Real estate careers in France

The rules a broker must know

Public bodies

Real estate brokerage in France is governed by the loi Hoguet (Law no. 70-9 of 2 January 1970) and its implementing decree no. 72-678 of 20 July 1972. There is no national regulator for agents: the professional card is issued by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie (CCI) of the area where the company has its head office, through the CCI's online file of real estate professionals. The consumer protection authority (DGCCRF) inspects agencies on mandates, fee display and misleading practices; notaires, who are public officers, draw up and sign every final deed of sale and collect the transfer taxes; the tax administration (DGFiP) publishes the transfer tax rate of each département; and the registries of the commercial courts keep the special register of agents commerciaux (RSAC). Trade bodies such as FNAIM, which says it gathers about 10,000 member agencies, represent the profession but do not license anyone.

Carte professionnelle

Anyone who, as a habitual activity, negotiates, sells, lets or manages property for others must hold a carte professionnelle. It carries a mention for each activity: T for transactions, G for property management and S for co-ownership management (syndic), with one card per company. The card is issued by the CCI on form Cerfa 15312 and is valid for 3 years; the renewal must be requested 2 months before it expires. The applicant must prove professional aptitude, good character, professional liability insurance (RCP) and, where the agency holds client money, a financial guarantee; a transaction agency that declares on honour that it holds no funds, effects or securities for clients does not need the guarantee. Aptitude means a degree at bac+3 level in law, economics or business, a BTS Professions immobilières or an equivalent level 6 title, or experience: 3 years as an employee of a card holder with the baccalauréat, or 10 years without it, cut to 4 years in a management role. At CCI Bretagne a first card cost 160 € and a renewal 130 € in October 2026; other CCIs may charge slightly different amounts. To renew, the holder and everyone who negotiates for the agency must prove 14 hours of continuing training a year, or 42 hours over the 3 years, including at least 2 hours of ethics and 2 hours on non-discrimination in access to housing.

Who can be an agent

Most agents never hold a card of their own. They work for a card holder under an attestation d'habilitation, a personal document tied to one card holder that lets them negotiate within the powers that holder grants. The card holder, not the agent, files the request with the CCI (Cerfa 15315, 55 € at CCI Bretagne), and the attestation must be issued before work starts; it is redone when the card is renewed, when the agent changes agency or when details change, and it never allows working for another professional. There are two statuses. A salaried négociateur is an employee of the agency, and the employment contract does not replace the attestation. An agent commercial immobilier, often called a mandataire, is self-employed: registered on the RSAC at the commercial court registry, usually as a micro-entrepreneur, with a contract with the card holder, the attestation and their own liability insurance. An agent commercial cannot receive or hold client funds, run an agency or an office, or go beyond the powers delegated. Mandataire networks such as IAD, Safti, Capifrance and eXp counted about 47,000 advisers at the end of 2025, up 7% in a year, and handled 28% of the sales made through a professional (179,000 of about 640,000), against 13% in 2018. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens can work and register as micro-entrepreneurs on the same terms as French citizens, with no residence permit. Non-EU nationals need a permit that covers the activity: for self-employed work, a carte de résident, an EU long-term resident permit, a talent passport as a business creator, a private and family life permit, or an entrepreneur and liberal profession permit, which lasts one year and is renewed only if the activity is the main occupation and earns at least the annual minimum wage (about 21,876 € in 2026). Student and salaried permits do not allow self-employed work. The law sets no French language test, but mandates, sale agreements and the CCI file are all in French, so fluent French is needed in practice.

Mandates, fees and splits

No negotiation may start without a written mandate stating its duration, the fee and who pays it, the parties, the property, any exclusivity and how to end it, and every mandate is entered in date order in the agency's register of mandates. An exclusive mandate cannot be cancelled during its first 3 months (decree 72-678, article 78); after that, notice is usually 15 days by registered letter, and for individual sellers the agency must recall the right to end the mandate before it renews tacitly. Presenting a simple mandate as exclusive, relying on an expired exclusivity clause, making the seller pay when he finds the buyer himself or charging a fee without a completed sale are illicit, and a mandate signed away from the office or at a distance must come with the consumer withdrawal form. Fees are free, but since the arrêté of 10 January 2017 they must be shown including VAT, with who pays them, in the agency window, inside the office and on its website, and since 1 April 2022 the price list must give a maximum rate; a list showing only the buyer's share or 'on quote' is not compliant. In its 2019 survey the DGCCRF found anomalies in 64% of the 2,175 agencies checked. In practice fees run from about 3% to 10% of the price, falling as the price rises, with an average of 4.5% to 5% for sales between 200,000 € and 400,000 €; traditional agencies charge about 4% to 6% and mandataire networks about 3% to 4.5%, and around 70% of sale mandates put the fee on the seller (industry estimates). Network advisers keep a share of the fees they bring in: base splits of 69% at IAD, 70% at Safti and 72% at Capifrance, rising with turnover, for a monthly pack of about 159 € to 205 € excluding VAT, while eXp France starts at 75% and moves to 100% after 80,000 € of fees excluding VAT in a year. Salaried négociateurs under the national real estate collective agreement (IDCC 1527) are paid a fixed salary plus commission; the minimum for a non-executive VRP négociateur is 1,500 € gross a month, which can be an advance on commission.

Foreign buyers

Foreigners buy property in France on the same terms as French citizens, with no permit and no residence condition. A notaire is compulsory for the final deed (acte authentique) and collects the transfer taxes. Before that, buyer and seller usually sign a compromis or promesse de vente, and a private buyer of a home then has 10 calendar days to withdraw, counted from the day after the registered letter notifying the signed contract is first presented (or after signing, if it was signed before a notaire), with no reason, no penalty and any deposit refunded within 21 days (Code de la construction et de l'habitation, article L.271-1). Nationally, non-resident foreigners made about 1.8% of existing-home sales in 2022, some 20,000 sales, but they are concentrated on the Côte d'Azur and in Paris. Non-resident sellers pay 19% income tax on the capital gain plus social levies of 17.2%, or 7.5% for sellers covered by an EEA or Swiss social security scheme, with a surtax of 2% to 6% on gains above 50,000 €; holding allowances start in the sixth year, with full relief from income tax after 22 years and from social levies after 30 years, and a seller living outside the EEA needs a fiscal representative when the price exceeds 150,000 € and the property was held for less than 30 years. The real estate wealth tax (IFI) applies above 1.3 million € of net property at 1 January, at rates from 0.5% to 1.5%, and non-residents pay it only on their French property.

Tax and fees

Buyers of a resale home pay transfer taxes (droits de mutation, the main part of what the French call 'frais de notaire'). The 2025 budget let départements raise their share from 4.50% to 5.00% between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2028: 89 départements did so, for a total of about 6.31% (often rounded to 6.32%), while the others, and eligible first-time buyers in the raised départements, stay at 5.81%. Paris, the Rhône (Lyon) and the Gironde (Bordeaux) are in the raised group; the Alpes-Maritimes (Nice, Cannes, Antibes) kept 5.81%. With the notaire's fees and costs, buying a resale costs about 7.2% to 7.8% of the price in total, for example 7.81% on a 250,000 € flat in Paris and 7.19% on 340,000 € in the Alpes-Maritimes. When the buyer pays the agency fee, the taxes are computed on the net price paid to the seller, which lowers them. New homes sold within 5 years of completion include 20% VAT in the price and carry lower transfer taxes. Mortgage rates averaged 3.50% over 15 years, 3.66% over 20 years and 3.75% over 25 years in October 2026, and were rising. Owners of second homes pay the taxe d'habitation, and communes in tight housing areas (zone tendue) can add 5% to 60% to it: 1,666 of the 3,689 communes in zone tendue apply a surcharge, and Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux and Nice apply the 60% maximum, while Cannes applies none.

Off-plan

New homes are mostly sold off plan as a VEFA (vente en l'état futur d'achèvement), regulated by the Construction and Housing Code. The buyer usually starts with a reservation contract, with a deposit capped at 5% of the price if the sale is to be signed within a year, 2% within two years and nothing beyond. Payments then follow the works, with legal ceilings: at most 35% once the foundations are done, 70% once the building is watertight (hors d'eau) and 95% at completion, the last 5% at handover, which can be held back if defects are noted; late-payment penalties are capped at 1% a month. Every residential VEFA must carry a completion guarantee (garantie financière d'achèvement, GFA), which for building permits filed since 1 January 2015 must come from a bank, an insurer or a guarantee company, not from the developer itself (ordonnance 2013-890). The Pinel tax scheme for new rental flats ended on 31 December 2024. The 2026 budget (law 2026-103 of 19 February 2026) created a private landlord status in force since 21 February 2026 for purchases until 31 December 2028: an owner who lets unfurnished for 9 years can depreciate 80% of the price, at 3.5%, 4.5% or 5.5% a year for new flats in collective buildings depending on the rent level, or 3% to 4% for older homes with works of at least 30% of the price, within an annual cap of 8,000 € to 12,000 € and for up to 2 homes per household, according to the final text as summarised by Manda (September 2026); earlier drafts differed, so check the official text before advising.

Rentals

Since 1 January 2025, homes rated G on the energy performance certificate (DPE) can no longer be let under a new or renewed lease; F-rated homes follow in 2028 and E-rated homes in 2034, and the rule also covers furnished holiday lets (loi Climat et résilience). Since 1 January 2026 a new electricity conversion factor (1.9 instead of 2.3) is expected to lift about 850,000 electrically heated homes out of classes F and G, and owners with a recent DPE can download an updated certificate from ADEME. The loi Le Meur of November 2024 cut the micro-BIC allowance for unclassified furnished holiday lets to 30% within a 15,000 € ceiling (50% and 77,700 € for classified ones), lets mayors limit the letting of a main home to 90 days a year and set quotas, and requires a registration number in almost every commune. Owners who let furnished under the LMNP real regime and sell since 15 February 2025 must add back the depreciation they deducted when the capital gain is computed, except in student and senior residences and care homes, and the 2026 budget applied the same rule to the new private landlord status.

Platforms

CCI file of real estate professionals: carte professionnelle T, G and S, attestations d'habilitationCommercial court registries: RSAC registration for agents commerciauxRegister of mandates kept by every agencyNotaires: compromis, final deed, transfer taxesDGFiP: transfer tax rates by départementDGCCRF: inspections of mandates and fee displayADEME: energy performance certificates (DPE)Commune registration numbers for furnished holiday letsNotaires-INSEE price index and Notaires du Grand Paris figures