Taxes on Second Homes

Bad news for some…

Do you think this applies to gites?

Hope not!

It shouldn’t do, but possibly depends on the set up of your gite - Maybe it would apply if it has a separate address, or in a different location from your principle residence.

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It would surely only apply to a separate dwelling.
People renting and living on the estate would be paying taxes…
Tax hab
Tax Fronciere
Tax sejour
Avis de imports
and cotistations qtrly

But those people who live abroad in UK may not be paying all of these taxes.
But retaining the benefit of trading in France…their property.

It seems “they” are trying to have more properties available to live-in rather than just “overnighters”…

Look right at the bottom of the attached article…to where there is a map of France, showing Second Homes v Main Properties…it is quite an eye-opener… some places have more holiday homes that residents… :frowning:

It’s not just the Britsh who have second homes, many other nationalities including French have them.
My French friend’s cousin has his main home in a lovely suburb of Paris, a holiday appartment in Antibes and 2 other appartments in Paris that he rents out.
Our small lieu-dit has second homes owned by Parisians and Belgiums. There are also properties left empty and unfurnished that are owned by locals !

Here in 17 we see lots of Parisians, Belgians and Dutch with second homes.

I would have thought that the french are the major second home owners. Especially with the succession laws it seems that everyone we know has at least one other family property somewhere, if not several.

The whole point is… to get properties back into the market…for those seeking a permanent home…

This is not aimed at any particular nationality… it includes everyone. :zipper_mouth_face:

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I am no doubt going to be unpopular but I firmly believe that if you can afford a second home then you can afford to pay more taxes. There are a lot of people who cannot afford a home at all !:thinking:

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Agree, a 2nd home is a luxury item after all. However property prices in France are generally lower than in the UK so you don’t have to be über wealthy to afford one and, for some, the extra on top of the fall in value of the £ will mean they have to sell. Given that French property prices have been static or falling over the last 10 years this will mean that some could loose out financially.

Unless, that is, the property was bought before the early 2000’s in which case there will be a healthy chunk of profit headed out of the French economy.

Hi Paul… anyone with a second home in France… can surely raise some funds by renting the property out?? Even if only in a small way, fora low holiday-rental… to friends… it can bring in enough to cover the Property Taxes and allow them to keep hold of their “dream”. :relaxed:

No point in rushing to sell a property… as nothing seems to move fast, certainly not in our neck of the woods… homes on the market for several years at a time…:zipper_mouth_face:

And… if absolutely necessary… the house can meet certain requirements that render it uninhabitable (probably needs to be verified at the Mairie) and then Owners Tax is payable but not the Habitation Tax…

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Hi Paul, I appreciate your reasoning but I stand by my comments. If you can afford to own and run two homes then you either pay more, rent or sell !

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Buying property in France has never made sense as a financial investment, there’s always been a good chance you won’t get your money back. But I always imagined people bought holiday homes for the satisfaction of feeling they own a little bit of France and the fun of spending holidays there, and are prepared to pay a certain price for that pleasure. Expecting to have all the fun of the experience for as long as you want with a money-back guarantee at the end of it, would be a bit like expecting le beurre et l’argent du beurre, wouldn’t it?

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Possibly, yes. Actually when we bought our place I thought we might rent to cover the running costs - it’s not actually ready yet as I have been extraordinarily slow with the DIY - but the more effort we put in to the property the less I want to share it with random strangers. It also adds the complexity of needing to do a tax return in French.

The thing is I actually agree 100%. It was an observation that a) the extra tax might be the tipping point for some and b) if large numbers of foreign-owned 2nd properties do get sold it will drain money from France. OK, in the scheme of things probably not a significant amount - millions rather than billions but possibly an unintended consequence none the less.

People see property as an investment in the UK because prices have been rising steadily here, if they make the blind assumption that is the same for France they deserve all they get. I don’t think you should buy a 2nd home in a foerign country without doing your research and sums thoroughly. And building in a lot of slack in case values move the wrong way or costs go up.

Over the years… we have only rarely charged anyone to use our little second-house… which is 200 metres down the road and classed as separate dwelling… (blast).

We started using it as overflow, when the flood of friends wanted to visit… and they always treated it well. Many of them have since asked to use it for more than the normal weekend/few days… and in those cases, I simply ask that they replace the Gas or leave the wine cupboard a little fuller than they found it… that sort of thing.

I rented it out officially on a couple of occasions (yes, I did tell the Tax Man)…one couple left it immaculate… the second couple left it in a bad condition and we have not rented it out since. … so, like you… I will not have strangers anymore. We are now in the throes of finishing the drainage (only 5 years late) and will probably put it on the market… not really sure what else to do… the flood of friends is now a constant trickle, which we can manage within our own home.

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We have our main home in UK and a place in Louannec. The French property is an en viager property. We have it set up for our disabled daughter and can’t rent it out because of this (can’t afford for her equipment to be broken) I also think we’d need to do quite a bit of work on it in order to rent it out.
Our place in the uk is a tiny bungalow which is adapted for our daughter. We have a mortgage on this so we would struggle if we were to pay further taxes on the French property as we pay out on that to the previous owners for the foreseeable future (en viager)
We would also struggle to sell because of the viager!
I hope there will be some exclusions!
As to being able to afford a 2nd home so we should therefore be able to afford further taxes - rubbish! We pay for our property by living frugally. Taxing us further would mean we can’t afford to go to France so often which will also halt any further work we can do to it, making it even more difficult to sell if we are forced to!
Nothing is ever as simple as it seems!

Of course nothing is as simple as it seems.
I stand by my comments, those who can afford two homes can afford the taxes. There is no point complaining afterwards, there are always choices in life.
There are plenty of people who rent gites for their holidays in France, no responsibilty for property, garden management, taxes etc…
No large outlay of thousands of euros to buy a place !
I live with a disabled person and rent accomodation for holidays here in France, I can vary the areas we visit and I have no expensive outlay !

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I despair when I hear people whinge about the cost of running their second/holiday home, so many in the UK can’t get on the property ladder because of the high house prices and are forced to either rent or live with parents just so they have a roof over their heads.

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Is this just rumour or reality? I read elsewhere that it was an Airb&B issue from hotels loosing out.
Ann like others we pay taxes like any other person but currently only being in France occasionally we don’t actually use a lot of the services we pay in full for, in reality we already pay more but don’t mind. If we were expected to pay more because of some perceived housing shortage that’s a bit strong. Lots of Brits and others buy up the old knackered and over looked French properties and spend our money putting them back into serviceable use, no impot refunds for us. Many of these houses have been derelict for decades.

Business parks, new motorways etc, spring up everywhere in France and unlike the small island of the UK fast running out of room, France has loads or unused space. They can easily build new houses, flats etc which will create jobs and homes, far more energy efficient than the old stone ones restored by many a Brit or any other nationality. It is pretty much what the rest of the world does to counter the issue. This I feel is just a revenue raising ploy, We live a modest life in the UK so we can spend in France and look forward to our retirement. Sarkosy tried this only to be stopped at the last minute as it was anti European but if the UK leaves then I have no doubt we, like others will be punished. I also do not take on board we pushed up house prices, that economic statement has also been used everywhere around the globe. You don’t get sellers saying “we can’t possibly accept such a high amount for that tumbling pile of stone without a roof, it will prevent the young from being able to afford it”.

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