2026 Property Tax: Freeze in Large Cities, Not Small Ones
None of the 36 largest cities raised its property tax rate this year, but 14.3% of residents in municipalities with fewer than 500 residents are seeing their rates rise. The map of rates approved by 34,841 municipalities—compiled by the Orka.tax platform using data from the DGFiP (Directorate General of Public Finance)—shows variations ranging from one to five times.
The 2026 property tax bills have been available online since August 27 for property owners who do not pay monthly; those for monthly payers will follow on September 19. This year, none of France’s 36 largest cities changed its property tax rate on built properties. Nationwide, 85.8% of municipalities have kept their rates unchanged. Yet this calm is not universal.
This is shown in the map published on August 28 by Orka.tax, a platform founded by two tax attorneys, based on the rates approved by the 34,841 municipalities that reported their decisions to the DGFiP, effective as of July 31, 2026. In municipalities with fewer than 500 residents, 14.3% of residents are facing an increase in the municipal tax rate, compared to 4.7% in cities with 10,000 to 100,000 residents. The explanation lies in the timing: 2026 marks the first budget approved following the March municipal elections. Budgetary constraints are not disappearing; rather, they are shifting toward municipalities with the narrowest fiscal margins and the least media exposure.
From 21% in Paris to 100% in the Aude department
The cumulative rate combines the municipal and intermunicipal portions for 2026, the union shares, special infrastructure taxes, and the GEMAPI tax (management of aquatic environments and flood prevention) for the 2025 tax year, excluding the TEOM (household waste collection tax). It reaches 100.30% in Saint-Nazaire-d’Aude compared to 21.07% in Paris. A factor of 4.8 for a property with the same rental value. Aude is the highest-taxed department in France with an average of 62.08%, ahead of French Guiana (59.95%) and Gers (59.56%). Yvelines (29.58%), Hauts-de-Seine (26.19%), and Paris (21.07%) bring up the rear of the 103 departments. The average stands at 40.65% in mainland France and 50.42% in the overseas departments—a quarter higher.
The case of Paris deserves special attention. Having become the national symbol of soaring property prices in 2023—following a 52% tax increase approved that year—the capital remains the municipality with the lowest property taxes in the country. The top of the rankings includes departments in the Southwest (Aude, Gers, Tarn-et-Garonne, Tarn) and the North (Aisne, Seine-Maritime, Oise). The increases in 2026 are concentrated elsewhere: in Maine-et-Loire, 39.2% of municipalities raised their municipal tax rates; in Vendée, 43.1%; in Loire-Atlantique, 42%. These departmental averages are simple averages across municipalities, not weighted by tax bases, notes Orka.tax: they represent orders of magnitude, not figures that can be taken as exact down to the basis point.
Taxpayers don’t always know who makes the decisions. In 1,001 municipalities, more than one-third of the property tax rate is set outside the municipal council—by an intermunicipal body, a syndicate, or as part of special infrastructure taxes. In Sorbiers, in the Hautes-Alpes, the municipal tax rate is zero: all decisions are made elsewhere.
The tax rate is up for debate, but the tax base determines the bill
The tax rate is only half the calculation—and it’s the half that isn’t disputed. The other half—the assessed rental value—is specific to each dwelling. It is based on an appraisal form completed primarily in the year of construction and rarely updated since: category of luxury, weighted floor area, maintenance coefficient, and comfort features. One incorrect entry, and the bill is wrong every year, indefinitely, until someone corrects it. The reform intended to replace this system, a holdover from 1970, was passed in 2020 but has since been postponed three times; its latest deadline, set by Article 106 of the 2026 Finance Act, is January 1, 2031.
Of the 1,351 properties reviewed by Orka.tax, 87% were overvalued, with an average discrepancy of 260 euros per year per household. “Every year, on the same date, homeowners are told why their tax is increasing. No one tells them that it might be wrong,” notes Manon Bellin, a partner at Neora Avocats and co-founder of the platform. “A rate increase is something you have to accept—it’s the result of a vote. An overclassified category or an incorrectly weighted area is a mistake, and a mistake can be corrected.”
An appeal against Notice 2026 is admissible until December 31, 2027, pursuant to Article R*196-2 of the Book of Tax Procedures. It does not exempt the taxpayer from paying the amounts due on October 15 and 20. Correcting an error has two effects: the refund of amounts unduly paid for years not subject to the statute of limitations, and the adjustment of the rental value going forward. Taxpayers who receive their notice this week therefore have fifteen months to review a record that, in some cases, has not been opened for fifty years.
