Buying land in France as a foreign developer: cadastre, PLU and the rules that surprise newcomers

France is one of the few large European markets with no restriction on foreigners buying land. What catches international developers out is not access but method: the public registers, the planning code and the rules around intermediaries all work differently from the UK, Germany or the Netherlands. Here is the short version.

1. The cadastre is fiscal, not legal

The French cadastre exists to levy property tax. It records every parcel with a stable identifier, a surface and a fiscal owner, and the vector map of the whole country is open data. But it does not prove ownership and it does not fix boundaries. Ownership is proven by the notarised deed, published in the land registry (the service de la publicité foncière); boundaries are fixed only by a bornage carried out by a licensed géomètre-expert. Budget for one before any programme that relies on the exact surface.

2. Constructibility is in the PLU

Each municipality (or group of municipalities) has a Plan Local d'Urbanisme. Its zoning map classes every parcel as U (urban, buildable now), AU (to be urbanised, usually as a whole), A (agricultural) or N (natural). Its written rules then set, zone by zone, the setback from the road and from neighbours, the maximum footprint, the height, and parking and green-space minimums. All of it is published on the national Géoportail de l'urbanisme. The old floor-area coefficient (COS) was abolished in 2014; what you can build now follows from footprint and height.

The only document that binds the municipality on a given project is a certificat d'urbanisme opérationnel, valid eighteen months. Ask for one before you exchange.

3. The ZAN trajectory is shrinking greenfield supply

The Climate and Resilience Act of 22 August 2021 requires France to halve its consumption of natural, agricultural and forest land over 2021-2031 compared with the previous decade, and to reach zero net artificialisation by 2050. Regions, then SCoTs, then PLUs are translating this into smaller extension zones. In practice the supply is moving to what is already inside the urban envelope: vacant plots, oversized gardens in suburban zones, obsolete buildings. That land is rarely advertised; it has to be found and its owner approached.

4. Intermediaries are regulated by the loi Hoguet

Anyone who habitually brokers property transactions for others - negotiating, carrying offers, organising visits - must hold a professional card issued by the chamber of commerce and work under a written mandate; doing so without one is a criminal offence. A pure business introducer who only identifies a parcel and puts you in touch with its owner, without negotiating, is outside that regime. Ask any intermediary which of the two they are and where their involvement stops.

5. Price is public: DVF

Every sale recorded by the land registry over the last five years is published as open data, Demandes de valeurs foncières: date, price, nature of the property, surface, parcels concerned. It covers all of France except Alsace-Moselle and Mayotte. There is no better anchor for a land offer, and no better answer to an owner's idea of what their plot is worth.

Two more things worth knowing

• SAFER holds a right of pre-emption on sales of agricultural land, which can delay or block a purchase in zone A.
• Sales go through a notaire, a public officer who drafts and registers the deed; buyer and seller usually each have their own, at no extra cost.

Where Nordath fits

Nordath does exactly one part of this for you: the finding. For each covered municipality we load the cadastre, the PLU zoning, the building footprints and the risk registers, score every parcel on its densification potential, and - under our qualified leads offer - identify the owner and establish contact. We do not negotiate or represent either side. Covered municipalities are listed on the coverage page.