What are you buying when you buy a gîte in France?
A listing that says “gîte for sale” can hide three purchases: the property itself, the walls (les murs), in which you will let holiday homes or rooms; the business that already runs there, the fonds de commerce; or the shares of the company that owns one or both. The price does not tell you which.
One listing, three contracts
Each purchase has its own contract, signatory and register. The walls pass by a notaire’s deed published in the land registry. The fonds de commerce passes by a written deed, registered and published so that the seller’s creditors can come forward. The shares pass by an agreement, under the company’s approval rules. Many projects combine two: the house in your name, the activity in a company.
How to tell which one is on offer
Ask who owns the building, whether there is a business with its own customers, staff or lease, and whether the seller sells the assets or the company. The title deed, the Kbis extract and the last accounts answer.
| The property (les murs) | The business (fonds de commerce) | The company’s shares | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Building and land, furniture listed in the deed | Clientele, name, lease right, equipment; not the building | The company, with its assets and debts |
| Who signs | The parties, in an authentic deed received by a notaire | The parties, in a written deed, authentic or private | The parties, in a share purchase agreement, after approval |
| Main checks | Title, surveys, planning, pre-emption, withdrawal period | Accounts, lease, employees, oppositions, the commune’s pre-emption | Accounts, debts, disputes, tax position, statuts |
| Duty on the price | Departmental rate (articles 683 and 1594 D of the tax code) | 0 %, 3 % or 5 % by band (article 719 and surcharges) | 0.1 %, 3 % or 5 % (article 726) |
How does buying the property itself work?
In two steps: a preliminary contract that fixes the deal, then the final deed before a notaire. In between, the conditions are met, the holders of pre-emption rights are consulted and the title is checked.
The preliminary contract and the ten days
The preliminary contract is a compromis de vente, in which both sides commit, or a promesse unilatérale de vente, in which the seller commits and you hold an option (article 1124 of the French Civil Code, Code civil). A promise of sale is a sale once both agree on the thing and the price (article 1589). It is where the conditions are written: loan, planning, pre-emption.
Article L271-1 of the French Construction and Housing Code (Code de la construction et de l’habitation), checked October 2026, gives the non-professional buyer of a building used for housing ten days to withdraw, from the day after the contract is notified or handed over. A house you will live in and partly let fits the text. A hotel does not, and a house bought only to run as a letting business is a grey zone: the contract should say whether the period applies.
Pre-emption rights
Where the commune holds an urban pre-emption right, the owner declares the sale at the town hall, and two months of silence mean the commune waives it (article L213-2 of the Planning Code, Code de l’urbanisme). The SAFER, the rural land agency, can pre-empt farmland, farm dwellings and, in some zones, buildings used for farming in the previous ten years (article L143-1 of the Rural Code).
The deed and the land registry
Only a deed received in authentic form by a notaire practising in France can be published in the land registry (article 710-1 of the Civil Code), so every property sale ends at a notaire’s office. Transfer duty is levied on the price (article 683 of the tax code) at a rate each département may vary within the limits of article 1594 D, plus local surcharges.
What is a fonds de commerce, and how do you buy one?
A fonds de commerce is a business as a going concern: what lets a trade continue under a new owner. Buying a business in France this way follows formalities that protect the seller’s creditors, the employees and, in some streets, the commune.
What the fonds contains
The French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) lists what a fonds can include: sign and trade name, lease right, clientele, furniture, equipment and the intellectual property attached to it (article L142-2). Not the building. If the seller rents the premises, you take over the commercial lease, and a clause forbidding its transfer to the buyer of the fonds is void (article L145-16). Whether a small holiday-let operation is a fonds at all is a question of fact.
The deed, the publication and the oppositions
The deed prices the intangible elements, the equipment and the stock separately (article L141-5). For three years, the seller must show you on request the books of the three years before the sale (article L141-2).
The deed is registered with the tax office (article 635 of the tax code), then published within fifteen days of the sale in a legal notice newspaper and in the BODACC, the official bulletin of civil and commercial notices (articles L141-12 and L141-13). For ten days after the last publication, the seller’s creditors can oppose payment of the price (article L141-14).
Employees, the commune and the duty
In a company with fewer than fifty employees, they are told of the sale at least a month before, so that they can make an offer (article L141-23, read with article L2312-1 of the Labour Code), and their contracts pass to the buyer (article L1224-1 of the Labour Code, Code du travail). Where the council has drawn a perimeter to protect local shops, the sale is declared to the commune first, which has two months to pre-empt (article L214-1 of the Planning Code).
The registration duty is 0 % on the fraction of the price up to 23,000 euros, 3 % on the fraction up to 200,000 euros and 5 % above: the State duty of article 719 of the tax code plus the surcharges of articles 1595 and 1584, or 1595 bis in smaller communes, checked October 2026.
When do you buy the company instead?
When the seller holds the gîte or the business through a company, you can buy its shares instead of its assets. Nothing moves: the property, the lease and the contracts stay in the company, and so does its past.
What you take over and who approves
You take the company with its debts, tax position, disputes and staff, so the checks are those of an acquisition, starting with its filings: the guide to the French business register shows where to read them, and the Kbis guide what the extract proves.
In a SARL, shares pass to an outsider only with the consent of a majority of partners holding at least half of the shares (article L223-14 of the Commercial Code), as the guide to the SARL explains. In an SAS, the statuts may require prior approval (article L227-14), covered in the guide to the SAS. The deed is then registered within a month (article 635 of the tax code).
The duty, and the property company
Article 726 of the tax code, checked October 2026, taxes the price at 0.1 % for SAS shares, 3 % for SARL shares after an allowance, on each share, of 23,000 euros divided by the total number of shares, and 5 % for a company whose assets are mainly French property. Sold abroad, such shares are recorded within a month by a notaire practising in France.
Can a foreigner buy a gîte or a business in France?
Yes. French law sets no nationality condition to buy a property, a fonds de commerce or shares, as it sets none to start a company. The question is whether you will live in France to run it.
Owning from abroad, running from France
Owning and letting a property from abroad needs no residence permit, which concerns a foreigner staying in France for more than three months (article L411-1 of the immigration code). A non-EU national who settles in France to run the business needs a permit allowing the activity: the one-year entrepreneur card (article L421-5) or, for a larger project, the talent-porteur de projet card (article L421-16), explained in the guide to the talent passport and in the founder’s guide.
Buying and running a fonds in your own name makes you an entrepreneur individuel, a status a non-EU national can use only with a permit that allows it (article L526-22 of the Commercial Code); the micro-entrepreneur guide covers that route. A company can buy from abroad, and the founder’s guide compares the structures.
A gîte let as a whole can be run from abroad with someone on site. Chambres d’hôtes cannot: they are rooms in the host’s home (article L324-3 of the French Tourism Code, Code du tourisme), so planning bed and breakfast means planning to live in France.
What must you declare before the first guest arrives?
A meublé de tourisme is declared online and receives a number before it is offered; chambres d’hôtes are declared to the mayor. Some communes add an authorisation.
The meublé de tourisme declaration
A meublé de tourisme is a furnished home let to passing guests by the day, the week or the month (article L324-1-1, I). Since 20 May 2026, article L324-1-1, checked October 2026, requires a prior declaration to a national online service, which issues a declaration number at once, shown in every offer (article L324-2). Failing to declare carries a fine of up to 10,000 euros (article L324-1-1, V).
The official guide, checked 21 May 2026, still sends owners to the town hall to learn which online service applies: ask before the first booking.
Days, change of use and stars
The 120-day ceiling a calendar year applies only to your main residence, and the commune may lower it to 90 (article L324-1-1, IV). Where changing the use of housing needs authorisation, letting a dwelling as a meublé de tourisme is a change of use (article L631-7 of the Construction and Housing Code); the council may also require authorisation for premises that are not housing (IV bis). Classification in stars is optional, on request, for five years (articles D324-3 and D324-4), and it changes the tax.
Chambres d’hôtes
They are declared to the mayor before they are offered (article L324-4). The host supplies the night and the breakfast together and welcomes the guests, with at most five rooms and fifteen guests (article D324-13), each room with access to a bathroom and a toilet, linen supplied (article D324-14).
How is the income from a gîte taxed?
Furnished letting produces commercial income, the bénéfices industriels et commerciaux (article 35 of the tax code). Under the micro regime, tax falls on receipts minus a flat allowance, with a ceiling that depends on what you let.
| What you let | Ceiling of receipts | Flat allowance | Legal basis, checked October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meublé de tourisme, not classified | 15,000 euros | 30 % | Article 50-0, 1, 1° bis |
| Classified meublé de tourisme, chambres d’hôtes | 83,600 euros | 50 % | Article 50-0, 1, 2°; official guide checked 15 April 2026 |
Who can use it
The regime is for individuals: companies liable to corporate tax are excluded, and so are companies taxed through their partners, except a SARL whose single partner is the natural person who runs it (article 50-0, 2). The ceiling is tested on the receipts of the previous year or the one before; above it, or by option, the real regime applies (article 50-0). Which costs less is a calculation for your accountant.
Professional or not
Furnished letting is professional when the household’s receipts from it exceed 23,000 euros a year and exceed its other professional income, such as salaries (article 155, IV of the tax code); a taxpayer resident abroad compares them with income of the same kind taxed at home. The status changes how losses are offset (official guide, checked April 2026): your accountant assesses it.
Where does a lawyer fit next to the notaire?
The notaire is a public officer who gives the deed its authentic form, collects the duty and publishes the sale; for the property, the notaire is not optional, and buyer and seller may each instruct their own. A lawyer acts for one side only: yours.
A lawyer reads the preliminary contract before you sign and negotiates its conditions, advises on buying in your own name, through a company or by buying shares, and drafts or reviews the deed of a fonds or a share purchase agreement. For a buyer abroad, the lawyer prepares the power of attorney for the notaire that lets you sign without travelling.
Concord checks the title, the surveys and the documents before the purchase binds you, through pre-purchase due diligence, and follows a purchase from abroad with the notaire and the bank until the keys. When the gîte sits inside a company, the purchase is handled as a share transfer.