The figure you read is the one that counts on resale
Because when you sell, it is the acquisition costs you will have to recoup, plus those of the sale. Tracking that leaves them out is setting up a disappointment.
Value and debt
Compared with total cost, not with the purchase price.
Almost every dashboard compares the current value with the price paid, and forgets the fees. On an older property, fees often represent nearly a tenth of the price: ignoring them turns a zero capital gain into an apparent profit.
Acquisition costs turn a capital gain from positive to nil.
A home bought on the resale market carries transfer duties and notary fees that commonly represent seven to eight per cent of the price, to which may be added agency fees and the cost of the works carried out. So a property sold after four years at five per cent above its purchase price has gained nothing: it has lost money. It is arithmetic, and yet the vast majority of portfolio trackers show the flattering comparison, because it is the only one they have — the purchase price is a known figure, the total cost requires entering three more lines. Those three lines are exactly what separates a portfolio tracker from a decorative table.
- Purchase price, notary fees, agency fees and works combined
- The change is expressed against that total, never against the price alone
- Works recorded over time go into the cost base
- The date of each estimate is kept: you see a trajectory
In practice.
You enter the actual cost of the purchase
Price paid, notary fees, agency fees. These are three amounts that appear on documents you own, and they cannot be guessed: a flat rate applied to the price would give an invented total cost.
Works are added over time
Every project recorded — with its quotes, its invoices, its before and after photos — adds to the total cost. It is also what makes a resale file credible: the spending is dated and backed up.
The current value is compared with that total
The difference is expressed in euros and as a percentage, and it is often less spectacular than the difference from the purchase price. That is the price of an honest calculation.
The trajectory is kept
Every dated estimate stays on record. So you read a curve rather than a point, which lets you tell a market movement from the effect of works.
What it changes
Works stop being a forgotten expense
Once recorded, they raise the cost base and serve twice: in the change in value, and in the resale file where they show the property has been maintained.
The comparison between properties becomes fair
Two homes bought at different times, with different costs, cannot be compared on purchase price. Total cost puts them on the same basis.
The law, and the pitfalls
For calculating the capital gain on property, the acquisition price is increased by the acquisition costs — actual costs with supporting documents, or a flat rate of 7.5% — and by strictly defined works expenditure.
art. 150 VB of the French General Tax Code
Maintenance and repair expenses can NOT be added to the cost base: only construction, reconstruction, extension or improvement works can, and not if they have already been deducted from rental income. An owner who deducted their works each year cannot count them a second time on resale.
The capital gains exemption for a main residence does not apply to a rental home. The exemption for length of ownership is acquired gradually, and only becomes total after a long period.
art. 150 U and art. 150 VC of the French General Tax Codedisputed point
The allowances for length of ownership do not follow the same pace for income tax and for social charges: a property can be exempt from income tax and still be subject to social charges for several more years.
For furnished lettings taxed on actual figures, the depreciation claimed is now taken into account when calculating the capital gain on sale.
Finance Law No. 2025-127 of 14 February 2025 for 2025
It is a major change of regime for furnished landlords taxed on actual figures: the annual benefit of depreciation comes back, in part, on exit. Portfolio tracking that ignores this effect overstates the net result of a resale. We do not calculate its tax consequence — see the refusal below.
What Pilot refuses to do
Pilot does not compare against the purchase price alone
Even if it is more flattering, and even if it is what most dashboards do. A gain calculated without acquisition costs is not a performance, it is an arithmetical optical illusion.
Pilot does not calculate your taxable capital gain
It depends on the exact nature of the works, on what has already been deducted from income, on how long the property has been held, on the letting regime and now on the depreciation claimed. It is a calculation to be done with the documents in hand, with a professional.
art. 150 VB and art. 150 VC of the French General Tax Code
Pilot does not apply a flat-rate cost allowance on your behalf
A rate applied to the price would produce a plausible and wrong total cost. The actual amounts appear on your deed and your invoices; we prefer an empty field to an invented figure.
Availability
Included from the Essentiel tier.
- 7-day trial at launch, card required
- No commitment
Frequently asked questions
Why does my change in value look worse than elsewhere?
Because it is calculated against the total cost — purchase price plus notary fees, agency fees and works — and not against the price paid alone. On an older property, the fees often represent nearly a tenth of the price: ignoring them turns a zero capital gain into an apparent profit.
Do works count?
In the total cost tracked by Pilot, yes, as soon as they are recorded. Note: for the tax calculation of the capital gain, only certain works can be added to the cost base, and not if they have already been deducted from rental income. They are two different calculations.
Does Pilot calculate my taxable capital gain?
No. It depends on the nature of the works, on what has already been deducted, on how long you have held the property, on the letting regime and now on the depreciation claimed on furnished lettings taxed on actual figures. It is a calculation to be done with the documents in hand.
Why not apply a flat-rate cost allowance?
Because it would give a plausible and wrong total cost, on which the yield and the verdict on which property to keep would then rest. The actual amounts are on your deed; we prefer an empty field.
Right next to it.
Value and debt
A dated range, with its confidence level.
Anchored to the sales actually signed nearby, with the date of the estimate and its confidence level.
Performance
One definition of yield, everywhere.
Costs deducted, total cost in the denominator. One single definition of yield across the whole product.
Value and debt
Generated from the repayment schedule, so it ages on its own.
Generated from your repayment schedule, so it ages on its own. The net value follows from it, estimated selling costs deducted.
Performance
Keep, sell, watch — or say nothing.
Ranked on net yield, IRR, and a keep / sell / watch verdict — suspended when the value is not certain enough.
Content reviewed on 2026-08-06.
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