Property tax in Arras: the town saw a rare rise of +3,3 % in 2025, driven by the GEMAPI tax, whose rate almost tripled (0,59 % to 1,47 %). Municipal rate, calculation, amounts by profile, simulator and impact on value.
Illustration : Property tax in Arras in 2026: the rise driven by the GEMAPI tax.
In 2025, while nine French municipalities out of ten froze their rate, property tax did indeed rise in Arras, by around +3,3 % in one year. The cause is not the municipal rate, which remained high but stable: it is a discreet line of your notice, the GEMAPI tax, whose rate went from 0,59 % to 1,47 % across the territory of the Communauté urbaine d'Arras, the inter-municipal authority. The town has thus become the one with the highest GEMAPI tax rate among the 200 most populous towns in the country. Here is what this rise covers, what you really pay, and why your notice keeps going up.
Property tax rose by around 3,3 % in Arras in 2025, an exception in a pre-election context where almost all large towns kept their rate unchanged. The municipal rate of property tax on built property otherwise remains high, at around 46,9 %, a level that has included since 2021 the former departmental share transferred to municipalities.
The property tax shown on your notice adds together several lines: the municipal share voted by the Town, the inter-municipal share paid to the Communauté urbaine d'Arras, the household waste collection tax, and an additional tax, the GEMAPI. In Arras, most of the bill comes from the municipal share, but it is another line that moved your bill in 2025.
Two movements explain the current level of the municipal rate. In 2021, it mechanically swelled under the effect of a national reform: the abolition of the housing tax (taxe d'habitation) on main residences led to the transfer of the departmental share of property tax to municipalities. The departmental rate of the Pas-de-Calais was added to the municipal rate, without your bill changing as a result. That is why the municipal share shown in Arras, around 46,9 %, is nearly double what it was before 2021.
A high municipal rate is not necessarily the sign of a greedier municipality. Since 2021, the rate shown by municipalities has included the former departmental share: comparing the Arras rate with that of a town before the reform, or with a departmental rate, would make no sense. What matters is the change from year to year.
The 2025 rise is almost entirely due to the GEMAPI tax, a local tax earmarked for flood prevention. Across the territory of the Communauté urbaine d'Arras, its rate went from 0,59 % in 2024 to 1,47 % in 2025, after the budget dedicated to it almost tripled. Arras has thus become the town with the highest GEMAPI rate among the 200 most populous towns in France.
GEMAPI, for "gestion des milieux aquatiques et prévention des inondations", the management of aquatic environments and flood prevention, is a responsibility entrusted to inter-municipal authorities since 2018. To fund it, they can levy an additional tax, spread over the four local taxes including property tax, and capped at 40 € per inhabitant. Long discreet, this line is becoming a sensitive item as local authorities strengthen their dykes and structures in the face of the intensification of climate events.
This is what happened in Arras. The urban community voted to almost triple the budget dedicated to the management of aquatic environments and flood prevention. Reflected on the notices, the rate of the GEMAPI tax went from 0,59 % to 1,47 %, accounting on its own for almost all of the 3,3 % rise in property tax recorded in the town in 2025.
For an owner, the consequence is concrete: the bill went up without the Town touching its main rate. It is a rise that is "invisible" at first glance, tucked into a secondary line of the notice, but very real on the total amount to pay.
Property tax is the cadastral rental value of your property, reduced by a flat-rate allowance of 50 %, multiplied by the sum of the rates voted (municipality, inter-municipal authority, GEMAPI). The rental value, set by the tax authorities and largely inherited from the 1970s, is revalued every year at national level.
The mechanism is the same everywhere in France. The tax authorities assign each home a cadastral rental value, meant to represent a theoretical annual rent. This value is halved to take account of the owner's expenses, then multiplied by the rates voted by the local authorities. In Arras, these rates add together the municipal share (around 46,9 %), the share of the urban community (around 5,8 %) and the GEMAPI tax (1,47 % in 2025).
Two elements therefore make your bill vary: the rates, voted locally, and the base, revalued nationally. In 2025, both came into play: the rise of the GEMAPI tax on the rate, and the revaluation of the bases of +1,7 % on the tax base.
The household waste collection tax appears on the same notice but follows its own logic: it is not calculated with the property tax rate. It too can rise from one year to the next independently.
The amount depends on the cadastral rental value of your property, and therefore on its floor area, its address and its condition. As an order of magnitude, the municipal share alone can range from around 600 € for a studio in the centre to nearly 1 900 € for a house in a faubourg. The GEMAPI share remains modest in value, but it more than doubled in one year.
The Arras market is markedly more affordable than that of the large metropolitan areas: the average price of a flat is around 2 537 €/m². Therein lies the paradox: contained purchase prices, but a property tax rate among the heaviest, so that the tax burden measured against the value of the property weighs more than elsewhere.
| Profile | Property tax, municipal share (order of magnitude) | Of which 2025 GEMAPI rise |
|---|---|---|
| Studio 30 m² in the centre (Place des Héros) | ~ 600 € | ~ 12 € |
| 3-room flat 65 m² in Saint-Michel | ~ 1 100 € | ~ 22 € |
| Flat 90 m² near the station | ~ 1 500 € | ~ 30 € |
| House 110 m² in the faubourg Saint-Sauveur | ~ 1 900 € | ~ 38 € |
These orders of magnitude apply to the municipal share alone and assume a rental value representative of the profile. The 2025 GEMAPI extra cost looks modest taken in isolation, but it adds up every year on a base that is itself revalued: it is the cumulative effect that weighs.
Enter the total amount of your 2025 property tax (excluding household waste collection). The simulator estimates what you would have paid before the 2025 rise and puts a figure on the part of your bill resulting from the 3,3 % increase driven by the GEMAPI tax.
Even with a stable rate, your property tax increases every year. The revaluation of cadastral rental values, decided at national level, applies everywhere: it was +1,7 % in 2025 and +0,8 % in 2026. In Arras, it comes on top of the 2025 rise of the GEMAPI tax.
This is the most frequent misunderstanding. A frozen rate does not mean a frozen bill. Property tax is the product of a rate and a base: the cadastral rental value, revalued every year by the State according to the harmonised consumer price index.
In recent years, this revaluation has been strong: +7,1 % in 2023, +3,9 % in 2024, +1,7 % in 2025, then +0,8 % in 2026 according to data from INSEE, the French statistics institute. Applied to your base, it adds up mechanically, independently of local decisions. In Arras, this national movement was compounded in 2025 by a local decision, the rise of the GEMAPI tax: the two effects accumulated on the same notice.
For an owner in Arras, the issue in 2026 is no longer so much the municipal rate, already known and stable, as the trajectory of the GEMAPI tax. The legal cap on this tax (40 € per inhabitant) leaves room for increase, and raising that cap is regularly discussed at national level. The "flooding" line of your notice now deserves as much attention as the municipal share.
Arras is located in a territory, the Pas-de-Calais, where property tax is among the highest in France. The town combines a substantial municipal rate (around 46,9 %) and, from now on, the highest GEMAPI tax of the 200 most populous towns. Measured against an affordable property market, the tax burden is particularly visible there.
Property tax cannot be read in absolute terms, but in relation to the value of property. In the expensive large metropolitan areas, a lower rate applies to high rental values; in Arras, a heavy rate applies to more affordable property. The result in euros can remain contained, but the tax burden ratio is high.
To place your property in this landscape, it is useful to compare the weight of taxation from one town to another. The Immover Journal follows this question across several towns: the cut voted in Nice, the frozen rise in Tours, or the record rates recorded in Marseille shed light, by contrast, on the situation in Arras. Each market has its own logic of rates and values.
A high property tax weighs on attractiveness at the margin, especially for investors who reason in terms of net yield. But the value of a property in Arras depends first on its location, its condition and its energy performance rating (DPE). The Arras market remains supported by accessible entry prices and by the heritage quality of the centre.
Three effects are worth keeping in mind.
1. A real weight for investors. With a heavy overall rate, property tax cuts into the net rental yield. For a landlord, it is a point to watch, even if the purchase price, lower than in Lille or in the large metropolitan areas, partly offsets this annual extra cost.
2. A secondary factor for a main residence. For a buyer moving in, property tax remains marginal compared with the purchase price and the cost of credit. A flat of 90 m² near the station, around 230 000 € at the Arras average price, carries a municipal share of around 1 500 € a year: real, but rarely decisive.
3. Attractiveness driven by location. Arras benefits from its high-speed rail (TGV) service (Paris and Lille in less than an hour), its heritage and a market more affordable than the Lille metropolitan area. It is this differential, more than a level of property tax, that supports demand. To find out the current value of your property, rely on an estimate calibrated on the actual transactions in your neighbourhood.
Property tax rose by around 3,3 % in Arras in 2025, which makes it one of the few large French towns to have seen a rise that year, while nearly nine municipalities out of ten froze their rate in a pre-election context. The rise did not come from the municipal rate, which stayed stable, but from the GEMAPI tax, an additional tax intended to fund flood prevention.
GEMAPI (gestion des milieux aquatiques et prévention des inondations, the management of aquatic environments and flood prevention) has been a responsibility of inter-municipal authorities since 2018. To fund it, they can levy an additional tax, spread over local taxes including property tax and capped at 40 euros per inhabitant. In Arras, its rate went from 0,59 % in 2024 to 1,47 % in 2025, after the budget voted by the Communauté urbaine d'Arras, the inter-municipal authority, almost tripled. The town now shows the highest GEMAPI rate among the 200 most populous towns in France.
The municipal rate of property tax on built property in Arras stands at around 46,9 %. This high level has included, since 2021, the former departmental share of the Pas-de-Calais, transferred to municipalities to offset the abolition of the housing tax (taxe d'habitation) on main residences. On top of this municipal share come the share of the Communauté urbaine d'Arras (around 5,8 %) and the GEMAPI tax (1,47 % in 2025). The exact rate voted each year appears in the council resolutions and on your notice.
Arras is located in the Pas-de-Calais, a department where property tax is among the heaviest in France. The town combines a substantial municipal rate, the highest GEMAPI tax of the large towns, and an affordable property market (around 2 537 euros per m² for a flat). The amount in euros can remain contained, but the tax burden measured against the value of the property is particularly visible there.
Property tax is the cadastral rental value of your property, reduced by a flat-rate allowance of 50 %, multiplied by the sum of the rates voted by the municipality, the inter-municipal authority and the GEMAPI tax. The rental value, set by the tax authorities and largely inherited from the 1970s, is revalued every year at national level. In Arras, two effects came into play in 2025: the rise of the GEMAPI tax on the rate, and the revaluation of the bases of +1,7 % on the tax base.
Because cadastral rental values are revalued every year at national level, independently of local decisions. This revaluation follows the harmonised consumer price index: +7,1 % in 2023, +3,9 % in 2024, +1,7 % in 2025 and +0,8 % in 2026 according to INSEE, the French statistics institute. Even with a stable municipal rate, your bill increases. In Arras, this national movement was compounded in 2025 by the rise of the GEMAPI tax.
This is the main point to watch for 2026 and beyond. The GEMAPI tax is capped at 40 euros per inhabitant, which leaves room for increase, and raising that cap is regularly discussed at national level. As the funding needs of flood prevention grow with the intensification of climate events, this line of your notice now deserves as much attention as the municipal share.
Only at the margin. A high holding cost can weigh in the calculation of an investor focused on net yield, but it remains secondary for a buyer purchasing a main residence, compared with the purchase price and the cost of credit. The value of a property in Arras depends first on its location, its condition and its energy performance rating (DPE). The high-speed rail (TGV) service, the heritage of the centre and affordable entry prices continue to support demand.
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