Property tax in Villeurbanne in 2026: the town that moved ahead of Lyon

1. What is the property tax rate in Villeurbanne in 2026?

The Villeurbanne notice has four lines, three of which are metropolitan and marginal.

The household waste collection tax of the Métropole de Lyon, at 5,19 %, is one of the lowest in France for a large conurbation. In Marseille it reaches 18,10 %; in Montpellier, 14,62 %; in Nîmes, 10,54 %. On a tax base of 1 940 €, the gap between Villeurbanne and Marseille alone represents around 250 € a year.

2. Why has Villeurbanne moved ahead of Lyon?

The two neighbouring municipalities followed the same budgetary logic twelve months apart, and the result is a lasting crossover.

The jump of 2021 is specific to neither of the two towns: it corresponds to the transfer of the departmental share of the property tax on built property to the municipalities, in compensation for the abolition of the residence tax on main residences. Comparing a pre-2021 notice with a notice of today without neutralising that transfer makes no sense.

The reversal is symbolic more than financial: one point of rate difference, on an average base of 1 940 €, represents around twenty euros a year. But it breaks an old hierarchy, in a conurbation where the tax gap between Lyon and its inner ring was one of the arguments for buying.

The mayor who carried that rise has been returned to office. Cédric Van Styvendael was re-elected on 22 March 2026 with 42,59 % of the vote, that is 18 292 ballots and 43 seats out of 59, ahead of the list of his predecessor Jean-Paul Bret (16,97 %) and that of La France insoumise (16,79 %), on a turnout of 49,34 %.

3. What did the 2024 rise bring in, and what is it used for?

The official figures make it possible to check the announcement, and they tally.

The net base of built property in Villeurbanne stood at 256,8 million euros in 2024. One point of rate is therefore worth 2,57 million euros. The 2,99 points voted represent 7,7 million euros, consistent with the 8 million announced. The municipal revenue from property tax on built property did indeed rise from 74,1 million euros in 2023 to 84,6 million in 2024 (individual accounts of the municipalities, DGFiP).

Reasoning the other way round gives a useful marker for any owner in Villeurbanne: if the rise represents 58 € on average for 2,99 points, then the average tax base of a Villeurbanne home is around 1 940 €, which places the average notice, household waste included, at around 766 € a year.

The deputy mayor for finance Jonathan Bocquet had summed up the trade-off in one sentence: the choice was between stopping the municipal programme and pulling the tax lever. The mayor, for his part, had admitted that the promises of 2020 could no longer be kept at a constant rate.

The 2026 budget, voted at the town council meeting of 5 January 2026, stands at 261,3 million euros, of which 91 million of investment, with education the first item of capital spending (31,5 %), the extension of the T6 tramway and the opening of the Alice-Milliat sports complex. It was built without any new rate rise.

4. Is Villeurbanne an expensive town for tax?

That is the nuance national comparisons systematically miss, by confusing the change with the level.

Measured against the forty largest cities in France, the gap is even clearer. Villeurbanne sits in the bottom third, a long way from Grenoble (65,79 %), Nîmes (53,20 %), Montpellier (52,63 %) or Bordeaux (48,48 %). The same home would bear a property tax around 57 % heavier in Nîmes than in Villeurbanne, on an identical tax base. For that comparison, see our analysis of the property tax in Nîmes, and of the property tax in Lyon for the neighbouring municipality.

Property tax represents 84,6 million euros out of 209,6 million of operating revenue, that is 40 % of the current income of Villeurbanne. That is significant, but less concentrated than in Nîmes, where the ratio reaches 45 %.

5. Simulator: the squeeze between your tax and your property

6. How much do you pay depending on your profile?

The amounts below are orders of magnitude built from typical profiles anchored on real neighbourhoods of Villeurbanne and on the prices per m² drawn from our processing of DVF data, the French notarised sales database. The right-hand column isolates what the 2024 rise adds each year to each profile.

Villeurbanne is a town of flats: 91,6 % of its stock of 93 196 homes, against 4,8 % of houses (INSEE, the French statistics institute, 2023 census). The few houses, valued at around 5 508 €/m², carry a markedly heavier cadastral rental value, land included, and a property tax well above the orders of magnitude above.

7. Second home: why the surcharge rose to 60 %

The measure is more a signal than a budget move, and that is what makes it interesting to read.

Villeurbanne is a municipality where second homes are marginal: 3,5 % of the stock, against 8,1 % of vacant homes and 88,4 % of main residences. Raising the surcharge to the legal maximum therefore brings in almost nothing on the scale of a budget of 261 million euros. The stated objective lies elsewhere: to make it less attractive to hold a home that is not occupied as a main residence, tourist rentals included.

With 15 228 social housing units, that is 18,5 % of main residences, and 63,8 % of tenants, Villeurbanne runs a housing policy geared to the main residence. The 2025 surcharge is part of that line.

8. What effect on the value of your property in Villeurbanne?

That is the reading that puts the 2024 rise back in its place. The average price of a flat in Villeurbanne is around 3 601 €/m² (Immover processing, DVF data), with a marked gap between Charpennes, at around 4 150 €/m², and Salengro, at around 2 873 €/m². The market fell by around 9 % over five years, after a peak at 4 030 €/m² in 2022, before rising again by 1,9 % over the last twelve months.

On a 3-room flat of 65 m² valued at 234 000 €, a property tax of 800 € represents around 0,34 % of the value a year. The same reasoning in Nîmes, where the overall rate reaches 54,00 %, gives 0,79 %. In other words: even after moving ahead of Lyon, Villeurbanne remains, in cost of ownership measured against value, one of the lightest large cities in France.

The squeeze does exist, then, but it is weaker than it looks. What weighed on the value of Villeurbanne properties between 2022 and 2025 was not municipal taxation, it was lending rates and the general correction of the Lyon market. The recovery of 1,9 % over twelve months, while the rate has not moved, confirms it.

The gaps between neighbourhoods remain the real determinant. Some areas have fallen back clearly over twelve months, such as Cusset (-16,6 %) or Les Charmettes (-10,0 %), while Les Fays (+14,6 %) and La Doua (+13,7 %) rose strongly. A valuation calibrated at neighbourhood level is worth more than a municipal average:

For the detail by area, our page property prices per m² in Villeurbanne gives the price of each of the nineteen neighbourhoods covered.