Property tax in Saint-Étienne in 2026: the 15 % of 2024 is still there

1. What is the property tax rate in Saint-Étienne in 2026?

Your notice does not show a single rate, but a stack of lines calculated on the same tax base. In Saint-Étienne, the municipal share alone accounts for close to eight tenths of the total: it is the decision of the municipal council that makes your bill, not that of the metropolitan authority.

2. Why did your tax jump in 2024?

This is what sets Saint-Étienne apart from most towns of its size. Elsewhere, the bill rises mainly because the state revalues the tax bases every year, with no elected representative having to vote anything. In Saint-Étienne, two movements added up in 2024.

The first is a municipal decision. After more than ten years of unchanged municipal rates, the majority of the time took on a uniform increase of 15 % across all its rates, citing cost inflation, rising energy and staff spending, and the tightening of state funding. The town then announced, at the budget orientation debate of January 2025, that there would be no further increase in 2025 or 2026. The rates recorded by the DGFiP for 2025 confirm that freeze.

The second is automatic. The tax base, that is the cadastral rental value of your home divided by two, is revalued every year by the state in line with inflation: +7,1 % in 2023, +3,9 % in 2024, +1,7 % in 2025 and +0,8 % in 2026 (coefficient 1,008, indexed to the harmonised consumer price index of November 2025).

3. Has Saint-Étienne become a high-tax town?

The ranking deserves to be read properly. A high rate does not mean a high bill: the amount depends on the rate and on the cadastral rental value of the home. In a town where rental values are modest, a strong rate can produce a smaller amount than a moderate rate in an expensive city. What it does reveal is the level of effort asked of owners by the local authority.

The regional neighbourhood speaks for itself. At 45 kilometres, Lyon applies a municipal rate close to 13 points lower, on a property market three times more expensive. To compare the mechanics town by town, you can read our analyses of property tax in Lyon and of the Marseille rate, as well as the Limoges case.

4. How much do you pay depending on your district?

The profiles below are reconstructed from real districts of the town and from order-of-magnitude rental values. They do not replace your notice, which alone is authoritative: two homes of the same floor area can have different rental values depending on their condition and their features. The last column isolates what the 2024 decision added, on an identical tax base.

Four typical profiles in Saint-Étienne

These profiles rest on districts with sharply contrasting prices: 1 093 €/m² in Montplaisir, 1 238 €/m² in Jacquard, 1 283 €/m² in Montaud and 1 482 €/m² in Fauriel, the most sought-after area of the town, for a town average of 1 322 €/m² in 2026 (DVF data, the French notarised sales database, processed by Immover, 2024-2025 transactions). The full detail is on our page on property prices in Saint-Étienne.

5. Simulator: what the 2024 increase costs you every year

6. Who decides the rate after the March 2026 change of majority?

The context of that change is unusual. Gaël Perdriau, mayor of Saint-Étienne since 2014, was convicted on 1 December 2025 in the case known as the sextape blackmail affair, with a ban from public office subject to immediate enforcement. Jean-Pierre Berger served as interim mayor until the March 2026 vote.

For an owner, the practical consequence is simple: the increase of 15 % in 2024 was decided by a majority that is no longer in charge, and the freeze pledged for 2025 and 2026 does not bind the new team beyond that. The rate applying to a given year is voted in the spring of the same year, before 15 April: that is when the position of the new council will be read.

7. What impact on the value of your property?

That ratio deserves a word on method, because it is what makes the Saint-Étienne case singular. We measure the total amount shown on the notice, a combined rate of around 56,6 % applied to the tax base, against the market price of the home drawn from actual transactions. A 30 m² studio in Montplaisir is worth around 32 800 € and carries a tax of the order of 735 €: 2,2 % of its value a year. A 4-room flat of 85 m² in Fauriel is worth around 126 000 € for a tax of around 2 205 €, that is 1,75 %.

Three observations to place the real effect on your property.

1. Affordability remains the first argument of Saint-Étienne. A buyer looks first at the purchase price, where the town is unbeatable among the large French urban areas. A high property tax qualifies that advantage without cancelling it.

2. The annual cost of ownership weighs more here than elsewhere. On a property at 500 000 €, a tax of 2 000 € goes almost unnoticed. On a property at 60 000 €, it represents a visible share of the monthly budget, and a buy-to-let investor builds it directly into the net yield calculation.

3. The gaps between districts remain larger than the tax effect. From Montplaisir to Fauriel, the gap in price per m² exceeds 35 %. No municipal tax decision produces an effect of that size on the resale price. If you want to know what your home is worth, the address weighs far more than the rate.

To place your property precisely, see our page on property prices in Saint-Étienne, built from the transactions actually recorded.