Anyone can buy in Paris or on the French Riviera. Renovating by the rules is where foreign investors lose money.

Anyone can buy a flat in Paris or a villa on the French Riviera. There is no nationality test, no residency requirement and no quota for foreign buyers. That is the easy part.

The hard part comes after the keys. In France, what you may do with a property depends on rules that most foreign buyers discover too late: an energy rating that decides whether you may rent at all, a co-ownership assembly that must vote before you touch a window, a heritage architect who can refuse your shutters, and city rules that cap or forbid short-term lets.

I renovate homes in Paris, Île-de-France and on the Côte d’Azur. This guide puts in one place the rules I see investors miss, with the official source for each of them, checked on 13 October 2026.

The numbers first

• About 7 to 8 %: typical acquisition costs (“notary fees”, mostly transfer taxes) on an older property, against 2 to 3 % on a new one.
• 10 days: the buyer’s cooling-off period after signing the pre-contract.
• 1 January 2025: homes rated G on the energy performance certificate (DPE) can no longer be let on a new or renewed lease. F follows in 2028, E in 2034.
• 90 days a year: the cap on letting your Paris principal residence to tourists since 1 January 2025.
• 691: the number of change-of-use authorisations for tourist lets available in 2026 in Nice’s four quota zones.
• 17.2 % or 7.5 %: social charges on French rental income for a non-resident, depending on where you are covered by social security.

The counter-intuitive part: an old flat does not have to meet today’s standards

Many buyers assume that a French property must be “up to code”. It does not. A 1930 flat with its original wiring can be sold legally. The diagnostics only inform you; they do not oblige the seller to fix anything.

The obligations are triggered by what you decide to do. Rent it, and the home must be “decent”, which now includes a minimum energy rating. Rewire it, and the new installation must follow the current electrical standard. Turn it into a holiday let, and you need a registration number, sometimes a change-of-use authorisation and a minimum DPE rating. So the right question before an offer is not “is it compliant?” but “what will I be allowed to do with it, and at what cost?”

The legal framework, named precisely

1. Buying: open to all, with two contracts and a cooling-off period

• French law does not restrict foreign ownership. The notary will, however, check where the funds come from, under anti-money-laundering rules.
• The first contract is either a promesse unilatérale de vente or a compromis de vente. With a compromis, the deposit is usually around 10 %, held in the notary’s escrow account. A loan condition must give you at least one month to obtain financing.
• A non-professional buyer of a home can withdraw within 10 days, counted from the day after the registered letter notifying the contract is first presented (articles L271-1 to L271-3 of the Code de la construction et de l’habitation).
• Transfer taxes are the largest part of the costs. The standard maximum is 5.81 % plus 0.10 %; since 1 April 2025 and until 30 April 2028, départements may raise their share by 0.5 point. Ask the notary for the exact figure for your address.

2. The diagnostics file: read it before the offer, not at the notary’s

The seller must provide a technical file (dossier de diagnostic technique) with the pre-contract. Its content depends on the property:

• Energy performance (DPE): always. Valid 10 years; those made between 2018 and 30 June 2021 expired on 1 January 2025.
• Lead: building constructed before 1 January 1949.
• Asbestos: building permit issued before 1 July 1997.
• Electricity and gas: installations more than 15 years old. Valid 3 years for a sale.
• Termites: in zones designated by the prefect. Valid 6 months.
• Natural and technological risks: in risk zones. Less than 6 months old.
• Carrez floor area: for any lot in a co-ownership. It appears in the pre-contract and the deed.
• Also, where relevant: non-collective sewage, airport noise, dry rot, and in Paris a sewer-connection check.

3. The energy rating decides whether you can rent

• Leases signed, renewed or tacitly renewed from 1 January 2025 cannot cover a G-rated home: it counts as non-decent. F follows on 1 January 2028, E on 1 January 2034.
• For F- and G-rated homes, rent can be neither indexed nor increased for leases signed or renewed since 24 August 2022.
• On 1 January 2026 the calculation changed for electric heating (conversion factor from 2.3 to 1.9). Some electrically heated flats gain a letter; an existing DPE can be updated online, free of charge, through ADEME.
• Selling a house (not a flat in co-ownership) rated E, F or G also requires an energy audit.

4. Works: permits, the heritage architect and the co-ownership vote

• Changing windows, roof materials or the colour or materials of a façade requires a déclaration préalable (prior declaration) at the town hall. Extensions above 20 m² (40 m² in urban zones with a local plan) need a building permit.
• In protected heritage areas, and around listed monuments, the Architecte des Bâtiments de France must approve most exterior works. In Paris, a 2016 culture ministry sheet states that almost all of the city lies within the protected surroundings of its 1,837 listed monuments.
• Paris’s new local plan (PLU bioclimatique, approved on 20 November 2024) favours renovation over demolition and bans external air-conditioning units.
• In Nice, the UNESCO-listed “Winter Resort Town of the Riviera” (inscribed in 2021) is a protected heritage area. Its rules require wooden windows, ban PVC, ban air-conditioning units on façades and impose canal roof tiles.
• In a co-ownership, works on your own lot that touch common parts (a load-bearing wall) or the external appearance (windows) must be approved by the general assembly, by the majority of article 25 of the law of 10 July 1965, before work starts.
• Since 1 January 2025, every residential co-ownership more than 15 years old must have a draft ten-year works plan. Ask for it: it tells you which works, and which charges, are coming.

5. Insurance: two policies, two different roles

• Dommages-ouvrage insurance is compulsory for the owner before major works (structure, heavy exterior works). It pays for serious defects without waiting for a court to decide who is liable. The criminal penalty for not having it is lifted only for individuals building for themselves or their family; a buy-to-let is not in that list.
• Every contractor must hold ten-year liability insurance (garantie décennale, article 1792 of the Civil Code). The insurance certificate must be attached to the quote and the invoice. No certificate, no signature.

6. Technical standards that apply to the works

• New or fully renovated electrical installations follow the 2024 edition of the NF C 15-100 standard, applied to renovations since September 2025. A Consuel conformity certificate less than 6 years old replaces the electricity diagnostic at the next sale or lease.
• For gas, an installer’s conformity certificate less than 3 years old replaces the gas diagnostic.
• Before works in a building whose permit predates 1 July 1997, the French Labour Code requires the party ordering the works to identify asbestos where workers may be exposed (article L4412-2). Discuss it with your contractor before the quote is final.

7. VAT on renovation

• For homes completed more than two years ago: 10 % on improvement and maintenance works, 5.5 % on energy-renovation works, 20 % when the works make the building “as new”, add more than 10 % of floor area or add a storey, and on equipment you buy yourself. Fossil-fuel boilers have been at 20 % since 1 March 2025.
• The old client attestation forms were abolished in 2025. You now confirm the conditions with a signed statement on the quote or invoice.

8. Renting: long-term or short-term, the rules are not the same

• Paris, long-term: rents are capped by reference rents set by the prefect (current order of 12 June 2026, applicable to 24 November 2026). A rent supplement is barred for F- and G-rated homes. The rent-control scheme ends in late November 2026 unless Parliament extends it; at the time of writing, the vote is pending.
• Côte d’Azur, long-term: no Riviera town is on the rent-cap list (ANIL, July 2026).
• Short-term, everywhere: the law of 19 November 2024 (loi Le Meur) lets towns cap a principal residence at 90 days a year, requires a registration number, and requires a DPE rated A to E for a change-of-use authorisation (A to D from 2034). Letting without a required change-of-use authorisation can cost up to €100,000.
• Paris, short-term: your principal residence, 90 days a year. A second home needs a change-of-use authorisation with compensation: you must convert commercial space into housing elsewhere in the same district, one to three times the surface. For an individual, this is close to impossible.
• Nice, short-term: since 1 September 2026, an individual owner can obtain one temporary authorisation, valid 5 years and not renewable. A second unit, or a company, needs compensation. In the four quota zones, 691 authorisations are available for 2026, first come, first served; a new regime is announced for January 2027.
• Cannes: registration is mandatory and a principal residence is capped at 120 days. Villefranche-sur-Mer: change-of-use authorisation required since 1 July 2024.
• In a co-ownership, building rules written since 21 November 2024 must state whether tourist lets are allowed, and older buildings can now ban them by a two-thirds vote in some cases. Read the rules before you buy.

9. Riviera specifics: earthquakes and brush clearing

• The whole of Nice is in seismic zone 4. Significant structural works must take it into account.
• In the Alpes-Maritimes, land within 200 metres of woods is subject to brush-clearing obligations: 50 metres around buildings and 10 metres along access roads. Fines can reach €30 per square metre not cleared, and the seller must certify the clearing.

10. Tax: the essentials, and where to stop

• French rental income is taxed in France, at a minimum rate of 20 % (30 % above €29,579 for 2025 income), unless the “average rate” based on your worldwide income is lower.
• Social charges: 17.2 % on unfurnished rental income and capital gains, 18.6 % on furnished lets, or 7.5 % only if you are covered by social security in an EEA country or Switzerland.
• Capital gains on a sale: 19 % plus social charges, with full exemption from income tax after 22 years and from social charges after 30 years.
• Property wealth tax (IFI) applies when your net French real estate exceeds €1.3 million.

Tax treaties change these rules from one country to another. This is the job of a tax adviser and your notary, not of a renovation specialist.

What I can’t promise you

• That these rules will hold. Paris rent control may be extended, changed or dropped this autumn, the national register for tourist lets is due to open, and Nice announces a new quota regime for January 2027. Check again the week you sign.
• Legal or tax advice. I am neither a notary nor a tax adviser. The structure of your purchase and your taxes are their field.
• That every property can become what you have in mind. A G-rated flat in a protected building, in a co-ownership that votes slowly, cannot always be turned into a profitable rental quickly. Sometimes the honest advice is not to buy it. I would rather tell you before the offer than after the works.

Where to start, concretely

• Before any offer: ask for the full diagnostics file, the minutes of the last three general assemblies and the draft works plan. Look at the DPE letter first.
• Before any offer: check the address on the official risk map (georisques.gouv.fr) and, in Paris or Nice, whether the street is in a protected heritage area.
• Before the pre-contract: decide your rental model. For a tourist let, check the city’s change-of-use rules (paris.fr, or changementdusage.fr/nice for Nice, where the 2026 quota window closes in December).
• During the 10-day cooling-off period: have a renovation professional visit the property and give you a written estimate of the works the rules will require.
• Before the first hammer: general assembly vote if needed, prior declaration filed (one month, two in a protected area), insurance certificates attached to every quote.

Buy the rules, not just the walls

In Paris and on the Riviera, two identical flats can have very different values once you read their DPE letter, their co-ownership minutes and their street’s heritage rules. The price tells you what the walls cost. The rules tell you what you can do with them.

Sources

Service-public.gouv.fr — Avant-contrat de vente immobilière (F2965, 10 April 2026) — checked 13 October 2026
Service-public.gouv.fr — Dossier de diagnostic technique (F10798) and the sheets on DPE (F16096), lead (F1142), electricity (F18692), gas (F17337), risks (F12239) — checked 13 October 2026
Service-public.gouv.fr — Droits de mutation : hausse possible à partir du 1er avril 2025 (A18183) — checked 13 October 2026
Notaires de France — Cost of buying a house: conveyancing fees (11 February 2026) and Purchase in France by non-residents — checked 13 October 2026
Service-public.gouv.fr — Logement décent : interdiction de louer les logements G (A17975) ; Gel des loyers des logements F et G (F1311) ; Audit énergétique (F37110) — checked 13 October 2026
Service-public.gouv.fr — Déclaration préalable (F31473) ; Extension (F36777, F1986) ; Travaux en copropriété (F31513) ; Plan pluriannuel de travaux (F36760) — checked 13 October 2026
Ministère de la Culture — Travaux aux abords des monuments historiques et dans les sites patrimoniaux remarquables ; DRAC Île-de-France, fiches UDAP (March 2016) — checked 13 October 2026
Ville de Paris — Le plan local d’urbanisme (updated 22 July 2026) ; Furnished vacation rentals: rules to follow (20 April 2026) ; Règlement municipal sur les changements d’usage (2025 DLH 44) — checked 13 October 2026
Préfecture de Paris — Arrêté d’encadrement des loyers du 12 juin 2026 ; ANIL — Encadrement du niveau des loyers en zones tendues (July 2026) — checked 13 October 2026
Ministère de la Transition écologique — Guide pratique 2025 des meublés de tourisme (loi n° 2024-1039 du 19 novembre 2024) ; Service-public.gouv.fr — A18880 and F2043 — checked 13 October 2026
Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur — Règlement changement d’usage du 22 juin 2026 and Avis au public, quotas (15 August 2026) ; AVAP de Nice, règlement ; UNESCO, Nice, Winter Resort Town of the Riviera — checked 13 October 2026
Ville de Cannes — Déclaration d’un meublé de tourisme ; Villefranche-sur-Mer, Guide du propriétaire de meublés de tourisme (2026) — checked 13 October 2026
Service-public.gouv.fr — Assurance dommages-ouvrage (F2032, 17 September 2026) ; Garantie décennale (F2034) ; Obligation de débroussaillement (F33298) — checked 13 October 2026
Consuel — Nouvelle norme NF C 15-100 (April 2025) ; Légifrance, Code du travail, article L4412-2 — checked 13 October 2026
Entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr — Taux de TVA dans le bâtiment (F23568, 21 February 2026) ; BOFiP, BOI-TVA-LIQ-30-20-90-40 — checked 13 October 2026
Impots.gouv.fr — Taux moyen pour les non-résidents (1 April 2026) ; Vente d’un bien immobilier par un non-résident (27 January 2026) ; Service-public.gouv.fr — Prélèvements sociaux (F2329) and IFI (F563) — checked 13 October 2026
Service-public.gouv.fr — MaPrimeRénov’ (F35083, 1 September 2026) — checked 13 October 2026

This article is general information, up to date on 13 October 2026, based on the official sources listed above. It is not legal or tax advice. For your purchase, consult a notary; for tax questions, a tax adviser; for public renovation grants, the free public service France Rénov’ (france-renov.gouv.fr). Rules on rentals and grants change frequently: check them again before you commit.