Buying a restaurant in the South of France
What you actually buy, what it costs, what Brexit changes, and a village bar-restaurant for sale thirty minutes from Montpellier.
What you buy: the fonds de commerce
Most restaurants in France are sold as a fonds de commerce, the French equivalent of a leasehold business. You buy the trade, the name, the equipment, the fittings and the right to the commercial lease. The building is not included: it stays with the landlord and you pay rent. That is why a business in France can cost far less than the property around it.
Two things drive the value: the commercial lease (rent, time remaining, permitted use) and the licence attached to the premises for serving alcohol.
Moving to France after Brexit
Anyone can buy a French business. Living in France to run it is a separate question. Since Brexit a UK passport allows stays of up to 90 days in any 180, so a British buyer who moves to run the business needs a French long-stay visa or residence permit for a business activity. Plan this before you sign, and check the current requirements with the French consulate.
What it costs on top of the price
The buyer pays registration duties, calculated in bands, plus the fees of the lawyer or notary who drafts the deed.
| Up to 23,000 EUR | 0% |
| 23,000 to 200,000 EUR | 3% |
| Above 200,000 EUR | 5% |
For a business at 80,000 EUR, the duties come to roughly 1,700 EUR. Have your adviser confirm the figure.
The steps
- Visit, ideally on an evening of service, and ask for the last three years of accounts.
- Have an English-speaking accountant check the accounts and a French lawyer check the lease.
- Check the licence, hygiene and safety compliance and the equipment.
- Sign a preliminary agreement with conditions (financing, transfer of lease and licence, your visa).
- Sign the deed of sale, then complete the publication formalities and the creditors' objection period.
Why a village near Montpellier
Montpellier is one of France's fastest-growing cities, with an international airport, a TGV line to Paris and the Mediterranean twenty minutes away. The villages to its east, between the city and Sommières, offer the South of France life many people move for, with a year-round local clientele. Restinclières has about 2,600 residents (INSEE 2023), more than double the 1999 figure, and sits thirty minutes from central Montpellier.
A restaurant for sale: Le Patio d'Eve
In the heart of Restinclières, facing the town hall, Le Patio d'Eve is a bar-restaurant with 154 m² of usable space: bar and welcome 21 m², stone dining room 27 m², a patio of more than 41 m² under a retractable roof, kitchen and back kitchen 24 m², storage 30 m². The asking price is 80,000 EUR, with a licence III. Rent is 1,260 EUR a month, and a terrace can be set up on the village square with the town hall's agreement.