Is a property hunter paid only on success? What French law says

Yes. A property hunter holding the French professional licence, the carte T, is paid on success, and that is not a sales argument: it is a legal obligation. Until your purchase has actually completed, they cannot take a single euro. If the search comes to nothing, you owe nothing.

That is the short answer. It deserves qualifying, because the phrase “success-based fees” covers very uneven practices, and the real question is not whether a hunter is paid on success but when exactly the fee falls due and by which routes some firms manage to charge you beforehand.

What the law actually says

The profession is governed by law no. 70-9 of 2 January 1970, known as the loi Hoguet, which regulates every intermediary in French property transactions. Its article 6 sets a plain rule: no property, no sum of money and no security may be received before the transaction has been actually concluded and recorded in a single written deed containing the commitment of the parties.

Three direct consequences for you as a buyer:

1. A property hunter working under a carte T cannot lawfully ask you for a retainer when the search mandate is signed.
2. No fee is payable until there is a deed recording the purchase.
3. Their remuneration requires that their involvement be recorded in that deed, which is why the firm is named in the preliminary contract and then in the deed of sale.

In other words, the success-based model is not a concession the firm grants you. It is the default legal regime of the profession in France, wherever it is practised under the professional licence.

When the fee falls due: completion, not the preliminary contract

This is the point most pages on the subject leave out.

The compromis de vente is not the end of the transaction: it remains subject to conditions, the mortgage offer, the municipality’s pre-emption right, planning constraints. Until those are lifted the sale may still never happen. A hunter’s fee is therefore not payable at the preliminary contract but on the day the deed of sale is signed at the notary’s office, when you become the owner.

In practice it is settled on that occasion, usually by the notaire out of the buyer’s funds. It is entirely separate from the notary fees, which it neither replaces nor inflates: they are two independent lines.

A mandate making the fee payable on signature of the preliminary contract, on the introduction of a property or on an accepted offer is a warning sign. Have it corrected before you sign.

The three ways firms charge before completion

The loi Hoguet binds intermediaries holding the carte T. Some operators therefore invoice the early stage outside that framework. This is not necessarily unlawful, but it changes your exposure entirely.

Arrangement	What you pay before buying	Recoverable if the search fails
Search mandate under carte T, fees on success only	€0	Not applicable: nothing has been paid
Advisory or support contract outside the licence	Several thousand euros on signature	No
Monthly subscription or network access package	A few hundred to a few thousand euros	No
Application or opening fee	Often €500 to €3,000	Rarely, and only if the mandate says so

The question to ask is therefore twofold, and it comes before any discussion of the rate: does the firm hold a carte T, and is the document you are being asked to sign genuinely a search mandate? A “support contract” invoiced in advance is not a search mandate, and it does not protect you in the same way.

The one sum that can be due without a purchase through your hunter

There is one case, and only one, worth knowing: the exclusivity clause.

Under an exclusive search mandate, if you buy without going through your hunter a property they introduced to you or sourced during the mandate, the mandate generally provides for compensation, usually equal to the fee. That is the counterpart of exclusivity and of the commitment of resources it entails.

Note the trigger: you must have bought. This compensation never penalises a failed search, only a bypass. With no acquisition, nothing is due, exclusivity or not.

French law frames that exclusivity closely. Article 78 of the decree of 20 July 1972 provides that, after three months from signature, an exclusivity clause only takes effect if the mandate can be terminated at any time by either party, on fifteen days’ notice by recorded delivery letter. You are therefore never locked in beyond three months.

How much, and who pays

On the Paris market in 2026, property hunter fees run from 2% to 5% of the purchase price, with a sector average around 4% and a minimum fee often close to €10,000. They are payable by the buyer, who is the client. Unlike the agency commission, already included in the asking price and paid by the seller, they fund someone whose duty is owed to you.

At Home Select, a firm founded in 2011 and a member of the FCI, two offers run side by side, both on success only:

• Exclusive, the exclusive search mandate, open to all budgets: 2.5% incl. VAT of the negotiated price, minimum €10,000 incl. VAT.
• Confidential, a simple search mandate reserved for projects of €2M and above, with the same full service but only off-market properties introduced: 1.5% incl. VAT of the negotiated price, that is €30,000 incl. VAT on a €2M purchase.

In both cases: no retainer, no application fee, no per-viewing charge, no subscription. The rate applies to the negotiated price rather than the asking price, which matters: across our 1,200+ completed purchases since 2011, the average reduction obtained is 6% off the asking price. On a property listed at €800,000, that is roughly €48,000 negotiated against an €18,800 fee. These are observed averages, not a contractual commitment.

Six clauses to check before signing

1. The carte T number of the firm and the prefecture that issued it, both of which must appear on the mandate.
2. An explicit statement that no sum is due on signature, and the absence of any “application fee” line.
3. The event triggering the fee: it must be the signing of the deed of sale, not the preliminary contract or an accepted offer.
4. The basis of calculation: negotiated price or asking price. The gap can run to several thousand euros.
5. The term of the mandate and, if it is exclusive, the right to terminate after three months on fifteen days’ notice.
6. The bypass compensation clause: its amount, and above all the precise definition of the properties it covers.

What the model changes in practice

A firm paid on success invoices neither the hours spent, nor the properties viewed, nor the files that come to nothing. Every mandate that fails is a straight loss for it. That produces two measurable effects on the buyer’s side: the firm selects the searches it believes it can complete, and it has no interest in letting one drag on. Our average search takes 45 days, for three viewings on average per client.

This is why success-based remuneration remains, in Paris, the best available filter for telling a property hunter apart from a seller of search services. Ask the question in the first conversation, and ask for a blank mandate before any meeting: a firm that genuinely works on success only has no reason to refuse you one.