Less than 2%. Exactly 1.7%. This is the average increase in property tax in 2025, compared to 2024, in the 200 largest cities in France, according to data published by the National Union of Real Estate Owners (Unpi) this Wednesday, October 15, the payment deadline, for certain taxpayers, of this local tax owed by all property owners. In these 200 cities, “the 2024 rates have largely been renewed, with an increase of only 0.04%. The property tax has therefore only increased due to the legal revaluation of rental values (potential housing rent), by 1.7% in 2025.details Unpi.
But the association judges this “moderation purely linked to the electoral calendar”with local elected officials keen not to dissatisfy their constituents before the municipal elections of 2026, as was the case in 2019, before the 2020 election. This is why “this moderation cannot avoid an underlying trend”namely a 37.3% surge in property tax over the last 10 years, has been attacking the Unpi. A surge 4.3 times higher than the increase in rents over the same period, is strangled by the association, which explains it in part by the disappearance, since 2023, of the housing tax on main residences, synonymous with a loss of income for communities.
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Make property tax a recoverable expense
In order to alleviate this burden for owners in general, and for rental investors in particular, Unpi asks the public authorities, “in the short term, landlords of housing should be allowed to partially recover the property tax from their tenants“, as exists for leases of commercial premises. And as is the case for co-ownership charges for residential premises, which owners can “re-invoice” in part to tenants.
“The tenant benefits from public services and collective facilities financed by the community” by means of the property tax, while this is paid by the owner, argues Sylvain Grataloup, president of Unpi, deploring “A unfair tax treatment» for landlords. He cites the example of two residents of the same building, sitting in the sun on a bench in a new square in their town. “This square is very pretty, but it cost us a lot in property taxes!”exclaims one of them, owner. “Ah good ? I don’t know, I don’t pay property tax!», Retorts his neighbor, tenant.
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Create a “user tax” for everyone
The boss of Unpi specifies that such a change in the property tax charge could take place thanks to a more global reform of the decree of August 26, 1987 relating to charges recoverable from the tenant, requested by the association and certain professional real estate organizations.
But, not convinced that such a development could “pass”both with the government and with public opinion, nor that it is a matter of “permanent solution”Sylvain Grataloup judge “imperative to think about new local taxation”. He proposes that the property tax be replaced by a “user tax payable by everyonetenants or owner-occupiers of the municipality, who benefit from public services and local facilities”. This local tax would be adjustable, upwards or downwards, according to different criteria, in particular resources and “social contribution” through, for example, the energy renovation of housing.
