in English. If not, book a translator.
• If you cannot attend, ask for a power of attorney by remote appearance and do the identity check ahead of time.
• Schedule the wire so the funds reach the notaire’s account before the signing.

When to Get Help

A purchase with one buyer, cash funds and a home you will live in rarely needs more than a careful notaire. Get advice before you sign when the file has a cross-border layer: a loan with a mortgage signed from abroad, a purchase through a company or with someone who is not your spouse, or a plan in which the home passes to children from an earlier marriage. Read how French inheritance law applies to Americans and when the real estate wealth tax starts for an American owner first. To go through your own figures, your timing and the questions to put to the notaire, you can book a Consulting Call.

FAQ

How much does a notaire cost in France?

On a purchase, the notaire’s own regulated fee is roughly one-tenth of the total bill. The national scale gives 1,995.25 euros before VAT on a 200,000 euro home and about 3,593 euros on a 400,000 euro home, with 20% VAT on top.

Who pays the notaire fees when selling a house in France?

The buyer, in principle. The seller can agree to bear them, which the profession’s site calls exceptional and which happens in some new-build programs. A seller’s own costs are elsewhere: the tax on a gain, which the notaire withholds from the proceeds, and the mandatory diagnostics.

Did notaire fees increase in 2026?

The notaire’s scale did not: it has been the same since January 1, 2021 and was renewed until February 29, 2028. What rose is the departmental transfer tax, which departments may set at 5% from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2028. On the June 1, 2026 table, all but twelve departments apply 5%.

Are notaire fees lower for a first-time buyer?

Partly. The scale is the same for everyone, but the departmental transfer tax stays capped at 4.5% for a first purchase used as a main residence, so the 2025 rise does not apply. On a 400,000 euro home in a department at 5%, that is about 2,047 euros less.

Are notaire fees in Paris higher than elsewhere?

Not by rate. Paris applies the 5% departmental rate, like most departments on the June 2026 table, and the notaire’s scale is national.

Can I include the notaire fees in my French mortgage?

Plan not to. French banks generally expect the buyer to pay the fees from savings, and a non-resident American is usually asked for a larger down payment as well. The mortgage itself adds the cost of the lender’s guarantee to the notaire’s bill.

Do notaire fees apply to an inheritance or a gift?

A notaire is paid for those acts too, but on other scales and with other taxes, so the purchase percentages do not carry over. The profession’s tariff page gives, for example, the scale of a gift (4.837% on the first 6,500 euros, falling to 0.998% above 60,000 euros).

Conclusion

Notaire fees in France are a tax bill with a regulated fee attached: 7% to 8% of the price on an existing home, 2% to 3% on a new build, paid by the buyer before the deed is signed. In 2026 the figure that matters most is the department’s transfer tax rate, 5% almost everywhere until March 31, 2028 and capped at 4.5% for a first main residence. As an American, add the wire, a translator if the notaire does not work in English and, if you sign from abroad, a power of attorney arranged with the office well before the date.