The property tax that owners must pay continues to increase each year. For those who must reimburse a credit, this tax may alone weigh more than one monthly payment.
You have just found a credit for your first real estate purchase at a suitable rate. Your budget allows you to endure the monthly payments that you have committed to paying over twenty years. But in the equation you forgot to take into account a variable which will however heavily weigh in this budget: the property tax.
According to the Better Broker who has just released a study on the subject, this tax is “too often underestimated, even forgotten in the calculations of people who wish to become owners”. As a reminder, each year the 30 million owners must pay it.
The amount of this tax is extremely fluctuating depending on where you live and in what type of accommodation. Indeed, the municipalities (which perceive it) themselves determine the rate of this tax. They can decide to increase it from one year to the next. Sometimes considerably, like Paris which had increased it by 51% in 2023.
Land tax weighs the heaviest in Saint-Etienne
On average throughout France, its amount reaches 1,072 euros for a house and 851 euros for an apartment. An amount never very pleasant to pay at once. Fortunately, it can be monthly, but it is still a significant overload when you also have your credit to be reimbursed.
Bestaux analyzed the weight of the property tax in a real estate budget. In 32 cities screened, the broker took the example of the purchase of an apartment of 70m2, with a loan over 20 years at a rate of 3.25%.
Depending on the cities, the amount of monthly payments will be more or lower since it takes into account the price of real estate. In Saint-Etienne where the price per m2 is 1,183 euros according to better agents, a monthly payment would only be 470 euros. While in Paris where the price per m2 reaches 9.502 euros, a monthly payment for this 70m2 apartment would be 3,773 euros.
In the Greens, however, the property tax weighs particularly heavy in the budget. In 2024, for housing of 70 m2, it was 1,452 euros. This represents 3.1 monthly payments, calculates BestAtaux. It is therefore necessary to take this tax into account when we buy from Saint-Etienne, since it puts the amount of taxation from 470 to 591 euros.
In Paris, real estate so dear that the property tax is little
This particularly high weight of the property tax in the Loire prefecture is of course explained in part because the price of real estate is low. But also because the municipality has greatly increased the amount of the tax: it jumped 18% in 2024.
Cities like Nîmes, Le Havre or Perpignan are also at the top of the ranking. There too, the property tax is particularly high in terms of real estate prices, and its weight exceeds 2 credit monthly payments over a year.
In contrast, we find Nice, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence and Paris. The reason is simple, tells us better:
“Real estate prices, and therefore credit monthly payments, are so high that the weight of property tax becomes relatively low.”
Thus in Paris where the property tax amounts to 1,298 euros for an apartment of 70m2 in 2024, it weighs only 0.3 monthly payment. This tax therefore increases 3,773 to 3,881 euros from the amount of credit monthly payments. A increase of 108 euros all the same, which seems almost painless with regard to the initial amount …
Municipalities will increase their property tax in 2025
The weight of the property tax is therefore not very homogeneous from one city to another, but on average in all those studied by besttaux, it represents 1.3 additional monthly payment. Smoothed over the year, this represents an average increase of 118 euros from each monthly payment.
For Aga Bojarska-Serres, Deputy Director General of Bestaux, this variable must therefore be taken into account by those who buy.
“The weight of this property tax is a key element that must absolutely be integrated into its purchasing budget. Especially for first-time buyers who did not pay it as a tenants. It is a charging jump far from negligible,” she advises.
This is all the more true since the property tax should continue to increase in the years to come. Already in 2024 compared to 2023, it had increased on average by almost 5%. It is indeed one of the levers used by the municipalities to improve their finances. For 2025, some have already announced increase their own.
