Second home in France: property taxes 2026-2027

Buying a house in the Dordogne or an apartment in Nice comes with three local taxes, not one, and their number is about to matter more. In 2026 the bill for a second home combines taxe foncière and taxe d'habitation, the latter possibly increased by a local surcharge. From 2027 a new tax on vacant homes replaces the current ones with much higher rates, and town halls will receive, every year and without asking, the name of every owner of an empty home. Here is what applies now, what changes in January, and the one lever that lowers all three bills at once.

The taxes on a second home in 2026

Taxe foncière. Owed by whoever owns the property on 1 January, occupied or not. It is calculated on the cadastral rental value of the property, reduced by a flat 50% allowance, then multiplied by the rates voted locally. If you have not yet read your 2026 bill closely, start with our guide: how to check whether your French taxe foncière bill is wrong.

Taxe d'habitation on second homes. Taxe d'habitation was abolished for main residences in 2023. It remains due on second homes, under the name taxe d'habitation sur les résidences secondaires. It uses the same rental value as taxe foncière, without the 50% allowance.

The surcharge in high-demand areas. In the 3,689 communes classified as high-demand areas (zones tendues), the council may add a surcharge of 5% to 60% to the taxe d'habitation on second homes. Roughly 2,400 communes have voted one for 2026. Since 2024 the law also allows a commune to raise the rate of this tax without raising taxe foncière in step, which makes second-home owners, who do not vote locally, a convenient target.

What changes on 1 January 2027

Two measures take effect together.

A new tax on vacant residential premises. The 2026 Finance Act abolishes the current annual tax on vacant homes and the taxe d'habitation on vacant homes, and replaces them, from the 2027 tax year, with a single tax on vacant residential premises.

The rule. In communes classified as high-demand areas, whose list is set by decree, the tax applies automatically after one year of vacancy, at 17% of the rental value the first year and 34% thereafter. The council may raise these rates to 30% then 60%. In every other commune, the tax exists only if the council or the intercommunal body introduces it, after two years of vacancy, and its rate is capped at 50%.

The list of high-demand communes was fixed by a decree of 25 August 2026 and is identical to the one used for the previous vacant-home tax: the scope does not widen, the rates do. Paris chose the maximum in July 2026: 30% then 60%. The city's own example gives the scale: for an empty 30 m² apartment in the 17th arrondissement, an estimated €790 before the reform, €1,400 in 2027 and €2,800 from 2028. The full mechanism, rates and exclusions are set out, in French, in our article on the 2027 vacant-home tax.

An annual file sent to every town hall. A law of 25 June 2026 requires the tax administration, from 2027, to send every commune each year the list of second homes and vacant homes on its territory. For a vacant home, the file states the first year of vacancy, the rate applied, the reason for vacancy declared by the owner, and the owner's name and postal address. Until now, a commune had to request this list. From 2027, nobody needs to ask. We explain the content of the file in this article.

Is a second home a vacant home?

No, as long as it is furnished and actually used. A home occupied for more than 90 consecutive days in the year is not vacant. The law also excludes homes whose vacancy is beyond the owner's control: major works, a blocked inheritance, a property genuinely offered for sale or rent at market price without a taker. In each case, keep the evidence, quotes, listings, mandates, probate documents, and declare the situation in your impots.gouv.fr space, where every owner is now asked to state how each property is occupied. The administration's period to reassess these taxes was extended to three years in 2026, which makes that paperwork more valuable, not less: see the article on the extended reassessment period.

The common thread: a rental value from 1970

All three taxes rest on the same figure, the cadastral rental value of your property. It was set according to the 1970 assessment method, never replaced for residential property, on the basis of a description recorded when the property was built: surface, number of rooms, comfort features, condition, outbuildings. Nobody inspects the property, and nothing obliges anyone to update the description.

The consequence is arithmetic. Taxe foncière applies the rental value after a 50% allowance; taxe d'habitation on second homes and the vacant-home tax apply it in full. An overstated rental value therefore weighs once on the first tax and twice as much on the other two. Among more than 1,600 cases analysed by Orka.tax, 87% of assessments were overvalued, by an average of €260 per year on taxe foncière alone.

What Orka.tax does. The simulation is free and takes about 60 seconds. The complete analysis of one property, outbuildings included, costs €78 including VAT: we obtain the official assessment sheet (fiche 6675) on your behalf, rebuild the rental value parameter by parameter and deliver your result, the real amount of your tax, with the claim file ready to be submitted. You file it yourself, online, from anywhere, and you remain the signatory. No commission, no subscription.

What a foreign owner can do

• Read the assessment sheet. Request the fiche d'évaluation of each property through the secure messaging of impots.gouv.fr. It is free and lists every parameter behind the rental value.
• Declare how the property is occupied. The occupancy declaration in your impots.gouv.fr space determines whether the property is treated as a second home or as vacant.
• Document any vacancy you cannot help. Works, inheritance, sale or rental attempts: dated evidence is what makes an exemption enforceable.
• Contest the rental value if it is wrong. The claim follows the rules of taxe foncière: it is admissible until 31 December of the year following the assessment, and it corrects all three taxes at once.

Key points

• In 2026 a second home pays taxe foncière and taxe d'habitation on second homes, possibly with a local surcharge of up to 60% in high-demand areas.
• From 2027 a single tax on vacant homes replaces the current ones: 17% then 34% automatically in high-demand communes, up to 60% by local decision, up to 50% elsewhere by local decision only.
• From 2027 every commune receives each year the names and addresses of owners of vacant homes.
• All three taxes use the same 1970-based rental value; the vacant-home tax uses it without the 50% allowance.
• Correcting the rental value is the one action that lowers every bill, and it can be done entirely online from abroad.

The rates are decided in council chambers you do not vote in. The rental value is a file you can open.