Regarding the structure of ownership, the simplest way of holding a property is obviously “directly”, ie. in personal name(s). However ownership has often to be split between spouses and/or kids for different reasons (including tax reasons : inheritance tax, gift tax, wealth tax….).
The French system for such a joint ownership is named “regime d’indivision”.
The “indivision regime” used to be and might remain a disadvantage when one of the owner dies.
This is the basic and first legal reason to set up a company. Traditionally under the private law standard mechanisms, the consequence of owning shares rather than the property is therefore also to avoid French inheritance law. The transfer of the shares of the French company, as opposed to the transfer of real estate, would be and probably remain governed by your will (in the country of permanent residency) avoiding the well known French forced heirship rule.
Holding the property with a company is also the best structure to organise the future transfer of the French asset and in the meantime keep the control on the property (on the company).
Holding a property through a company is often the right solution. There are numerous of other tax and legal reasons to set up of company. We can handle this process as part of the conveyancing without any additional delays.
