About to become parents, Bob and Lucie are looking to Buy a larger apartment. This second acquisition will be mechanically more expensive than the first, especially since their department increased by 0.5 point the “notary fees” on April 1, as authorized by the finance law for 2025. As a reminder, transfer rights for consideration, improperly called notary fees, are due by any real estate buyer and represent 7% of the purchase price of the property. “For a purchase of 300,000 euros, it will be necessary to count 1,500 euros in additional notary fees“, With this 0.5 point increase, calculates Frédéric Kopp, founder of Béa, a start-up specializing in real estate barter.
In this regard, “The final exchange of goods represents an alternative still little known, but very advantageous, for the purchase and classic sale”assures the manager. Real estate barter is not new, this notarial act being provided for by the Napoleonic Civil Code of 1804. “It has been used a lot by farmers to enable them to homogenize their land. It also serves between neighbors of a condominium for exchange a good room for anotherin order to create an additional floor in an apartment, or to exchange cellars in order to build an SOplex»»explains Frédéric Kopp.
Real estate: these departments that alleviate your notary fees despite the increases
Reduced notary fees in the event of real estate barter
The main asset of this very confidential ownership mode? Notary fees represent only 5% of the value of the cheapest property, 1% of that of the most expensive housing and approximately 6% of the soul, that is to say the price difference between the two goods. The total notary fees thus calculated is Distributed between each of the two ownersproportionally to the value of their accommodation.
Imagine that Bob and Lucie are eyeing the apartment of their neighbors Alice and Pierre, two young retirees looking for a smaller accommodation after the departure of their children. The good of Bob and Lucie is estimated at 300,000 euros, that of Alice and Pierre at 400,000 euros. If the first two buy the apartment of the second and vice versa, they will have to pay 32,000 euros and 24,000 euros in notary fees, respectively. On the other hand, if they simply exchange their goods, Bob and Lucie will only pay 14,457 euros in notary fees, and Alice and Pierre, 10,843 euros. Either A beautiful saving of 54.82% For each of the two couples.
Refund the loan before exchanging your apartment
This is why Frédéric Kopp launched Béa a year ago, to try to expand real estate barter to this type of situations of situations “”crossing of lives “. “Young parents who want a house with garden, faced with retirees who prefer an apartment in the city center, it’s 70% of our market”specifies the manager. But real estate barter may also interest “People who have a secondary residence at sea for 15 years and now favor the mountain, or expatriates in Brittany wishing to return to Reunion, from which they come ”argues Frédéric Kopp. His company is responsible for verifying the relevance of the estimates of real estate registered on its website, puts the owners in touch, accompanies them during the visits to the accommodation and the signing of the promise of exchange and then of the authentic act with the notary. All for a 3% commission on the value of each of the two goods.
With 1,200 dwellings registered on its site, Béa is just finalizing its first exchange. But “”three or four others are under signature»»assures his boss, grateful “That there is a real Everest to climb to evangelize households at real estate barter”. Especially those who still have a ready On their property: the latter must have been reimbursed to allow a real estate exchange.
