The cost of a European property, compared: Buying · Owning · Selling
The tax you pay when you sell is the one buyers think about last and the one that varies most.
Not by rate — by kind. Some countries stop taxing the gain once you have
held the property long enough. One taxes it at a flat rate and makes the buyer withhold part of
your money at completion. One does not tax the gain at all. And one is running an exemption with
an expiry date on it.
What you pay when you sell, by country
| Country | Non-resident capital gains treatment | Escape route |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | No tax on the gain itself. Investment property sits in Box 3, which taxes a deemed return on the asset annually instead | n/a — you pay while you hold, not when you sell |
| Greece | Exempt until at least 31 December 2026; a 15% rate applies when the exemption lapses | A deadline, not a rule — check whether it has been extended again |
| Germany | Taxed at your personal income tax rate if sold within 10 years | Tax-free after 10 years |
| Italy | 26% substitute tax, electable at the notary, if sold within 5 years | Tax-free after 5 years, or if it was your qualifying main home for most of the period |
| Portugal | Non-residents are taxed on 50% of the gain, giving effective rates of roughly 6–24% | The 50% inclusion is itself the relief — it followed EU rulings against the old treatment |
| Spain | 19% on the gain, and the buyer withholds 3% of the price and pays it to the tax agency | None by holding period. You reclaim the withholding if it exceeds the tax due |
| France | 19% income tax plus social charges: 17.2% normally, reduced to 7.5% for EU/EEA sellers — so 36.2% or 26.5% | Taper relief: exempt from income tax after 22 years, from social charges after 30 |
residential property as non-residents. Tax treaties, residency and how you hold the property can
all change this — confirm your own position before you sell.
Three regimes, not seven rates
Hold long enough and stop paying. Germany at ten years and Italy at five are
clean cliffs: sell the day before and the gain is taxable, sell the day after and it is not.
France does the same thing gradually over twenty-two and thirty years. In these four countries the
single biggest lever on your tax bill is when you sell, and it is entirely within your
control.
Flat rate, no exit. Spain taxes the gain at 19% however long you have owned it.
There is no holding period that rescues you, so the timing lever does not exist — but the
cash-flow one does, and it catches people out. The buyer is required to withhold 3% of the
purchase price, not of your gain, and pay it directly to the tax agency. If you sold at a
loss you still had 3% taken, and you have to file to get it back.
Taxed on the way through instead. The Netherlands does not tax the gain, which
reads like the best deal here until you notice that Box 3 has been taxing a deemed return on the
asset every year you owned it. The money is collected either way; only the timing differs.
Two things with dates attached
Greece is running a clock. Property capital gains have been exempt through
repeated extensions, currently to at least the end of 2026, with 15% waiting behind it. That is a
policy that has been postponed before and may be again — but it is the one country here
where the answer could be different by the time you sell, so check it rather than relying on this
page.
France distinguishes EU from non-EU sellers. Social charges of 7.5% for EU/EEA
residents against 17.2% otherwise is a ten-point swing on the same sale, which matters a great deal
to British sellers post-Brexit.
What this means when you buy
A five- or ten-year exemption is only useful if your plan matches it. If you might sell inside
five years, Italy and Germany are expensive and Greece — while the exemption holds — is
not. If you expect to hold for decades, France’s taper eventually removes the charge entirely,
and Spain’s flat 19% never does.
None of this is a reason to choose a country. It is a reason to know the answer before you
commit, because the exit rule is fixed on the day you buy and you will not be able to change it
later.
Compiled 2026 from published guidance including
PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries,
Global Property Guide and
RSM Greece.
Capital gains treatment depends on your tax residence, any applicable treaty, how long you have
owned the property and how it is held. This is a map of how the systems differ, not advice on your
sale — confirm your position with an adviser qualified in the relevant country before you
market the property.