Building a House in France – budget, CCMI payments and site tracker (English)

Build your house in France with your eyes open: a workbook that calculates and monitors everything, and a guide that explains everything, for expats and English-speaking buyers having a house built in France for the first time, with a builder (CCMI), an architect or a project manager.

Building a House in France is a ready-to-use pack, in English, with no macros. It replaces home-made spreadsheets, stage payments made without checking and forgotten formalities, from the planning certificate to the clearance of snags.

Written for France, in english

The French rules are kept and explained, not replaced: the CCMI (contrat de construction de maison individuelle, the regulated contract for building a detached house) and its legal payment schedule (article R231-7 of the French Construction and Housing Code, CCH: 15 / 25 / 40 / 60 / 75 / 95 / 100%), the three warranties (parfait achèvement 1 year, biennale 2 years, décennale 10 years), dommages-ouvrage (structural damage) insurance, the RE2020 environmental regulation and the taxe d'aménagement (development tax). Each French term stays next to its English meaning, so you recognise it in your contract, on your tax notice and when you talk to your builder, notary and town hall. Amounts in euros (€) including French VAT; ISO dates (yyyy-mm-dd); separators follow your Excel or Google Sheets language settings. The guide's sources are French official and professional websites, cited with their URL, date and a translated title.

What you get

• Building-a-House-in-France-Budget-and-Tracker.xlsx – the management workbook, 11 tabs, native Excel formulas, compatible with Excel 2016 and later and Google Sheets (File > Import):
  • Read me: 20-minute start, colour code, conventions, the French terms kept on purpose, disclaimer.
  • Settings: build method (masonry, timber frame, hybrid), contract type (CCMI, architect, project manager, partial self-build), land seller, alert thresholds, editable 2026 price assumptions per m² for each method, notary fee rates, 2026 development tax, drop-down lists.
  • Land and fees: land price, notary fees calculated from the seller type, estate agent, boundary survey, G2 soil survey, site servicing, connections (electricity, water, sewer, fibre), estimated development tax and archaeology levy; 13 items, planned / contract or quote / paid / remaining / variance / alert.
  • Build budget: 16 work packages (earthworks, foundations, masonry or timber-frame structure, roof structure and roofing, windows and external doors, insulation, plumbing and heat-pump heating, electrical, home automation, plasterboard, finishes, kitchen, bathroom, external works, fees, dommages-ouvrage insurance) + calculated 8% contingency; planned / contract or quote / amendments / committed / paid / remaining / expected cost / variance / alert; CCMI price, works outside the CCMI, cost per m² compared with the 2026 benchmark, total project cost, chart.
  • Timber vs masonry: the same house in three build methods, costed (total cost, cost per m², difference, build times, 20-year maintenance) and assessed (RE2020, summer comfort, wall thickness, drying, acoustics, maintenance, resale, strengths and weaknesses), chart.
  • Home automation: 13 items (heating, shutters, basic lighting, alarm, energy metering, wired network, gate, video door entry, smart lock, irrigation, audio, solar PV, proprietary hub) with priority "Worth it / Optional / Avoid", what to plan during structural works, recommended protocol, low / medium / high budget, selected level compared with the budget package.
  • Schedule: 12 milestones (permit filed and granted, deed, end of the appeal period, DOC, foundations, walls, watertight, airtight, services, handover, DAACT) and a 60-week weekly Gantt chart of the 14 works packages, % done, % planned to date, estimated delay, RAG status, overall progress.
  • Stage payments: the CCMI legal schedule (15 / 25 / 40 / 60 / 75 / 95 / 100%, article R231-7) applied to the updated contract price and compared with the calls received and the payments made; milestone reached or not, gap with the maximum, 5% retention, "Above legal maximum" and "Called before milestone" alerts.
  • Formalities: 27 dated formalities in order (planning certificate, soil survey, CCMI, permit and display, loan, deed, dommages-ouvrage insurance, connections, DOC, Consuel, handover, home insurance, DAACT, H1 tax return, development tax, snag clearance, one-year warranty) with owner, rule or deadline, status, "Overdue" and "Due soon" alerts.
  • Handover: warranty dates calculated (parfait achèvement 1 year, biennale 2 years, décennale 10 years), 5% retention, list of snags and first-year defects with their clearance.
  • Dashboard: printable A4 landscape page, total project cost planned / expected / committed / paid, progress, delay, stage payments, budget by block, next formalities, the 5 alerts to deal with, stage payment grid, 2 native charts. Delivered with a complete fictitious data set (110 m² two-storey timber-frame house, 4 bedrooms, plot in Lavaur near Toulouse, CCMI, house at the watertight stage): every calculation and every alert is visible as soon as you open the file; just replace it with your own data.
• Building-a-House-in-France-Guide.pdf – 27 A4 pages: the six stages from plot to keys; the land and its hidden costs (notary fees by seller type, G2 survey, site servicing, 2026 development tax calculated); choosing the build method with sourced and dated 2026 prices per m²; RE2020 from 2026 to 2028 (2028 thresholds); CCMI, architect, project manager or self-build: guarantees and pitfalls; sensible home automation (what to plan during structural works, open protocols, what to avoid); formalities and their deadlines; stage payments; handover and warranties; how to use the workbook tab by tab; 4 checklists (land, signing, site visit, handover); a 42-entry glossary of the French legal and technical terms, and the key figures; practical tips for building from abroad.

The method

Nothing is paid before it is seen, if it is not in writing it does not exist, conduits before plaster. Three figures (expected cost, progress, stage payments), five ranked alerts, ten minutes a week. The workbook is the single source of truth for the project; the guide explains what to look at and when.

Calculated, not declared

Notary fees, development tax, contingency, committed and expected cost of each package, variances and alerts, updated CCMI price and legal stage payment schedule, gap between each call and the maximum, % planned to date and estimated delay of each package, overdue or due-soon formalities, dates of the three warranties, comparison of the three build methods, selected home-automation budget. Thresholds and benchmark prices are set once in Settings.

Quality

No macros, no add-ins, no recent functions: the workbook opens in Excel 2016 and in Google Sheets. Drop-down lists, frozen panes, filters, conditional formatting, 214 named ranges, print areas, 4 native charts. Formulas recalculated in Excel and checked independently on the fictitious data set. Guide written with the help of AI and reviewed by a project manager; prices and rules sourced with URL and date (14 sources).

Unlimited personal use: copy and adapt the workbook for as many projects as you like, and share it with the people involved in your project. Resale, redistribution and publication of the content prohibited. 12 months of updates included.

Fictitious data. Written with the help of AI and reviewed. Decision-support tool: not legal, tax or financial advice.

Seller: SASU MOE CAPITAL, 95 impasse des Garennes, 81710 Saïx, France. Terms of Service · Consumers: 14-day right of withdrawal, Withdraw from contract here · Consumer mediator (France): Société de la Médiation Professionnelle (SMP), Alteritae, 5 rue Salvaing, 12000 Rodez, France – www.mediateur-consommation-smp.fr.