There property tax barely settled, here is already the opinion of housing tax ! This has certainly been abolished since 2023 for the main residence but you remain liable for it if you are the owner of a second home. Taxpayers who have not opted for monthly payment of housing tax will receive their tax notice online from this Monday, November 3. Monthly taxpayers will have to wait two additional weeks, until November 17, to receive theirs. As for tax notices in paper format, they will be sent to you between November 6 and 19 if you are not paid monthly and, otherwise, between November 21 and 28.
Opinions which will have more or less pleasant surprises in store for you depending on whether or not your second home is located in a municipality authorized to increase the housing tax. In fact, the 3,690 municipalities which can establish a tax on vacant housing also have the right to increase the housing tax, in a wide range from 5% to 60%. In 2025, among these 3,690 municipalities located in tense areas, where the demand for housing is much higher than the supply, 1,628, or 44% of the total, have decided to introduce the increase in the housing tax on second homes, according to the General Directorate of Public Finances. A proportion up four points compared to 40% in 2024.
A high increase in housing tax in the West
This percentage is particularly high in the regions of the west of France metropolitan area, starting with Brittany (82.7%), followed by New Aquitaine (67.1%) and Pays-de-la-Loire (63.9%). The south-eastern quarter and Mediterranean regions are also above the national level of 44%, with proportions of 51.4% in Occitanie, 50.4% in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur and 49.5% in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Brittany and New Aquitaine also top the list of regions where the rate of increase in housing tax is the highest (see infographic below), with the exception of Overseas where very few municipalities have introduced this surcharge. While the average rate of increase is 41.4% across the entire territory, up from 40% in 2024, it exceeds 49% in Brittany and New Aquitaine. With an increase rate of 44%, Île-de-France comes in third position.
A fiscal tool for housing policies
The proof, for the Intercommunalités de France association, of “the interest shown by the municipalities in this tax tool at the service of their housing policies». In municipalities, particularly tourist ones, where local residents struggle to find accommodation, the surcharge on second homes is in fact supposed to encourage their owners to put them on the market, for sale or rental, to transform them into primary residences.
This is the case at La Rochellewhich, like 656 other municipalities, decided this year to increase the increase to a maximum of 60%. The various left municipality hopes to encourage owners to resell their second homes, and for these to be acquired either by owner-occupiers or by investors who will rent them year-round to students, young professionals or families.
