Notary fees on land purchases: specific calculation and real impact

Notary fees on land purchases: a very specific calculation

When buyers talk about land purchase fees, they often use a rough 7–8% estimate without really understanding what’s inside. For a land purchase, the structure of notary fees is specific and has a direct impact on your budget, your mortgage, and even your long‑term buy or rent decision.

On buy-or-rent.net (acheter-ou-louer.com), these fees are modeled through the simulator parameter montant_fn. Understanding it properly is essential if you want to compare a “buy land + build” project with a “rent + invest” strategy.

What exactly are notary fees on land made of?

For land, what people call “notary fees” are actually several components:

• Transfer taxes (for the State and local authorities – usually the largest part)
• Notary’s fee (regulated remuneration)
• Disbursements and administrative costs (land registry searches, cadastral documents, formalities, surveyor, etc.)
• VAT where applicable (especially when the plot is sold by a professional subject to VAT)

A non‑buildable plot or agricultural land will usually be taxed differently from a building plot. The buy or rent simulator reflects this through a configurable percentage applied to the land price, stored in the montant_fn field.

Typical range: from about 5% up to 8% of the land price

In practice, for a land purchase in France in 2024:

• Raw land, bought from a private seller and not subject to VAT: around 7–8% of the land price
• Serviced building plot sold by a professional with VAT included in the price: about 2–3% in notary fees, because part of the taxation is already in the VAT

This difference is exactly what your buy or rent simulator must capture: an old plot bought from an individual does not have the same acquisition cost as a serviced lot bought from a developer.

Numeric example #1: €80,000 raw land from a private seller

Take a couple buying raw, unserviced land for €80,000 in a standard‑tax area.

• Land price: €80,000
• Average notary fee percentage: 7.5%

The montant_fn to enter in the simulator will be approximately:

€80,000 × 7.5% = €6,000

Simplified breakdown:

• Transfer taxes and duties: ~€5,200
• Notary’s regulated fee: ~€900
• Miscellaneous disbursements: ~€-100 to 200 (rounded so the total stays around €6,000)

Total acquisition cost is therefore not €80,000 but €86,000. These extra €6,000 do not buy you a single extra square meter, but they affect:

• The amount of down payment you need
• The loan amount if you decide to finance these fees with your mortgage
• The interest cost at your loan rate (around 3.6% currently)

Impact on the mortgage and total cost

If you finance these €6,000 over 20 years at a loan rate of 3.6% (excluding insurance):

• Monthly payment for €6,000 over 20 years ≈ €35/month
• Total interest paid on these fees alone ≈ €2,400

Your €6,000 of land purchase fees effectively become about €8,400 over the life of the mortgage if you don’t pay them in cash. The buy or rent simulator makes this visible by combining montant_fn with the loan rate parameter.

Numeric example #2: €120,000 building plot subject to VAT

Now consider a building plot in a subdivision, bought from a developer for €120,000 VAT included.

In that case:

• Part of the taxation is already collected through VAT
• Transfer duties are lower
• The overall notary fee percentage is closer to 2.5–3%

If we use 3% for the simulator:

€120,000 × 3% = €3,600 as montant_fn

Total acquisition cost for the land: €123,600 instead of €120,000.

Financed over 20 years at 3.6%:

• Monthly payment for €3,600 ≈ €21/month
• Total interest ≈ €1,440

This shows how the type of land (old vs VAT‑subject building plot) materially changes montant_fn, and therefore the real cost of the project – something the buy or rent simulator must reflect accurately when you compare buying with renting.

Why land notary fees matter for your buy or rent decision

When you weigh up buy or rent, you’re really comparing:

• The total cost of buying (land + construction + fees + loans + property tax)
• Against the cost of renting (rents + annual rent increases + potential investment returns)

Land notary fees, captured in montant_fn, are far from trivial:

• They often represent the equivalent of one to two years of rent in some areas
• They are paid upfront (either in cash or financed through the mortgage)
• They do not create immediate usable value (no extra living space)

By contrast, a tenant can invest their initial capital (which a buyer uses for fees and down payment) in financial assets such as ETFs or diversified funds, with an assumed investment rate of, say, 4–6% per year, while their rent follows the annual rent increase linked to the IRL index. The buy or rent simulator is designed to compare exactly these two paths.

How the simulator uses the montant_fn parameter

In the tool, the montant_fn parameter corresponds to the total notary fees paid at purchase (land alone, or land + building depending on your settings). You can:

• Either enter a specific euro amount if you already have an official estimate from your notary
• Or apply a percentage (7–8% for raw land, 2–3% for VAT‑subject building plots) to the land price to get an approximation

This amount is then:

• Either deducted from your available savings if you pay fees in cash
• Or added to the loan principal if you finance them

So it directly affects:

• Your monthly mortgage payments (through the loan rate, currently around 3.6%)
• The total interest cost over the life of the loan
• The comparison with future rents and investment returns (investment rate)

Land + house: don’t forget the other key parameters

A land + house project is never just about land purchase fees. To evaluate buy or rent properly, you also need to factor in:

• Property tax: highly variable (from about €450 to over €2,000 per year depending on the city), with annual reassessment often outpacing inflation
• Borrower insurance rate: typically 0.25–0.45% of the borrowed capital per year, which increases your monthly payment
• Renovation and works budget: even in new builds, landscaping, fences, driveways, terraces, and later on possibly energy upgrades (insulation, heating, DPE impact)
• Annual inflation: it erodes purchasing power and changes the real value of fixed mortgage payments and rising rents

The montant_fn parameter is only one building block, but a decisive one because it’s concentrated at the start of the project. Underestimating these fees by €2,000–3,000 can distort your buy or rent comparison, especially if you are close to your maximum debt capacity.

Comparative example: buy land vs remain a tenant

Let’s sketch a simplified 10‑year comparison:

• Option A – Buy land + build a house
  • Land: €100,000 (raw land, 7.5% fees → montant_fn = €7,500)
  • House: €250,000 (new build, low notary fees on the building contract, ignored here for simplicity)
  • Total mortgage: €350,000 + €7,500 fees (if financed) at 3.6% over 25 years
• Option B – Keep renting
  • Rent: €1,300/month, with annual rent increase of 2% (IRL‑linked assumption)
  • Initial capital (that could have paid fees and down payment): €20,000, invested at an investment rate of 4.5%/year

In Option A, your €7,500 of land notary fees are:

• tied up from day one;
• subject to interest costs if financed through the mortgage;
• not producing direct financial returns, but giving you ownership of an appreciating asset (the plot).

In Option B, those €7,500 (as part of the €20,000 portfolio) can earn compounded returns. Over 10 years at 4.5% net, €7,500 grows to approximately:

€7,500 × (1.045¹⁰) ≈ €11,600

There is no universal answer to the buy or rent question: it depends on how you value land and home ownership versus keeping capital invested in financial markets, given all costs, including montant_fn, taxes, and maintenance.

Practical tips to estimate your land notary fees

• Identify the land type: raw land, agricultural, building plot, subject to VAT or not; the fee percentage is very different.
• Ask your notary for a written estimate before signing any purchase agreement; this gives you a precise montant_fn to plug into the simulator.
• Avoid underestimating fees: it’s safer to plan for 8% and be pleasantly surprised than the opposite.
• Decide whether to finance the fees: paying them in cash or borrowing the amount changes the mortgage cost and can tilt the buy or rent comparison.

Limitations and disclaimer

All figures and examples in this article are indicative only, based on average conditions (loan rates around 3.6%, land notary fees between 2% and 8%). They do not take into account your personal situation (income, tax status, risk profile, life plans) and do not constitute personalised financial advice or a recommendation to buy or rent.

To go further, you should adjust the montant_fn parameter to reflect the exact price and nature of the land you are considering, and compare buying with renting using your own assumptions for investment rate, annual inflation, property tax, and rent indexation.

Conclusion: include land notary fees in any serious buy or rent analysis

Land notary fees are a significant, often underestimated entry cost in a building project. Their specific calculation (2–3% on some VAT‑subject building plots, up to 7–8% on raw land) needs to be modeled carefully in your buy or rent analysis. By setting montant_fn accurately in the simulator, you get a realistic picture of the total cost of becoming a homeowner via land purchase, versus staying a tenant and investing your capital elsewhere.

Only by factoring in all key parameters (loan rate, notary fees, property tax, inflation, investment returns, renovation budget, etc.) can you make an informed decision between buy or rent that reflects your own goals and constraints. There is no one‑size‑fits‑all answer – just better or worse‑informed choices.

Want to see the real impact of notary fees on your land project? Enter your land price and notary fees in the montant_fn field and simulate your situation on buy-or-rent.net.