In brief
Buying an apartment in Paris from the United States is legal, requires no visa or residency, and can be completed without travelling: the final deed is signed by notarised power of attorney at the notaire's office. Three things differ from a US purchase. Paris has no MLS, so inventory is fragmented across portals, agencies and an off-market layer. The buyer pays their own agent, since French sellers' agents represent the seller only. Acquisition costs run to 7% to 8% of the price on existing property, and completion takes three to four months. Home Select, a Paris property hunter since 2011 and member of the FCI, has guided 1,200+ buyers with 16 hunters, 11 of them English-speaking, negotiating 6% on average off the asking price, with fees of 2.5% payable only on completion.
Key takeaways
- Paris has no MLS: inventory is fragmented across portals, agencies and an off-market layer that never appears online, which is what makes a remote search unreliable
- The buyer pays their own agent in France, unlike the US shared-commission model: Home Select charges 2.5% on completion, minimum 10,000 euros including VAT
- The entire purchase can be signed remotely, including the final deed, through a notarised power of attorney given to the notaire's office
- Budget 7% to 8% of the price in acquisition costs on existing property, and 3 to 4 months from accepted offer to keys
- Paris short-term rental rules make an Airbnb strategy unworkable for most second homes: verify before you buy, not after
An American can buy an apartment in Paris without setting foot in France. The law allows it, the notaire’s office is set up for it, and a French power of attorney will sign the deed in your place. Hundreds of Americans complete purchases this way every year.
The difficulty is not legal. It is that almost every assumption a US buyer brings to the transaction is wrong: that a search engine will show you the inventory, that your agent is paid by the seller, that a title company handles closing, that you can rent the place out when you are not using it. None of those hold in Paris.
This guide is the process, in order, from a desk in the United States.
How do you buy an apartment in Paris from the US?
You can complete the entire purchase remotely. Set your budget including 7% to 8% of acquisition costs, secure financing before searching, appoint someone in Paris to inspect properties on your behalf, make an offer, sign the compromis de vente electronically, use the ten-day cooling-off period, then sign the final deed through a notarised power of attorney. Count three to four months from accepted offer to keys.
Who pays the buyer’s agent in France?
You do. This is the first thing to internalise, because it inverts the American model.
In the United States, the seller’s commission is typically split with the buyer’s agent, so buyers experience representation as free. In France there is no shared commission and no such split. The agency that lists the apartment is mandated by the seller, paid by the seller, and works for the seller. When you walk into a Paris agency as a buyer, nobody in the room is representing you.
Buyer representation exists in France as a separate profession: the chasseur immobilier, or property hunter. It operates under a written mandate from the buyer, under the loi Hoguet, with a carte professionnelle T, and it is paid by the buyer.
At Home Select the fee is 2.5% of the purchase price under an exclusive mandate, payable only on completion, with a minimum of 10,000 euros including VAT. Nothing is payable in advance and nothing is payable if you do not buy. Since August 2026 a second option exists, the Confidentielle, a simple mandate at 1.5% reserved for projects of 2 million euros and above, with the same full service but only off-market properties presented.
Americans often flinch at paying a buyer’s fee at all. The arithmetic is worth doing: our average negotiation is 6% off the asking price. On a 900,000 euro apartment that is 54,000 euros against a 22,500 euro fee.
Why is there no MLS in Paris?
There has never been one, and no equivalent is coming.
Paris inventory is scattered across competing portals, thousands of individual agency websites, private-sale listings, notaire-run sales, and a large off-market layer that is never published anywhere. Two agencies can market the same apartment at different prices on the same day. A listing can stay online for weeks after it has sold, because taking it down costs the agency a lead.
For a buyer sitting in the United States this is the real problem, and it is worse than it looks from a screen. You cannot tell from photographs that the quiet street is quiet only on Sundays, that the building has voted a 400,000 euro facade assessment, that the sixth-floor apartment has no lift, or that the price is 15% above what comparable units actually traded at. In a market with no central record and no buyer-side representation by default, the information asymmetry runs entirely against you.
Off-market matters more here than in most markets. Between 15% and 25% of the transactions we handle never reach a portal at all: they circulate between professionals before publication. Home Select works with a network of 15,000 partner agents across the region, which is what makes that layer reachable. From the United States, it is not.
What does the notaire actually do?
The notaire is a public official, not a lawyer and not a title company. There is no direct US equivalent.
The notaire drafts the deed, verifies title, runs the searches, clears any municipal pre-emption right, calculates and collects the transfer taxes on behalf of the state, holds your deposit in a regulated escrow account, and registers the transfer. Their fee is set by decree, not negotiated.
One notaire can legally act for both parties, which unsettles Americans. You are entitled to appoint your own, and you should. Having two notaires does not increase the cost: the regulated fee is shared between them. For a buyer who is 6,000 kilometres away and cannot walk into the office, having a notaire whose duty runs to you is worth the paperwork.
What are the seven steps, and how long does each take?
| Stage | What happens | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Budget and financing | Agreement in principle from a lender, or proof of funds | 6 to 8 weeks if borrowing |
| 2. Search and viewings | Inspection on your behalf, video walkthroughs | 45 days on average with a hunter |
| 3. Offer | Written offer, usually with a short acceptance window | A few days |
| 4. Compromis de vente | Preliminary contract, 5% to 10% deposit into escrow | 2 to 4 weeks after acceptance |
| 5. Cooling-off period | Ten days during which the buyer may withdraw with no penalty | 10 days, statutory |
| 6. Searches and conditions | Notaire clears pre-emption, mortgage condition satisfied | 2 to 3 months |
| 7. Acte authentique | Final deed signed, funds released, keys handed over | One appointment |
Two French particularities catch US buyers. The ten-day cooling-off period runs for the buyer only: once it expires, the compromis is binding and walking away costs the deposit. And the municipality holds a pre-emption right on many Paris transactions, meaning the City can substitute itself for you as buyer at the agreed price. It is uncommon, it is checked by the notaire, and it is not something you can influence.
Can an American really get a French mortgage?
Yes, and a French mortgage is often the better instrument, because rates are fixed for the full term and the loan is in the same currency as the asset.
Expect a 20% to 30% down payment as a non-resident, total debt service capped at 35% of income, and mandatory borrower’s insurance. Budget six to eight weeks. Bring US tax returns, bank statements, proof of the source of your deposit, and be ready for a level of documentary scrutiny that American borrowers find excessive.
The specifically American obstacle is FATCA. Reporting obligations on US persons make some French banks decline the relationship outright, regardless of your finances. This is a bank selection problem, not a creditworthiness problem, and it is solved by approaching the lenders that do onboard US clients rather than the branch nearest the apartment.
Whatever you do, secure the agreement in principle before you start looking. In Paris, when two offers arrive at the same price, the one with proven financing wins.
What can and cannot be done remotely?
Everything transactional can be done from the United States.
- Viewings: by video, with someone physically in the apartment who can point the camera where you ask, open the windows, and check the noise.
- The offer: signed electronically.
- The compromis de vente: signed by secure electronic signature, now standard practice.
- The deposit: wired to the notaire’s regulated account.
- The final deed: signed on your behalf under a procuration, a notarised power of attorney given to a clerk at the notaire’s office. You sign the power of attorney at a US notary and have it apostilled, or at a French consulate.
What cannot be delegated to software is judgement. Nobody can tell from a video call whether the co-ownership is solvent, whether the works voted last year are the first of several, whether the building’s ground floor is about to become a bar. That reading is done in the building, in the minutes of the last three general meetings, and in the maintenance log. It is the reason remote buyers appoint a professional whose mandate is to look on their behalf, and the reason our clients average three viewings before buying rather than the forty a solo search takes.
What will it all cost?
On an existing Paris apartment, acquisition costs run to 7% to 8% of the price. Most of that is transfer duty paid to the state and the department, not the notaire’s own remuneration, which is a small regulated fraction. New-build property carries 2% to 3% instead.
Then the recurring costs, which US buyers routinely underestimate:
- Taxe fonciere, the annual property tax, roughly 800 to 3,000 euros on a standard Paris apartment.
- The second-home surcharge, which reaches 60% in Paris and applies to any property that is not your main residence.
- Co-ownership charges, monthly, covering the concierge, cleaning, lift, heating and building insurance.
- Capital works, voted by the general meeting and payable by whoever owns on the call date.
On the US side, owning French property does not make you a French tax resident, but it does create French filing obligations on rental income and on resale. And you remain taxable in the United States on worldwide income: French rental income and French capital gains go on your US return. A French bank account above 10,000 dollars triggers FBAR reporting, and Form 8938 may apply. The 1994 France-United States tax treaty and the foreign tax credit exist to prevent double taxation, not to remove the filing obligation. Use an advisor qualified in both systems, and involve them before you sign the compromis, not after.
Can you rent it out when you are not there?
Assume no, until proven otherwise for that specific address.
This is the most expensive wrong assumption in the whole process. Many Americans buy a Paris pied-a-terre on the arithmetic of covering the carrying costs with short-term rental income. Paris does not allow it.
A primary residence may be let short-term for a maximum of 120 days a year. A second home let to tourists requires a change-of-use authorisation, subject to a compensation mechanism that in practice puts it beyond reach for most individual owners in the central arrondissements. Unauthorised short-term letting is actively enforced and fined.
Long-term unfurnished and furnished letting remain available and are taxed differently from each other. If rental yield is part of your case for buying, settle the question before the offer, for the exact address, and not from a general article.
What does this look like with Home Select?
Home Select is a Paris property hunter, founded in 2011 and a member of the FCI, the Federation des Chasseurs Immobiliers. We work for buyers only, never for sellers, under a written mandate.
Concretely, for a client in the United States: we define the brief on a call, screen the market including the off-market layer through our partner network, visit and film what matches, send you a written assessment of each apartment rather than a listing, negotiate on your behalf, and coordinate the notaire, the lender and the power of attorney through to the deed.
Some verifiable figures, as of 2026: 16 hunters, 11 of them English-speaking, 1,200+ buyers guided, 4.8/5 on Google (130+ reviews), 96% satisfaction, 45 days on average from mandate to accepted offer, 6% average negotiation off the asking price, three viewings on average rather than the forty-plus a solo search requires, and 68 communes covered across the Paris region.
Fees are 2.5% of the purchase price under an exclusive mandate, payable only on completion, minimum 10,000 euros including VAT. The Confidentielle, a simple mandate at 1.5% presenting off-market properties only, is available for projects of 2 million euros and above.
Where to start this week
- Decide cash or mortgage, and if borrowing, start the agreement in principle now. It is the longest item on the critical path.
- Engage a cross-border tax advisor before you make an offer, not after.
- Settle the rental question for real, if income is part of your reasoning.
- Appoint someone in Paris whose duty runs to you: your own notaire, and a buyer’s agent.
- Only then start looking. Searching before financing is how remote buyers lose the apartment they wanted.
If you want to talk it through, get in touch with Home Select. We work in English, and the first conversation costs nothing.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
01 Can I buy an apartment in Paris without ever travelling there?
Yes, and it is done routinely. Every stage of a French purchase can be executed remotely: viewings by video with a representative physically present, an offer signed electronically, the compromis de vente signed by secure electronic signature, and the final deed signed by a notarised power of attorney given to a clerk at the notaire's office. The only thing you cannot delegate is judgement about the building, which is why buyers who never travel appoint someone whose job is to inspect on their behalf.
02 Who pays the buyer's agent in France?
The buyer does, and this is the single biggest difference from the United States. There is no shared commission in France: the seller's agent is paid by the seller and represents the seller's interests only. A French chasseur immobilier, or property hunter, works under a written mandate from the buyer and is paid by the buyer. At Home Select the fee is 2.5% of the purchase price, payable only on completion, with a minimum of 10,000 euros including VAT.
03 Is there an MLS for Paris?
No. Paris has no centralised listing database, and this is the structural reason a remote purchase is hard. Inventory is scattered across competing portals, individual agency websites, private-sale listings and a large off-market layer that never appears online at all. Two agencies can market the same apartment at different prices. There is no single source you can monitor from the United States, and no way to know from a screen what a listing omits.
04 How long does it take to buy an apartment in Paris?
Count three to four months from accepted offer to keys, and add the search itself. After the offer, the compromis de vente is signed within two to four weeks, followed by a ten-day statutory cooling-off period for the buyer. Completion then takes two to three months while the notaire clears pre-emption rights and searches. A cash purchase can compress this; a French mortgage will extend it, since lenders need six to eight weeks.
05 Can an American get a French mortgage as a non-resident?
Yes, though the terms are stricter. French banks typically require a 20% to 30% down payment from non-residents, cap total debt service at 35% of income, and require borrower's insurance. FATCA reporting makes some French banks reluctant to onboard US persons, so lender selection matters more for Americans than for other nationalities. Secure an agreement in principle before you start searching: in Paris, an offer backed by proven financing beats an unproven one at the same price.
06 What are the total costs on top of the purchase price?
On an existing Paris apartment, budget 7% to 8% of the price in acquisition costs, most of which are transfer taxes rather than the notaire's own regulated fee. New-build property carries 2% to 3% instead. Add the buyer's agent fee if you use one, mortgage arrangement and insurance costs if you borrow, and the annual charges that follow: taxe fonciere, co-ownership charges, and the second-home surcharge, which reaches 60% in Paris.
07 Can I rent the apartment out on Airbnb?
Rarely, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding American buyers make. Paris caps short-term rental of a primary residence at 120 days a year, and renting a second home to tourists requires a change-of-use authorisation with a compensation mechanism that is, in practice, out of reach for most individual owners in central arrondissements. Assume you cannot run a short-term rental unless you have verified otherwise for that specific address.
