News Digest: French Notaire’s Fees Increase & Is RyanAir Stopping Flights to France?

Regardless of your opinions on France’s latest Prime Minister, François Bayrou, I’m sure I’m not alone in breathing a sigh of relief that he survived the two votes of no confidence filed against him last week. For better or worse, France now at least has a 2025 budget and some semblance of political stability (surely no-one really wanted another government pause right now?!). Of course, we’ll see how long this lasts – experts are still predicting that this government will also fall in the coming months.

For now, though, Bayrou is shifting the conversation back to the ever-contentious subject of immigration. Prior to the votes of no-confidence, the PM came under fire for his recent comments regarding France’s “flood” of immigrants. Now, in response to Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin’s recent statement regarding the removal of France’s “jus soli” (the law that allows children born on French soil to claim citizenship between the ages of 13-18, providing they spend the majority of their childhood in France) from the constitution, Bayrou called for a wider debate about what it means to be French, insisting that such a debate could not be “postponed forever”. “What does it mean to be French?” Bayou asked, “What rights does it give you? What duties does it demand of you? What advantages do you get? What do you commit to when you become a member of a national community?”

France finally has a 2025 Budget after starting the new year with a hastily approved rollover of the 2024 Budget and, as such, suffering several not-insignificant freezes on government service funds. The new budget is designed to reduce the public deficit to 5.4%of GDP in 2025, and includes several elements of Barnier’s previous bill, albeit with several concessions to the left.

So, how might the 2025 Budget affect you? Firstly, there will be a temporary increase in taxes on the highest earning households in France (those with a revenu fiscal de référence higher than €250,000 for a single person or €500,000 for a couple), and tax bands for 2025 will increase by 1.8% according to inflation, which is good news for lower and middle-income households. The initial proposal to lower the threshold of VAT/TVA for micro-entrepreneurs has been dropped, but big businesses (those with an annual turnover greater than €1 billion) will be required to pay a temporary additional contribution. Additional taxes have also been applied to high-polluting vehicles, air travel and property purchases (detailed below).

One of few increases seen in the cut-heavy budget is France’s defence budget, which has an increase of €3.3 billion in spending compared to 2024. On the other end of the scale, the education budget has been hit hardest with cuts of €50 million, somewhat counterbalanced against the promise of restoring 4,000 teaching jobs.

France’s controversial proposal to increase the “eco-tax” (officially the taxe sur la solidarité des billets d’avion) on airline tickets has been approved in the new 2025 Budget. Since 2005, the eco-tax has already been added to tickets for all commercial flights leaving France, and this increase will see the tax more than doubled. The taxes depend on a number of factors, but as an example, the tax added to an economy ticket for a European flight leaving from France currently has an additional €2.63 of tax added. Under the new budget, this would increase to €7.40. For long-haul destinations, the tax for an economy ticket would increase to as much as €40.

One person who won’t be happy about the tax hike is Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who spoke out last week against the proposal, threatening that Ryanair is likely to reduce its flights to France as a result. “France is already a high-tax country and, therefore, if it further increases already high taxes, we will probably reduce our capacity,” he said. This comes after the news that Ryanair will be closing its base at Bordeaux airport over a dispute about fees and will be cancelling all its flight routes to Paris. Will this latest news mean that Ryanair stops services to France entirely? Watch this space.

Another unwelcome increase that will affect property buyers in France applies to notaire’s fees – the non-negotiable fees that are payable by the buyer when purchasing a property in France. Typically, notaire’s fees total between 7-8% of the purchase price, which includes a flat rate of 4.5% for registration fees and land property sale taxes, plus various local taxes. The new budget allows for an increase of those base fees from 4.5% to 5%, which could push the overall total up to around 8-9% – a sizeable chunk of the property value.

These increases are set to apply from March 2025 through to Feb 2028 (although there’s no guarantee that this won’t be extended beyond then) and will include an exemption for first-time homeowners in France (before you ask, no, that doesn’t apply to non-residents purchasing a second home!).

We’ve now confirmed our expert panel for next week’s free webinar and it’s a great one! I’ll be joined by estate agent Sophie Folley, Founder and director of Sophie Folley Immobilier, and French Property Lawyer Laure Chaveron to cover all the basics about buying in France, from starting your property search through to signing the acte de vente. Thomas Nivert, Director of Societe2Courtage, will also be demystifying French mortgages and offering insider advice on how to get the best rates and secure a mortgage as a non-resident, and last but not least Mar Bonnin Palmer, Head of Partnerships at Moneycorp, will be talking you through how to get the best rate of currency exchange and maximise your property budget.

Join us next Thursday,  20th February 2025 at 10 am UK time/11am French time. If you have questions for any of our panellists, you can also email us at webinar@frenchentree.com.

Sign up for our free Where to Start with Buying in France – UK webinar here!