For most people buying a home in the Riviera hinterland, straightforward joint ownership between two spouses is the right answer, and an SCI is not. The structure only earns its keep when the family picture is complicated: children from a previous marriage, four or five people buying together, a plan to pass the house down in stages, or an intention to add heirs over twenty years without selling.

Here is the part buyers get wrong. An SCI is often sold as a way to escape French forced heirship. Since 1 November 2021 that pitch has been weaker than the brochures admit. France amended article 913 of the Civil Code to create a compensatory levy, the prelevement compensatoire, which lets children claw back what they would have received under French reserved-share rules when the foreign law governing the estate gives them nothing. If the deceased or any one of the children is a national of an EU member state or habitually resident in one, the levy can reach assets sitting in France. That reduces the classic SCI argument considerably.

What an SCI still does well is control. It turns a house into shares, and shares can be given away in slices, valued for a discount, and governed by statutes that say who decides what. In a village like Valbonne or Le Rouret, where a 200 sqm villa on a decent plot runs well past a million euros, moving 5 or 10 percent of the value each year inside the 100,000 euro per-child allowance is a real advantage. Doing the same with a single house held in your own name is impossible without a formal partial gift each time.

Our honest read after eight years of buyer representation across these eight villages: roughly seven in ten purchases need nothing more than a clean acte with a well-drafted matrimonial regime behind it. Two in ten benefit from an SCI. One in ten needs a tontine or a split between usufruct and bare ownership. Paying a notaire in Grasse or Valbonne for ninety minutes of advice before you sign the compromis costs a few hundred euros. Restructuring afterwards costs the transfer tax all over again.

The four ways to hold a hinterland house

Every purchase in Valbonne, Mougins, Biot, Grasse, Opio, Roquefort-les-Pins, Chateauneuf-de-Grasse and Le Rouret ends up in one of four boxes. The notaire will ask you which one at the compromis stage, and if you have no view, the default applies.

Structure	What it is	Best for	Main drawback
Indivision	Joint ownership in undivided shares. The default when two or more people buy with no other arrangement.	Married couples with shared children, simple purchases	Any co-owner can force a sale under article 815 of the Civil Code
Tontine (clause d'accroissement)	A clause in the acte stating the survivor is deemed sole owner from the day of purchase	Couples with no children from earlier relationships	Effectively irreversible without joint consent
SCI	A civil property company. You own shares, the company owns the house	Families transmitting in stages, group purchases, blended families	Annual accounts, formalities, loss of the 30 percent IFI relief on a main home
Demembrement	Ownership split between usufruct and bare ownership, usually across generations	Parents in their sixties or seventies passing to adult children	Rigid once done, and the usufructuary carries the running costs

Two things about that table matter more than the rest. First, indivision is not a decision, it is what happens when nobody makes one. Second, the drawback column is where the money sits. A forced sale under article 815 has broken up more hinterland estates than any tax rule. We have watched a family villa above the Brague valley in Biot go to auction because one sibling in four wanted out and the other three could not raise the buyout. Nobody planned that. They simply inherited into indivision and never wrote a convention.

Foreign buyers frequently arrive with a structure already in mind because it worked at home. A UK trust, a Luxembourg holding company, a US LLC. All three cause problems in France. Trusts trigger the declaration de trust regime and heavy reporting. Foreign companies holding French property fall into the annual 3 percent tax on market value unless they file form 2746 and disclose their shareholders every year. An LLC can be treated as opaque, which converts a modest capital gain into a corporate tax problem. None of this is fatal, but all of it is expensive to fix after the acte is signed.

Forced heirship in 2026: what actually applies to you

French law reserves a fixed share of an estate for the children. One child takes half, two children take two thirds between them, three or more take three quarters. The remaining slice, the quotite disponible, is the only part you can leave freely. That rule applies to French real estate regardless of the owner's nationality, and it surprises buyers from England, the United States and Australia every single week.

Regulation (EU) 650/2012 changed the picture in August 2015. It lets you elect the law of your nationality to govern your whole estate rather than the law of your last habitual residence. A British owner in Mougins could sign a will electing English law and, in theory, leave the villa to a second spouse rather than to the children of a first marriage. For six years that worked reasonably well.

Then came the amendment to article 913. For deaths on or after 1 November 2021, where the law governing the succession contains no reserved share for descendants, the children may take a compensatory levy on the assets located in France to restore the share French law would have given them. The condition is that either the deceased or at least one child is an EU national or habitually resident in an EU member state at the date of death. Since Brexit a British national living in Kent no longer meets the nationality test on his own, but a daughter who moved to Dublin or Lisbon does, and one child is enough.

French courts have since confirmed that the reach extends over French assets even where a foreign succession law applies. The practical result is that election of foreign law is now a partial shield rather than a full one. It still governs succession generally, it still avoids some French administration, and it still matters for movable assets held outside France. It no longer reliably disinherits a child in respect of a house in Opio or Chateauneuf-de-Grasse.

What this means at the sharp end. If your estate plan depends on giving the hinterland house to someone other than your children, get French advice before you buy, not after. The workable routes are gifts made during your lifetime with the correct allowances, life insurance contracts subscribed early enough, a matrimonial regime change, or a negotiated renonciation anticipee a l'action en reduction signed by the children in front of two notaires. That last one is real and it works, but it requires the children to agree in advance, which is exactly the conversation people set out to avoid.

Indivision: the default nobody chose

Buy with someone else and say nothing, and you are in indivision. Each owner holds an undivided share, usually matching what they paid. It is simple, it costs nothing to set up, and for a married couple with children in common it is usually fine.

The risk is article 815 of the Civil Code, which says nobody can be compelled to remain in indivision. Any co-owner can demand a sale of the whole property, and if the others refuse, the tribunal judiciaire in Grasse can order a court-supervised sale. In practice that means a licitation, often at a discount to the open market. We see two or three of these a year across the eight villages, almost always after a death rather than a purchase.

Day-to-day management is the second problem. Ordinary acts need a two-thirds majority of the shares. Selling, granting a long lease or taking a mortgage over the property needs unanimity. That is manageable with two people. With five cousins who inherited a mas in Roquefort-les-Pins and live in three countries, it is close to unworkable. Getting five signatures notarised across borders takes months, and one holdout stops everything.

There is a fix, and almost nobody uses it. A convention d'indivision signed in front of a notaire can fix the arrangement for a renewable five-year term, appoint a manager, set out how costs are shared, and suspend the right to demand a sale for the duration. For a family who inherits a house in Le Rouret and wants to keep it for the grandchildren, that document is worth far more than the few hundred euros it costs. Ask the notaire in Valbonne or Grasse who handled the estate.

Our advice is plain. Indivision is fine for a couple buying together with a clear matrimonial regime behind it. It is a poor way to hold a property that more than two people will eventually share. If you can already name four future co-owners, use an SCI or write a convention now, while everyone is still on speaking terms.

The tontine clause: total protection, zero flexibility

A tontine, properly a clause d'accroissement, is a paragraph inserted into the acte de vente. It says that when the first buyer dies, the survivor is treated as having been sole owner from the day of purchase. The deceased is deemed never to have owned anything, so there is nothing for the children to inherit and nothing for the reserved share to attach to.

That is powerful, and it is why unmarried couples reach for it. A couple buying a 450,000 euro apartment near the Place des Arcades in Valbonne with no marriage and no PACS have very little protection otherwise. Without a tontine, an unmarried partner inherits nothing by law and pays 60 percent inheritance tax on anything left by will. With one, the survivor keeps the flat outright.

The conditions are strict and notaires apply them carefully. Both buyers must contribute broadly equal amounts, and both must have a comparable life expectancy at the time of purchase. The clause is a contract of chance, and if one party is 45 and the other 82, or one puts in 90 percent of the money, the tax authority can recharacterise the whole thing as a disguised gift. That turns a clean transfer into a taxable one at the rate applying between the parties.

The tax outcome depends on who you are. Married couples and PACS partners take the property free of inheritance tax, because the surviving spouse and PACS partner are fully exempt in France. Unmarried couples pay the 60 percent rate that applies between unrelated persons, unless the property is the main residence and worth under 76,000 euros, a threshold that has been irrelevant on the Riviera for a generation. So for cohabiting couples buying in Biot or Le Rouret at current prices, the tontine solves the ownership question and does nothing for the tax bill. A PACS signed at the mairie before the acte solves both, and takes an afternoon.

The rigidity is the real cost. A tontine cannot be unwound unilaterally. If the couple separates, neither can sell, neither can force a partition under article 815 because there is no indivision to partition, and the property sits frozen until both agree. We have seen a house in Opio stay empty for four years for exactly this reason. Before signing one, ask yourself whether you would be comfortable being bound to this person's signature for the next thirty years.

The SCI: what it really does, and what it costs

An SCI is a civil company whose purpose is holding property. You and your co-buyers subscribe shares, the company signs the acte, and from then on you own paper rather than bricks. Two people can form one, minimum capital can be a single euro, and the statutes decide almost everything about how it runs.

The transmission advantage is the honest one. Shares can be given away in small parcels. Each parent can give each child 100,000 euros of value free of gift tax, and the allowance renews every fifteen years. A couple with three children can therefore move 600,000 euros of value tax free, wait fifteen years, and do it again. On a 1.4 million euro villa in Valbonne or Mougins that is most of the house transferred across two rounds. Share value can also be reduced by company debt, and minority parcels are commonly valued at a discount of 10 to 20 percent to reflect their lack of control. Get that valuation documented by a professional, because the tax authority does challenge aggressive discounts.

Now the costs, which brochures skip. Formation runs 1,500 to 3,000 euros through a notaire or lawyer, more if the statutes are bespoke. Annual accounting is 600 to 1,500 euros. There is an annual general meeting and minutes. Non-resident shareholders must file form 2746 by mid-May each year, disclosing the shareholders, to claim exemption from the annual 3 percent tax on the market value of French property held by legal entities. Miss that filing and the exposure is 3 percent of the value of the house, every year. On a 1.2 million euro property that is 36,000 euros a year, and the administration has been checking it more actively.

Three further traps. First, an SCI holding your main home loses the 30 percent IFI valuation relief, which matters once total French property crosses the 1.3 million euro threshold. Second, an SCI that lets furnished property regularly is treated as commercial and can be pushed to corporation tax, which changes the capital gains treatment completely and removes the ownership-period taper. Third, banks lend to SCIs on tighter terms and usually want personal guarantees from every shareholder, so the borrowing is not really separate from you.

Our read: an SCI is a transmission tool, not a tax shelter. If you want to pass a hinterland house down in stages, control who can sell it, or buy with siblings or friends, it earns its fees. If you are a couple buying a home to live in, it adds cost and paperwork and takes away an IFI relief you would otherwise have.

Splitting usufruct and bare ownership: the quiet workhorse

Demembrement splits a property in two. The usufructuary keeps the right to live in it or let it and collect the rent. The bare owner holds the title and takes full ownership automatically when the usufruct ends, usually on the usufructuary's death, with no further inheritance tax on that reunion.

The valuation is fixed by article 669 of the General Tax Code and depends only on the usufructuary's age at the date of the gift. The scale is unchanged for 2026.

Age of usufructuary	Value of usufruct	Value of bare ownership
51 to 60	50%	50%
61 to 70	40%	60%
71 to 80	30%	70%
81 to 90	20%	80%
91 and over	10%	90%

Work it through on a real hinterland number. A couple aged 68 own a house in Le Rouret valued at 1.1 million euros. They give the bare ownership to their two children and keep the usufruct. At 61 to 70 the bare ownership is 60 percent of value, so 660,000 euros, or 330,000 per child. Each parent gives each child 165,000 euros. The 100,000 euro allowance covers most of that, leaving 65,000 euros per parent per child in the scale, taxed at 5 to 20 percent in the lower bands. The children pay gift tax in the low tens of thousands. When the parents die, the usufruct extinguishes and the children own the whole house with no further tax on the reunion, whatever the property is worth by then.

Compare that with doing nothing. The same house passing at death, worth perhaps 1.4 million euros after another decade of hinterland price growth, gives each child 700,000 euros. After the 100,000 euro allowance, 600,000 euros runs up the scale to the 30 percent band. The difference between the two routes is comfortably six figures, and the earlier gift also freezes the taxable value at today's level.

The catches are real. The usufructuary pays the taxe fonciere, the day-to-day maintenance and the running costs, while major structural repairs fall on the bare owner. Selling requires both sides to agree, so a parent who might need to release capital for care later should think hard. There is no going back. And the temporary usufruct variant, valued at 23 percent per ten-year period regardless of age, is a different tool used mainly for income planning rather than family transmission.

The tax side: transfer duty, IFI and the 3 percent trap

Alpes-Maritimes buyers got a quiet piece of good news in 2025 and most of them missed it. The 2025 Finance Law let departments raise the departmental share of transfer duty from 4.5 to 5 percent. Most took it. The Alpes-Maritimes council declined, so total transfer duty here stays at 5.81 percent while 83 departments moved to 6.32 percent. On a 900,000 euro house in Roquefort-les-Pins that gap is about 4,600 euros. First-time buyers of a main home were exempt from the increase anywhere in France in any case.

Total notaire costs on an existing property in the hinterland land around 7 to 8 percent of the price once transfer duty, the notaire's own scaled fee, the land registry contribution and disbursements are added. Budget 7.5 percent and you will not be far out. Buying shares in an existing SCI is charged differently, at 5 percent of the share value, which sounds cheaper until you remember you also inherit the company's history, its accounts and any latent capital gain on the property.

The annual 3 percent tax deserves its own paragraph because it catches people every year. Any legal entity, French or foreign, that directly or indirectly owns French property is liable to an annual tax of 3 percent of the property's market value on 1 January. Exemptions are wide and easy to claim, most commonly by filing form 2746 in duplicate before mid-May each year disclosing the identity of the shareholders. Other exemptions apply where French property is under half the entity's French assets, or the property interest is below 100,000 euros or 5 percent. The exemption is not automatic. It depends on the filing. Families who set up an SCI, used it for eight years and let the accountant lapse are the ones who get the assessment.

On IFI, the threshold in 2026 stays at 1.3 million euros of net taxable French property at 1 January, and non-residents are assessed on French assets only. Two structural points matter here. A main home held directly gets a 30 percent valuation reduction, and that reduction is lost if the house sits in an SCI. Non-residents do not get it at all, because a French property is by definition not their main home. Company debt properly incurred to buy the property remains deductible, subject to the anti-abuse rules on shareholder loans, which is one legitimate reason an SCI can reduce an IFI bill.

Inheritance tax rates themselves are unchanged for 2026 and frozen through 2028. Children take 100,000 euros each from each parent, then a scale from 5 percent up to 45 percent above 1,805,677 euros. Spouses and PACS partners pay nothing. A new relief of 15,932 euros applies from 1 January 2026 for certain transfers to a spouse's or partner's children, which is a modest but real improvement for blended families holding property in these villages.

Town by town: what the structure decision is worth in euros

Structure advice only means something against real prices. Here is where the eight villages sit in mid 2026, with the transfer duty and a rough estate exposure for a 180 sqm family house, calculated for two children with the standard allowances applied.

Town	Price per sqm (2026)	180 sqm house, indicative	Transfer duty at 5.81%	Indicative inheritance tax, 2 children, no planning
Opio	7,180 EUR	1,292,000 EUR	75,100 EUR	approx. 190,000 EUR
Chateauneuf-de-Grasse	6,197 EUR	1,115,000 EUR	64,800 EUR	approx. 155,000 EUR
Valbonne	6,130 EUR	1,103,000 EUR	64,100 EUR	approx. 153,000 EUR
Roquefort-les-Pins	6,010 EUR	1,082,000 EUR	62,900 EUR	approx. 149,000 EUR
Mougins	5,930 EUR	1,067,000 EUR	62,000 EUR	approx. 146,000 EUR
Biot	5,890 EUR	1,060,000 EUR	61,600 EUR	approx. 145,000 EUR
Le Rouret	5,600 EUR	1,008,000 EUR	58,600 EUR	approx. 135,000 EUR
Grasse	3,450 EUR	621,000 EUR	36,100 EUR	approx. 55,000 EUR

Sources: commune averages published June to July 2026 by efficity and MeilleursAgents, cross-checked against DVF transactions from the DGFiP release of 20 April 2026. Inheritance figures assume a French estate limited to the house, two children, the 100,000 euro allowance per child per parent applied twice, and the 2026 direct-line scale. Treat them as an order of magnitude, not a quote.

In Opio, Chateauneuf-de-Grasse and Valbonne the picture reverses. At 7,180 euros per square metre in Opio, a villa on the olive terraces above the Brague, or one of the properties on the golf side near the Chateau de la Begude, passes the 1.2 million mark without being remarkable. Two children face roughly 190,000 euros. A staged transfer over two fifteen-year cycles, or a bare-ownership gift at 65, removes most of that. The structure decision is worth more than the notaire and the accountant will charge you across twenty years.

Access shapes the price and therefore the exposure. Properties within ten minutes of the A8 at exit 44 for Antibes and Sophia Antipolis, or on the RD3 spine between Valbonne and Opio, hold value more reliably than the outer edges. The CIV catchment in Valbonne does the same for family houses, as we set out in our Valbonne and Garbejaire guides. If your property carries a school or commute premium, it will also carry a larger estate bill, and it is more likely to be the asset the family argues about.

Our honest read: how to decide in one afternoon

Work through four questions in order. They resolve most cases without a specialist.

One. Are there children from a previous relationship on either side? If yes, stop and take advice before the compromis. This is the situation where the reserved share, the compensatory levy and the survivor's housing right collide, and where a default indivision produces the worst outcome for everyone. A blended family buying in Mougins or Valbonne should assume a structure is needed.

Two. Do you intend to pass this house to children rather than sell it? If yes, and the value is above roughly 800,000 euros, an SCI or a staged bare-ownership gift will save real money. Below that, the allowances do most of the work on their own and simplicity wins.

Four. Is total French property heading past 1.3 million euros? If yes, IFI is in play and the 30 percent main-home relief matters. Live in the house yourself and hold it directly, and you keep the relief. Put it in an SCI and you lose it, which needs to be weighed against whatever the company earns you elsewhere.

Our default recommendation for a couple buying a home to live in, with children in common, in any of the eight villages: buy directly, sort the matrimonial regime, sign a French will at the same notaire, and revisit at 65 with a bare-ownership gift. That path costs under 2,000 euros in total and handles the great majority of what families here actually need.

Our default recommendation for anyone with a blended family, several co-buyers, or a property above two million euros: an SCI with carefully drafted statutes, followed by staged gifts of bare ownership in the shares. Expect 3,000 euros to set up, around 1,000 a year to run, and a saving that runs to six figures across a generation.

What we would not do is form an SCI because someone at a dinner party in Opio said it avoids French inheritance law. Since November 2021 that is no longer a reliable statement, and the families who acted on it in 2016 are the ones now paying lawyers to work out where they stand. Ask what the structure does for control and for staged transmission, because those benefits are solid. Treat the rest with care.

If you want the specific numbers for a property you are considering, we run the calculation as part of any buyer mandate, and our valuation page will give you the starting figure. The next DVF release, due in October 2026 and covering transactions to 30 June, will refresh the price basis in this article and we will update the table then.

Frequently Asked Questions

No, not reliably, and much less than before. Shares in an SCI are movable property, which historically pushed the succession under the law of the owner's residence rather than French property law. Since 1 November 2021 the amended article 913 of the Civil Code lets children claim a compensatory levy on French assets when the governing foreign law gives them no reserved share, provided the deceased or at least one child is an EU national or habitually resident in an EU state. Use an SCI for staged transmission and for control over who can sell. Do not rely on it to disinherit a child.

Budget 7 to 8 percent of the price on an existing property. The largest component is transfer duty, which in the Alpes-Maritimes remains at 5.81 percent because the department declined the 2025 increase that took most departments to 6.32 percent. On a 1.1 million euro house in Valbonne that is roughly 64,000 euros of duty and about 80,000 euros of total costs. Buying shares in an existing SCI is charged at 5 percent of share value instead, though you inherit the company's latent capital gain.

Yes, if the house is held in indivision. Article 815 of the Civil Code says nobody can be compelled to remain in undivided ownership, so any co-owner can demand a partition and the tribunal judiciaire in Grasse can order a court-supervised sale if the others will not buy them out. Two defences exist. A convention d'indivision signed before a notaire suspends that right for renewable five-year terms. Holding the property through an SCI with an approval clause in the statutes removes it, because a shareholder can only sell shares, and only to buyers the other shareholders approve.

It is an annual tax equal to 3 percent of the market value on 1 January of French property held by any legal entity, French or foreign, including SCIs, trusts and offshore companies. Most family SCIs are exempt, but the exemption has to be claimed. The usual route is filing form 2746 in duplicate before mid-May each year, disclosing the identity of the shareholders. Other exemptions cover entities whose French property is under half their French assets, or whose property interest is below 100,000 euros or 5 percent. If nobody files, the assessment lands, and on a 1.2 million euro villa that is 36,000 euros a year.

It solves ownership but not tax. A tontine makes the survivor sole owner from the date of purchase, so the children of the first to die have nothing to claim. For unmarried partners with no PACS, however, the transfer is taxed at 60 percent, the rate between unrelated persons. Signing a PACS at the mairie before the acte removes that entirely, because PACS partners are fully exempt from inheritance tax in France. Note also that a tontine cannot be undone without both parties agreeing, so a separation leaves the property frozen.

Roughly 150,000 euros in total if both parents own it jointly, nothing is planned in advance, and the French estate is limited to the house. Each child takes 550,000 euros, and each parent's 100,000 euro allowance applies to each child, so 350,000 euros per child runs up the direct-line scale from 5 percent to the 20 and 30 percent bands. A bare-ownership gift made in the parents' late sixties, when bare ownership is valued at 60 percent under article 669, cuts that figure by well over half. Rates and allowances are unchanged for 2026 and frozen through 2028.

Yes, but it costs the transfer duty a second time. Moving a house you already own into an SCI is a transfer, so the 5.81 percent duty applies again on the current value, plus the company formation costs. On a Le Rouret house now worth a million euros that is around 60,000 euros to fix a decision you could have made for nothing at the compromis. The cheap moment is before signing, and the cheap insurance is a substitution clause in the compromis naming you or any company you later form. Ask your notaire in Valbonne or Grasse to include it as a matter of routine.

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