Notary fees for a French garage in 2026: exact calculation, simulation and key traps

Reviewed by Samuel Hayot, chartered accountant (expert-comptable) registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables de Paris.

Buying a garage or parking space in France seems simple. Yet the total acquisition cost can exceed the listed price by 8% to 9% on a low-value second-hand property — which changes the profitability calculation fundamentally. What is commonly called "notary fees" (frais de notaire) is in fact the sum of three distinct components — transfer taxes, regulated emoluments, and disbursements — whose relative weight varies with the property price, the French department, and the circumstances of the sale.

Direct answer: for a second-hand garage in France in 2026, budget approximately 7% to 9% of the purchase price in total acquisition costs. For a new-build garage, that rate falls to 2%–3%. A garage priced at €20,000 carries fees of roughly €1,500 to €1,700. A detailed simulation is essential before any decision.

The expression "notary fees" is a misleading shorthand. The notary's own remuneration represents only a fraction of the total — often less than 1% of the sale price. The remainder goes to the State and local authorities.

The three official components (source: service-public.fr) are:

• Transfer taxes (droits de mutation à titre onéreux, DMTO): the principal tax, collected by the department. Since the 2014 Finance Act, the rate in the vast majority of departments is 4.50% (departmental rate), plus a municipal surtax of 1.20% and a national levy of 0.10%, producing a combined rate of 5.80% in departments that exercised their right to raise the rate. A small number of departments maintained a reduced rate of 5.09% until 2025 — this should be verified for the specific department concerned.
• Notarial emoluments: set by Decree n° 2016-230 of 26 February 2016 (Légifrance, the official French legal database), which introduced a regulated tariff. The scale is degressive across four bands:
  • 3.870% on the first €6,500
  • 1.596% from €6,501 to €17,000
  • 1.064% from €17,001 to €60,000
  • 0.799% above €60,000 VAT at 20% applies on the emoluments.
• Disbursements (débours): costs advanced by the notary to obtain the documents required for the deed (mortgage register search, cadastral extract, land registry publication fees, etc.). For straightforward small transactions, this item is broadly flat and typically falls between €300 and €600 depending on the complexity of the file.

The table below breaks down the costs for three representative prices. Emoluments are calculated using the Decree 2016-230 scale, VAT included. Transfer taxes are applied at 5.80%. Disbursements are estimates (to be confirmed on the notary's written quote).

These figures are indicative. The notary's written quote and the official simulator at immobilier.notaires.fr are the authoritative references.

Reading this table: the higher the effective rate on lower-priced properties is not because the transfer tax rate changes — it stays at 5.80% — but because the fixed costs (disbursements, security levy) inflate mechanically on smaller amounts. A garage priced at €15,000 can reach a total fee rate of around 10%.

Garage sold under a separate deed#

When a garage is transferred by a deed entirely separate from any residential lot, it bears the full fixed costs and the minimum emoluments independently of its price. The mortgage registration formality and the disbursements remain almost identical whether the property is worth €15,000 or €100,000.

Garage sold in the same deed as an apartment#

When the parking space is included in the deed for the principal residential property, the transfer taxes and emoluments are calculated on the total price. The fixed costs are not duplicated. In practice, adding a €20,000 garage to the purchase of a €300,000 apartment only increases the total fees by the incremental amount corresponding to €20,000 in the tariff bands — a modest supplement of approximately €1,500 to €1,700, with no additional fixed costs.

Our reading: if you have the choice between buying the garage in the same deed as the residential property or by a separate deed at a later date, the first scenario is almost always more economical. Check this with your notary before signing the compromis de vente (preliminary sale agreement), because the structuring of the sale determines the cost.

Article 50 of Law n° 2015-990 of 6 August 2015 (known as the Macron Law) introduced the right for notaries to grant a discount on proportional emoluments for transactions where the base exceeds €100,000. On the portion of the base exceeding that threshold, the notary may offer a reduction of up to 20% on their emoluments.

For a stand-alone garage, this provision is rarely relevant since properties exceeding €100,000 are the exception. However, if the garage forms part of a larger transaction — the acquisition of a building, a rental portfolio, or a package of parking spaces — and the total base exceeds €100,000, the Macron discount can be requested explicitly. It is not automatic: it must be negotiated.

The purchase of a garage is often driven by a letting project. The tax regime that applies to the rental income depends on the type of letting.

Unfurnished letting: revenus fonciers (property income)#

If the garage is let without any particular equipment, the rents are taxed as revenus fonciers (property income). The micro-foncier regime applies if the household's total gross property income does not exceed €15,000 per year (flat-rate deduction of 30%). Above that threshold, or by election, the actual-cost regime (régime réel) allows deduction of actual expenses.

Acquisition costs (notary fees) are not deductible as a current expense under the revenus fonciers regime. They are added to the cost basis (prix de revient) for the calculation of the capital gain (plus-value) on eventual resale.

Equipped letting (fitted garage or workshop): BIC and LMNP status#

If the garage or workshop is let with sufficient equipment to constitute furnished letting (location meublée) — which remains unusual for a simple parking space but can apply to a fitted workshop or fitted storage unit — the letting falls under bénéfices industriels et commerciaux (BIC) as location meublée non professionnelle (LMNP, the non-professional furnished letting regime).

For a bare parking space, classification as BIC is possible if the parking is let as part of a vehicle-storage or associated-services activity. Otherwise, the revenus fonciers regime applies.

A key point to watch: the boundary between revenus fonciers and BIC depends on the facts — the nature of the property, its equipment, and the services provided. A case-by-case analysis is necessary before filing the return, particularly if you hold several spaces. See also our article on the cotisation foncière des entreprises and the LMNP regime.

A client was considering buying three garages in a Parisian co-ownership (copropriété), each listed at around €25,000. His initial instinct was to multiply 7% by €75,000 to estimate his total fees — approximately €5,250.

In practice, three separate deeds meant three sets of disbursements and three sets of fixed levies. The real total was closer to €6,800. The solution — grouping the three acquisitions into a single notarial deed — reduced fees by almost €900, as the notary handled only one mortgage formality and one mortgage register search.

The lesson: when buying several garages from the same seller or in the same building, negotiating a single deed is not a mere administrative convenience — it is a tangible saving.

On a garage priced at €20,000 let at €80 per month (€960 per year), the headline gross yield is 4.8%. But if acquisition costs amount to €1,900, the real cost basis is €21,900, and the real gross yield falls to 4.4%. After taxe foncière (property tax, assumed at €300 per year), the net yield before income tax is only 3.0%.

This is not necessarily a poor investment, but the decision must be made on these figures — not on the gross yield based on the listed price.

The Direction générale des finances publiques (DGFiP) — the French tax authority — can challenge the consistency between the price declared in the deed and local market prices. For garages and parking spaces, market values are sometimes difficult to establish in low-density areas, but in major cities the comparison with recent comparable transfers is routinely used.

Furthermore, if you let the garage to a company you control (a common scenario for business owners who want to house their company vehicles), the letting relationship must be properly documented and the rent must reflect market conditions — otherwise a reclassification can be applied.

For a deeper examination of acquisition structures, read our article Should you open an SCI to invest in French real estate?.

• Calculating projected yield on the listed price without adding acquisition costs to the cost basis.
• Forgetting that three separate deeds means three sets of fixed costs, even within the same building.
• Confusing a bare parking space with a fitted workshop for the tax classification of rental income.
• Not checking whether the Macron discount applies on a grouped transaction above €100,000.
• Underestimating the taxe foncière, which can represent two to four months of rental income on certain urban spaces.
• Including fees in the global budget without checking whether debt financing is feasible and whether the interest will be deductible.

At the time of writing (May 2026), the transfer tax rate of 5.80% applies in the large majority of departments. The 2025 Finance Act opened the possibility for departments to raise their rate further; some have moved their departmental component to 5.00% (instead of 4.50%), producing a potential combined rate of 5.30% plus the national and municipal levies. Verify the exact rate with the notary handling the transaction, as they will know the rate in force for the relevant department.

For a comprehensive overview of notarial procedures, also consult our article Chambre des notaires: where to find a free consultation?.

This article is written for general information purposes only. It does not constitute personalised advice. The rates, scales, and tax regimes referenced are those known at the date of publication and may change. Consult a notary for the exact calculation applicable to your transaction, and your expert-comptable for the tax analysis of the letting you are considering.