The viager market in France

Occupied viager accounts for 66% of viager and bare-ownership transactions in France, according to the 2025 Renée Costes barometer. Bare ownership without an annuity makes up 20%, vacant viager 7%, and other formulas, including lifetime sale-and-leaseback and the lifetime reverse mortgage, 5%. The same barometer gives, for viager sales, an average bouquet of €76,252 and an average annuity of €711 a month, for properties worth €267,070 on average.

The Renée Costes group, presented as the leading specialist viager network in France, reports 2,000 transactions a year for €600 million of business volume and 230 salaried experts, according to its 2025 barometer. The Viagimmo franchise network runs the Observatoire du viager. New brands are emerging: Café Viager, founded in Vannes in late 2024 by former Viagimmo staff, has opened a second agency in La Rochelle, according to Le Journal des Entreprises (March 2025).

In 2014, the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (the French public financial institution) and other institutional investors set up Certivia, a viager purchase fund endowed with €350 million that has acquired more than 800 homes in France, according to the Ministry of Housing (September 2025). According to France Épargne (September 2026), the first two Certivia funds have passed 1,000 homes, and Renée Costes is preparing a third fund of €200 to €300 million.

In France, the life annuity received in a viager sale is taxable on only a fraction of its amount, set by article 158-6 of the Code général des impôts (French General Tax Code) according to the seller’s age when the annuity starts: 70% before 50, 50% from 50 to 59, 40% from 60 to 69 and 30% above 69, according to BOFiP-Impôts. Transfer duties are calculated on the occupied value of the property, the Ministry of Housing points out.

In France, the main alternatives to viager are bare-ownership sales, deferred-payment sales, lifetime sale-and-leaseback and the prêt viager hypothécaire (lifetime reverse mortgage), created by the ordonnance of 23 March 2006. This loan remains niche: Crédit Foncier de France, the only lender to have offered it, ended its offer in 2019, according to L’Argus de l’assurance (March 2025). The fintech Mirabelle, founded in 2022, has raised €1.3 million to specialise in it.

A PDF report in French, 2026 edition, organised in six chapters: viager and its alternatives, market size and dynamics, sellers and investors, supply and players, the legal and tax framework, and market outlook.

Data from the Conseil supérieur du notariat, answers from the Ministry of Housing, the tax doctrine of BOFiP-Impôts, barometers from specialist networks and trade press articles from the IndexPresse database. Every figure comes with its source and period.

Yes. The study is updated before it is sent, within 48 hours at most: it includes the latest published data, and every figure comes with its source and period.

Estate agents and viager specialists, notaries and wealth advisers, banks, insurers and fintechs in lifetime reverse mortgages, investors, and home-care players who need to understand the viager market in France.

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