Many homeowners in France wonder whether gifting their property to their children could prevent it from being used to pay for care later in life. Here’s a look at how the French system works, and whether doing this will truly save you money.
As the possibility of needing care comes into view, it’s natural to start thinking about how the cost will be covered – and whether ‘gifting’ your property to your children could stop if from being part of the equation.
It is possible to do this, but there are a few important things to be aware of first.
The first thing to understand is how the French care system works, and what costs you might be liable for if you do end up needing care.
This article is intended for people living in France.
What costs am I liable for if I need care?
If you require residential care, the cost is split in two; medical care fees and accommodation costs – which cover accommodation, meals, utilities, cleaning and laundry – with dependency costs – which is non-medical help, such as washing, dressing and getting around, along with any special equipment you need.
If you’re legally resident in France and registered within the health system (with a carte vitale), the medical side of your care is covered by Assurance maladie. In a care home (EHPAD), this “forfait soins” is paid directly to the home and is never billed to residents, according to the CNSA, the national body that funds care for older people.
The accommodation and dependency costs are paid by either you, your family or the state, depending on your income, your assets and the type of care you need.
If you are able to remain in your own home but need care from a home-help you pay for that directly, but then claim some or all of the cost back from the state, depending on your level of need and your financial situation.
How much does elderly care cost in France?
Care homes (EHPAD)
When it comes to care homes, the most important distinction is not whether a care home is public or private, but whether its rooms are approved for ASH (aide sociale à l’hébergement), the state accommodation subsidy.
Nearly all public care home places (98 percent) and most non-profit places (82 percent) are ASH-approved, compared with just 10 percent of places in commercial homes, according to the latest price report from the Caisse nationale de solidarité pour l’autonomie (CNSA).
Overall, an ASH-approved room, including a basic dependency charge, costs €2,164 a month on average, compared to €3,128 for a non-approved room – a gap of nearly €1,000.
Prices vary widely by location, too. Non-approved rooms in Paris averaged more than €5,100 a month, compared with around €2,000-€2,200 in rural départements such as Lozère and Haute-Loire.
Home help (maintien à domicile)
If you need help at home, you pay a home care agency or independent carer for their services.
Costs depend on how many hours you need and whether you use an agency or employ a carer directly.
As a guide, the national minimum hourly rate that départements pay home-help agencies was €25 in 2026. At that rate, 10 hours of help a week works out at roughly €1,080 a month.
To help cover the cost, you can apply for the APA (Allocation personnalisée d’autonomie). You qualify if you’re 60 or over and assessed as needing help with everyday tasks.
And here’s the good news: the value of your home is completely ignored when your APA is calculated. Nor is any of the APA recovered from the sale of your home when you die.
However, if you own second homes or investment properties, they do count.
READ MORE: Explained: French inheritance law and second homes
Sheltered housing
Publicly run sheltered housing (résidences autonomie) costs around €900 a month on average, according to French care home directory, Cap Retraite – though the average for a studio ranges vastly; in Normandy, for example, the average is €600 a month, whereas in Brittany, it’s €1,435.
Privately run senior residences (résidences services seniors) are, as you might expect, more expensive. Figures from Cap Retraite put the average at around €1,350 a month for a studio and €1,670 for a two-room flat, including charges and basic services.
Ok, so who pays for all that?
The costs and obligations differ for each type of care.
1. ASH-approved care homes (all public EHPADs and most non-profit ones)
Access to an ASH-approved home is not limited to people on low incomes, so a homeowner and a low-income pensioner can live in neighbouring rooms – but the amount they pay can differ significantly.
Since January 1st 2025, care homes that house a mix of residents can charge those who don’t receive ASH up to 35 percent more than those who do, according to the CNSA.
Residents who can afford the fees pay them from their income – pensions, investments and so on. If your income doesn’t cover the bill, you can apply for ASH.
As explained by Notaires de France, when you apply for this subsidy, your obligés alimentaires – your children and, in many cases, your sons- and daughters-in-law – are asked to state how much they can contribute to the care home fees. This is known as the obligation alimentaire.
ASH then covers the shortfall – but it’s just an advance, not a gift; when you die, the state can recover it from your estate before your heirs inherit anything.
It’s worth noting that places in ASH-approved homes are in high demand in some areas. The CNSA’s ‘tension index’ shows that access is hardest in the Paris region and easiest in rural départements such as Mayenne and Lozère.
2. Non-approved care homes (most commercial EHPADs)
In a home or room that isn’t ASH-approved, you pay the full price, which the operator sets freely – although yearly increases are capped by the government.
You generally can’t claim ASH there. The exception is if you have lived in a care home as a paying resident for at least five years and your money runs out, in which case the state can help with the fees even if the home isn’t approved.
If bills go unpaid, private care homes can take your obligés alimentaires (that is, your heirs) to court to make them contribute.
3. Home help (maintien à domicile)
If you need help at home, you pay the agency or carer directly, but you can apply for the APA to cover part of the cost.
Here’s the good news: if you own your main home and live in it, its value is ignored when your APA is calculated. And the APA is never recovered from your estate after you die.
Second homes or investment properties do count, however. Property that isn’t let is treated as if it earns 50 percent of its rental value, which lowers the amount of APA you receive.
4. Sheltered housing (résidences autonomie and résidences serices seniors)
These are flats for independent older people, with shared services. You pay rent and service charges.
Résidences autonomie can be ASH-approved, in which case the same rules apply as in an ASH-approved care home.
Résidences services seniors count as your own home, so you may be able to claim housing benefit (APL or ALS, paid monthly by the CAF), but not ASH.
The key difference from an EHPAD is medical. A care home has nursing staff and clinical care built into its daily rate because it is designed for people who have lost their autonomy, while sheltered housing is for people who can still live independently. If your health declines significantly, you may need to move to an EHPAD – and the financial assessment starts again.
If I give my property to my children, will it reduce my care fees?
So as we have seen, in certain circumstances either you will have to contribute to the cost of your care, or the costs will be deducted from the value of your estate when you die.
Which is why some people wonder whether ‘gifting’ their property to their children ahead of time will help to lower the care bill.
10 years – The first important thing to note is the timescale.
If you apply for ASH, the département checks your history of gifts. Where a gift (donation) was made after the application or in the 10 years before it, the département can recover ASH from the person who received it (ie your children), up to the value of the gift. This is known as the recours contre le donataire.
The gift must be made 10 years before the first application for state aid with care costs, not 10 years before the death.
In other words, giving your house away a few years before moving into a care home “does not erase the debt, it shifts it to the person who received it”, according to Paris lawyer Hassan Kohen.
Gifts made more than 10 years before the application don’t, in principle, count – but Kohen warns that giving just outside the window is not a cast-iron guarantee.
Even then, you can’t avoid the family support rules. Your children can still be asked to contribute to your care through the obligation alimentaire, based on their means.
Tax – The other thing to think about is tax; a common reason to think about gifting your home to your children before you die is for them to avoid inheritance tax.
In fact, it’s not quite so simple – instead gift tax applies, and might end up being more than the children would have paid in inheritance tax (although French inheritance tax can be high, there are generous allowances for close relatives, which means that many children end up paying little or nothing on an inheritance from their parents).
There is one widely used estate planning tool, though it comes with its own complexities: splitting ownership of the property, known as démembrement de propriété.
You give your children the ‘bare ownership’ (nue-propriété) of the house, while keeping the ‘usufruct’ (usufruit) – the right to live in it or rent it out – for the rest of your life.
Gift tax is due when you make the gift, but only on the value of the bare ownership, which is set by a government scale based on your age – the older you are, the higher the amount of gift tax is due.
READ MORE: EXPLAINED: The French tax rules on financial gifts for family
When you die, the usufruct ends automatically and your children become full owners, “with no tax and no formalities”, according to Notaires de France.
And since the house is no longer part of your estate when you die, the département can’t recover ASH from it – provided the gift was made more than 10 years before you applied for aid.
This article is intended as a guide to the French system of care and costs, and does not constitute fincancial advice. As always, when dealing with financial affairs, it is sensible to seek advice from a reputable financial expert, who can discuss your personal situation.