Sell or rent your apartment in the Marais: do the maths

By Nicolas Borge, founder of Valeur Immo Paris · 28 October 2026

“I’m in no hurry to sell, I can always rent it out.” We hear this often in the Marais. Renting feels prudent: you keep the property and collect rent. But the right question is not “sell or rent”. It is: what is my capital really earning today, once everything is deducted?

Here is a full calculation, on a worked example, with the official 2026 rules. It covers French tax rules for owners in Paris.

The essentials in 4 points

• Rents in Paris are capped. The gross yield of a Marais apartment is around 4%, before any tax.
• After property tax, charges and income tax, it often falls to between 1% and 2% of the capital tied up.
• Energy-efficiency rules are tightening: properties rated G can no longer be let since 2025, and F-rated ones follow in 2028.
• Selling has a one-off tax cost. Renting has a tax cost too, every year. The right reflex is to compare the two over time.

A worked example: a 2-room apartment in the Marais

Let us take a fictional case, built to illustrate the reasoning. It is not any client’s file.

• A 45 m² (living area) 2-room apartment in a pre-1946 building, in the Saint-Merri / Arsenal / Notre-Dame area.
• Property value: €540,000 (an assumption of the example, not market data).
• Owner taxed at the 30% income tax bracket.

The rent: capped

In Paris, the rent of an unfurnished property cannot exceed the maximum reference rent set by prefectoral order. For this area, the cap is €38.30 per m² for a pre-1946 2-room apartment (prefectoral order of 12 June 2026, valid from 1 July to 24 November 2026).

45 m² × €38.30 = about €1,724 per month excluding charges, or €20,680 per year. Against €540,000, that is a gross yield of 3.8%.

What the owner actually keeps

Annual rent above €15,000 falls under the “real” tax regime: the flat 30% allowance of the micro-foncier scheme is no longer available (Service-Public). Actual charges are deducted instead. Our assumptions:

• Property tax: €1,400
• Non-recoverable building charges: €1,500
• Landlord’s insurance: €200
• Maintenance and vacancy allowance: €1,000

That makes €4,100 of charges. Rental income before tax is €16,580 per year.

It is then taxed at the marginal rate (30% here) plus 17.2% of social contributions, or 47.2% in total. The tax is about €7,830. About €8,750 per year remains, or 1.6% of the property’s value. At the 41% bracket, about €6,930 remains, or 1.3%.

This calculation ignores any works, unpaid rent, or gaps between tenants.

What if the property is furnished?

Furnished letting (LMNP) changes the tax treatment, not the reasoning:

• Under the micro-BIC scheme, the flat allowance is 50% for long-term letting, with no deduction of actual charges. The revenue ceiling is €83,600 for 2026 income (Service-Public).
• Under the real regime, the property and furniture can be depreciated. But since the 2025 reform, depreciation already deducted is added back when calculating the capital gain on resale.
• Social contributions on furnished rental income rise to 18.6% in 2026, against 17.2% for unfurnished lets (SeLoger).

Furnished letting can be more advantageous depending on the case, but the tax benefit is often paid back on resale.

The constraints that come with it

• Energy standards. A property rated G can no longer be let since 1 January 2025. F-rated ones follow in 2028 and E-rated ones in 2034 (Ministry of Ecological Transition). Many older Marais buildings are affected.
• Rent freeze. Since August 2022, rents of F and G rated properties cannot be increased.
• Works. Energy upgrades are a budget in themselves, with co-owners’ votes to go with them.
• Management. Finding a tenant, inventories, unpaid rent, reminders: time, or management fees.

What selling costs: the full calculation

If the property is your main residence, the capital gain is exempt. In other cases it is taxed at 19% income tax and 17.2% social contributions, with allowances depending on how long you have owned it: income tax exemption after 22 years, social contributions exemption after 30 years (Service-Public).

But the capital gain is not simply “sale price minus purchase price”. Several items are deducted:

• Selling costs you paid: agency fees borne by the seller, mandatory diagnostics, mortgage release fees.
• Acquisition costs: notary fees and registration duties, at actual cost or at a flat 7.5% of the purchase price.
• Works: at actual cost, on contractor invoices, or at a flat 15% of the purchase price if you have owned the property for more than 5 years. The two cannot be combined.

Qualifying works are construction, extension or improvement works. Routine upkeep (painting, carpets) does not count. And works already deducted from your rental income cannot be counted a second time (Documentissime).

The simulation, end to end

Back to our fictional apartment, owned for 12 years: bought for €340,000, sold for €540,000. Two cases: no works invoices kept (15% flat rate), or €80,000 of improvement works backed by invoices.

The allowances for 12 years of ownership are 6% per year from the 6th year for income tax (42%) and 1.65% per year for social contributions (11.55%). The surtax is calculated using the Paris notaries’ scale (in French). A fixed €1,000 allowance also applies, negligible here and not deducted in our figures.

What the table shows: keeping your works invoices reduces the tax by about €8,700 in this example. The 15% flat rate is a good safety net, but it only holds if you have not done more works than that. Before selling, dig out your invoices.

The real comparison: capital released versus net yield

After costs and tax, between €490,000 and €499,000 is left to use, depending on the works you can prove. Keeping the property and letting it earns about €8,750 per year after charges and tax. To match that income with the released capital, a net-of-tax return of about 1.8% is enough (1.75% in the case with documented works).

This is not investment advice: we are not investment advisers. It is a comparison threshold, to set against what you can earn elsewhere and what you want to do with the capital. The calculation ignores any outstanding loan, which would be repaid out of the sale price.

The calculation tips clearly in favour of selling in three cases:

• Property owned for 22 years or more. No more income tax on the gain, and social contributions sharply reduced. The cost of selling falls a lot.
• Former main residence. The gain is exempt if you sell without having let the property in the meantime. Letting before selling can lose you this exemption: check case by case before deciding.
• Property rated F or G. Letting becomes impossible or expensive. Renovate before letting, or sell as is.

When renting still makes sense

Renting is defensible in some cases:

• You bought recently and the gain is small or negative: selling makes little sense tax-wise.
• Your loan rate is very low and you do not need the capital.
• You plan to move back in, or to pass the property on.
• Your tax bracket is low and the property has a good energy rating.

These are real cases. But in our experience, many owners who rent “in the meantime” have never done the calculation above.

If you decide to sell

A Marais apartment sells well when the starting price is consistent with the market and several buyers are in competition. That is what happened with this apartment to renovate, sold at the asking price after 11 viewings. To find out where yours stands, request a valuation. It is based on actual sales around your address.

This article gives general information and a fictional worked example. It is not personalised tax or wealth advice. For your own situation, speak to your notary or tax adviser. Rules and scales consulted in October 2026: they change.