Can Americans Buy a House in France? A 2026 Guide
Yes, Americans can buy property in France, including as non-residents. What the purchase actually involves, the costs, mortgages, taxes, and why owning a home is not the same as the right to live there.
Yes. Americans can buy property in France, and you do not need to be a French citizen or a French resident to do it. But buying a home does not give you the right to live in France. If you're planning a move, the property purchase and your immigration status are two separate things.
Can Americans legally buy property in France?
Yes. France places no nationality or residency bar on owning residential property. You do not need French citizenship, and you do not need to already live in France. An American living in the US can buy a primary home, a second home, or an investment property in France.
Being American does create some additional banking, financing, and US tax considerations, covered below. None of them stops you from owning the property.
Do you need a French visa or residence permit to buy a house?
No. You can buy the property while remaining a US resident, without any French immigration status.
Owning the house does not give you the right to live in France. France does not grant residency because you bought property. If you want to stay longer than the normal visa-free allowance (90 days in any 180 under the Schengen rules) or move permanently, you need the appropriate immigration status, and you apply for it separately. For most retirees, that is the long-stay Visitor route.
We cover the immigration side in Can Americans Retire in France? and in our complete guide to retiring in France as an American.
Can you buy a house in France before you move?
Yes. You can buy while you're still living in the US, either as a second home or in preparation for a future move. Whether that makes sense depends mostly on how well you already know where you want to live.
Buying before you move can make sense when you already know the area well, have spent real time there, have found a property you don't want to lose, or are buying a second home regardless of whether you ever relocate full-time.
Waiting, or renting first, can make sense when you've only seen the area on vacation, are still choosing between regions, don't yet know what the place is like in February rather than July, or haven't settled your immigration and tax plans. If you're still weighing regions, Find Your France and our guide on where to live in France are built for that stage.
Can Americans get a mortgage in France?
Yes, though financing as a non-resident is more specialized than buying in cash, and the terms differ from a US mortgage. French banks will look at your income (including pension and retirement income), existing debts, assets, age, and the property you're buying. If you're applying from the US, expect to provide US tax and financial documents as part of the file. US citizens can also face additional banking friction because of FATCA, which makes some French institutions more cautious about American clients.
Rather than reproduce the detail here, our mortgage partner, Omage Finance, has written a thorough guide to getting a French mortgage as an American, covering how French banks assess US borrowers, the documents they ask for, and how the financing process actually runs. If you expect to finance rather than pay cash, read that before you make an offer, because your financing position shapes what you can realistically bid on.
How much cash do you need to buy a property in France?
The purchase price isn't the only amount to budget for. If you're financing, you'll need your down payment, plus the acquisition costs (the "frais de notaire"), any mortgage-related costs, whatever you plan to spend on renovation or furnishing, and a cash reserve for the first year.
Acquisition costs can add a meaningful amount to the purchase price, and the name is misleading. The frais de notaire are mostly taxes and duties the notaire collects on the government's behalf, not the notaire's own fee. On an existing property ("ancien"), the transfer duties alone come to roughly 6.3% of the price in départements (France's local administrative areas, roughly comparable to US counties) that apply the current maximum departmental rate, and the all-in acquisition cost, once the notaire's regulated fee and smaller charges are added, generally lands around 7% to 8%. On a new-build ("neuf"), the duties are much lower because the sale carries VAT instead, and the all-in cost is commonly closer to 2% to 3%.
Départements may currently apply a higher rate, a temporary increase scheduled to run into 2028, so the exact amount varies by département. Ask your notaire for a calculation before you commit to the purchase.
What is the process for buying a house in France?
The process is more structured than in the US, and the notaire sits at the center of it.
Find the property and make an offer. A written offer, the offre d'achat, is already a legal commitment, so don't treat it as casually expressing interest. No deposit is taken at this stage. If the seller accepts, the next step is normally the preliminary contract.
Sign the preliminary contract. This is often a compromis de vente, under which the buyer commits to buy and the seller commits to sell, subject to any conditions suspensives in the contract (conditions that must be met for the sale to complete, such as obtaining your mortgage or the absence of certain planning problems). A deposit of around 5% to 10% is common. (A promesse de vente is a related alternative, structured as an option.) If you're using a mortgage, French law makes a financing condition mandatory, so the purchase is conditional on your actually obtaining the loan, and your deposit is returned if the loan is refused.
Cooling-off period. As a non-professional buyer of a home, you then have a statutory 10-day right to withdraw after the preliminary contract, for any reason, with your deposit refunded. This protection is for the buyer; the seller does not have it.
The notaire does the legal work. The notaire is a public officer who guarantees the legality of the sale, runs the title and planning searches, and collects the taxes. This is not the buyer's private lawyer in the American sense; the notaire serves the transaction and has a duty to inform both parties. You can also appoint your own notaire even if the seller already has one. The two notaires share the regulated fees, so having your own does not normally increase the cost.
Arrange financing and transfer funds. Your lender finalizes the mortgage if you're financing, and the funds are put in place for completion.
Sign the final deed. At the acte authentique (or acte de vente), title transfers, the money changes hands, and you get the keys. From the preliminary contract to the final deed usually takes around three months, sometimes two to four, driven mostly by the notaire's searches and, where relevant, your loan timeline.
Can you buy a house in France remotely?
Largely, yes. Much of the purchase can be handled from the US: viewings through an agent or by video, documents exchanged electronically, and funds transferred by wire. For the signings, a notaire can, in appropriate cases, set up a power of attorney (procuration) so someone signs on your behalf, or arrange a remote signing, so you do not necessarily have to fly over. That doesn't mean buying a property you've never seen is a good idea. But you don't necessarily need to travel to France for every signing.
Do you need a French bank account?
Not to own the property itself, but in practice you'll want one. Owning a French home comes with recurring euro payments: utilities, property taxes, insurance, co-ownership charges, and mortgage installments if you financed. A French account makes those far easier to manage, and lenders generally expect one.
Opening a French account can involve additional FATCA paperwork, and some banks are more willing than others to take US clients. It's worth lining this up early rather than at the closing table. Our guide to banking and money for Americans in France covers the account side in detail.
What taxes and ongoing costs come with owning a French home?
Beyond the purchase itself, budget for the following:
- Taxe foncière, the annual property tax paid by whoever owns the property on January 1.
- Taxe d'habitation, which no longer applies to primary residences but still applies to second homes. Certain communes can add a surcharge of 5% to 60%.
- Homeowner's insurance, including mandatory civil liability coverage if the property is in a copropriété.
- Co-ownership charges (charges de copropriété) if you buy an apartment.
- Maintenance, utilities, and the general upkeep of the property.
- The IFI, France's real-estate wealth tax, which can become relevant once taxable net real-estate assets exceed €1.3 million. The scope differs depending on whether you're a French tax resident.
- Income tax and reporting if you rent the property out.
- Capital gains and reporting consequences when you eventually sell.
Your US tax obligations don't disappear because the property is in France. Rental income, a future sale, and the way you own the property can have US tax consequences alongside the French ones. We cover how the two systems interact in our US-France tax guide for American retirees.
Should an American buy personally or through an SCI?
Don't assume an SCI is the right way to buy just because it's common in France.
An SCI (société civile immobilière) is a French company commonly used to own and pass on real estate, and for French families it can be a useful estate-planning tool. For a US taxpayer, holding property through an SCI can create US entity-classification and reporting issues, along with additional compliance costs, and the ownership structure also affects French succession. That doesn't mean an SCI is never appropriate for an American. But have an advisor who understands both French and US tax review the structure before you sign the purchase contract, rather than relying on an estate agent's recommendation.
Does owning a French home make your visa application easier?
Owning a home can help you satisfy the accommodation requirement for a visa application, but it doesn't give you any entitlement to the visa itself. You still need to meet the other requirements of your immigration route, including sufficient resources and valid health insurance.
The qualification side is covered in Can Americans Retire in France? and our French long-stay Visitor visa guide.
What if your spouse is French or another EU citizen?
Your ability to buy doesn't change: an American can buy regardless of a spouse's nationality. What changes is the route for living in the property.
If you're married to a French citizen, you would generally use the spouse-of-a-French-citizen route rather than the Visitor route. If you're accompanying another EU citizen exercising free-movement rights in France, EU family rules may apply instead. If either describes you, work from that route from the beginning rather than applying under the Visitor rules.
What are the biggest mistakes Americans make when buying in France?
Don't assume buying a property gives you residency. It doesn't.
Be equally careful about buying somewhere you've only experienced on vacation. Year-round life can look very different from a week in June.
A few others worth watching: signing a preliminary contract before you understand your financing; assuming the US buying process carries over, when the French sequence, the role of the notaire, and the cooling-off rules work differently; setting up an SCI without US and French tax advice; and focusing on the property while forgetting the recurring ownership costs, or leaving the visa, tax, and healthcare pieces of the move unexamined.
For broader, independent guidance on the French property journey, French Property Focus is a good general resource.
So, should you buy a house in France?
That depends on where you are in the process. If you already know where you want to live, understand the financial and tax implications, and expect to stay for the long term, buying can make good sense. If you're still deciding whether France is right for you, or which part of France, renting first gives you a chance to experience the area year-round before committing to a purchase.
Planning to buy as part of a move to France? Aelos helps Americans plan and manage the move, from visas and accommodation to healthcare, banking, and the practical work after you arrive. If you're trying to work out the right order for your own situation, you can book a free consultation with us.
This article is educational and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules and rates change and vary by situation and by département. Confirm the current position for your own purchase with your notaire and a qualified cross-border advisor before acting.
