Fees
Clear fees, paid on completion
One fee covers the whole sale, from the first valuation to the signature at the notaire’s office. Nothing is payable until the deed is signed.
Fee scale
Houses and apartments
6%incl. VAT
Building plots with planning permission
Building permit already granted
6%incl. VAT
Building plots
Building permit to be obtained
10%incl. VAT
- Due on completion
- The fee is payable once the final deed, the acte authentique, is signed.
- Set by the mandate
- Your mandate states the fee and whether the seller or the buyer pays it.
- Shown on every listing
- Each advertised price states the fee included and who pays it.
What the fee covers
We run the sale and its paperwork from the first visit to the signing. Your adviser organises every report, permit check and appointment, and follows each one through to the deed.
The valuation
We price your property the way professional valuers do, by comparison, and we show you every figure behind the price.
- Recent sales. Completed sales recorded by the notaires in the official DVF register, filtered by village, property type and size.
- Homes on the market. The properties competing with yours today, their asking prices and how long they have been for sale.
- Price per m². Calculated on weighted living area, with terraces, annexes and outbuildings each counted at their own rate.
- Adjustments. Land, views, exposure, pool, layout, condition and energy rating. For plots, the buildable area under the local plan.
- A price range. A recommended asking price and the realistic sale price, with the comparables that support both.
Marketing and the sale
- Full professional advice at every step, from the first visit to the signing
- Photography, floor plans and the presentation of your property
- Global marketing to buyers in France and abroad
- Access to our Private Collection of buyers and sellers
- Buyer checks on identity, financing and the origin of funds, in line with French anti-money-laundering rules (Tracfin)
- An international team who share your culture and your language, and explain each step of the French process the way you would expect at home
- Negotiation of the price and the conditions of sale
The administrative file
- Diagnostics. We book accredited inspectors and check every report before it goes to the buyer.
- Planning history. We gather building permits, declarations of completion and certificates of conformity from the mairie, and check the property matches them.
- SPANC. For homes on a septic system, we arrange the inspection and obtain the report the sale requires.
- Mortgage lenders. We work with the buyer’s bank or broker and follow the loan offer through to issue, within the deadline set in the compromis.
- The compromis. We prepare the file with the notaire, gather the documents for both parties and track every condition.
- Through to the deed. We coordinate the notaires, surveyors, syndic and advisers on both sides until the keys change hands.
Reports and services from third parties, such as diagnostics, the SPANC inspection, surveys and notaire fees, are invoiced directly by each provider.
For buyers
Buy with a search mandate
A search mandate, the mandat de recherche, makes your La Reserve adviser your representative from the first viewing. You gain an expert on your side for the whole purchase, and you pay less in transfer duties at the notaire.
Sign at the start, before any viewing
A search mandate has to be in place before you visit properties. It cannot be set up once you have found the home you want to buy, so speak to us at the very start of your search.
On your side
Your adviser searches, shortlists and negotiates the price and conditions on your behalf.
Every property on the market
Your adviser has access to every home for sale that fits your brief, whichever agency lists it.
Off-market homes
Our Private Collection and properties sold discreetly, without public advertising.
One point of contact
One adviser plans all your viewings. No going from agency to agency and booking visits one by one.
Advice at every step
Diagnostics, planning checks, SPANC, your lender and the notaire, followed through to the deed.
Lower transfer duties
The fee stays outside the price in the deed, so the duties apply to the net price only.
How the search mandate lowers your duties
When you buy a home in France, the notaire collects transfer duties, the droits de mutation, on the price written in the deed. In the Alpes-Maritimes these come to around 5.8% on a resale property.
If the agency fee sits inside the seller’s price, the duties apply to the fee too. When the fee is payable by you under a search mandate, it stays outside the price in the deed. The duties, and the notaire’s own scale fee, then apply to the net price only. The French tax administration confirms this treatment where the mandate places the fee on the buyer.
Same property, same total paid. A smaller tax bill.
How it works with us
You sign a search mandate before your first viewing. French law requires a written mandate before an agency acts for you, and it records the fee and that you pay it.
The fee appears as its own line in the compromis and in the deed, payable by you on completion.
The notaire calculates the duties on the net price and settles our fee at the signing.
| Your saving | Price in the deed | Transfer duties |
|---|---|---|
| Fee inside the price | €2,120,000 | €123,172 |
| Fee paid by the buyer | €2,000,000 | €116,200 |
| Your saving | €6,972 | |
Illustration at a 5.81% duty rate. Your notaire confirms the exact figures before signing.
Legal framework: Loi Hoguet n° 70-9 of 2 January 1970 and décret n° 72-678 of 20 July 1972 on written mandates and payment on completion. Arrêté of 10 January 2017 on fee display. BOFiP BOI-ENR-DMTOI-10-10-20-20 on agency fees outside the duty base. Duty rates: DGFiP table of transfer duty rates applying from 1 June 2026.
Ask your adviser about a search mandate before your first viewing.
Consumer mediator: MEDIMMOCONSO