How to value a property for France's wealth tax

Are you eligible to pay the French wealth tax (impôt sur la fortune immobilière - IFI), a levy calculated on the net worth of your property?

The threshold for property wealth for 2025 is €1.3million per tax household, and it is up to you to make a declaration. 

Assessing your property value is, therefore, key to working out your eligibility for IFI – and how much tax you will need to pay.

Your property estate has to be valued at its market rate as of January 1, 2025, and there are several methods – some of which are free – to help you work out market value.

Online resources

The notaires’ property website immobilier.notaires.fr offers a helpful carte des prix au m2 (map of prices per m2) where you can see how much properties near you have sold for recently.

You can filter the search by number of rooms, whether the property is new-build or not. 

‘New-build’ (neuf) means properties built within the last five years. All other property is described as ancien. 

Another notaire’s price site, leprixdelimmo.notaires.fr, allows for a more specific search, although it is less user-friendly.

The government data map at explore.data.gouv.fr/fr/immobilier is also helpful as it shows specific sales, including the type of property and size, sale date and price, using tax office information. 

An alternative government site is app.dvf.etalab.gouv.fr. 

The tool Patrim can be used by anyone with an account on the tax website impots.gouv.fr. Log in and go to Autres services, then Rechercher des transactions immobilières.

The opening page asks you to state the reason for using it, ie. déclaration d’IFI. 

It uses tax office records on recent property sales and can help you estimate the value of your home by seeing what comparable properties sold for recently. 

You need to give details such as type of home, eg. house or flat, floor space and location.

Consider your property

With all these services, bear in mind you must take account of your property’s particular amenities, location and quality.

The most common way to do this is by comparing your property to similar ones, taking into account factors such as the ground area of the building, surface area on all floors, the amount that is habitable, and the number of rooms. 

You should also consider the quality of materials and architecture, the condition of the property, where it is located and the level and standard of equipment. 

Legal factors might also come into play – for example, the length of a lease and local development restrictions. 

Occupational factors also count. A property you rent out would be valued at less than one you have the right to occupy. 

A property occupied by a tenant would typically be eligible for a 20% reduction.

Property held in joint ownership with other people may be subject to a reduction of between 10% and 20% in value, accounting for the increased difficulty you would have in selling it.

Property rented out on very long-term leases (bail emphytéotique) is reduced in value in proportion to the time left on the rental period. 

People who own a listed historic monument may take into account the extra responsibilities involved for this, such as, potentially, opening it to the public or high maintenance costs.

A key point to remember is that property used by the owner on January 1, 2025, as their main private residence is entitled to an automatic deduction of 30%. 

Where families live in more than one property, only one can be the principal home.

Professional valuation 

Estate agents may agree to do a valuation. In this case, it is best to consult several and take an average. Local notaires can also do this for a fee.

Another option is to find an expert immobilier. 

Although it is an unregulated industry, there are several groups that require members to agree to charters of professional ethics and to have professional insurance, which may help indicate a certain level of reliability. 

Courts sometimes list experts (experts judiciaires). They take an oath to the court and should be well qualified. Find lists of such experts used by courts operating in your area (see here), and search for those involved in property (bâtiment or immobilier), and especially estimations immobilières. 

Previous-year values 

You can adjust previous values on a property by applying a factor such as the national index for the rise in property prices (indice du coût de la construction), available from the national statistics body Insee, although this method is generally discouraged by the tax authorities.

Expert help for rental properties 

Where residential property is rented out on a long-term lease, work out the market value by calculating the annual rent and the taux de capitalisation, which depends on the type of building and its characteristics. Ask an expert to do this for you. 

SCI ownership Property owned under a société civile immobilière (SCI) is declared based on the value of the shares held if you were to sell them to the level of the proportion of the value that is represented by property. 

Certain debts of the SCI related to the taxable property assets can be deducted from the total value before the coefficient is applied. 

Some SCI shares, such as those that relate to property used professionally by the taxpayer, can be exempt.

Other considerations

• Building land. This needs to be valued at the market price. If work has already begun on it, the valuation should account for the stage this is at, which may require the services of a professional.
• Agricultural land. Assess its value at agreste.agriculture.gouv.fr/agreste-web. Look under chiffres et analyses and then valeur vénale des terres, and check also le-prix-des-terres.fr.
• Company shares. Some may have a declarable element in proportion to property owned by the company, and should therefore be valued according to the last known valuation on January 1, 2025.

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