Mortgage Costs in Monaco: The Expense Buyers Discover Too Late
Publié par Paolo Petrini le 04/09/2026
Temps de lecture
24
min.
Taxation and Legislation
Registering a mortgage in Monaco costs roughly 0.92% of the amount secured, not of the price of the apartment.
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That percentage breaks down into two separate lines: a duty of 0.65% levied on the mortgage formality, and a regulated notarial fee of 0.27% for drawing up the registration form (bordereau). A buyer who finances €10 million of a purchase must therefore set aside close to €92,000 for the creation of the security alone, on top of transfer duties, the notary's fees and any bank arrangement fees.
The charge is entirely lawful and can be quantified in advance. Its existence is not the problem. The problem is the moment at which the buyer learns of it: very often at the financing stage, once the deposit has been paid and the commitment signed. At that precise moment the sum is no longer negotiated, it is absorbed. It also has no real equivalent in the markets most international buyers come from. In England and Wales, registering a charge with HM Land Registry is a matter of a modest fixed fee, and discharging it costs next to nothing. In the United States, only a handful of states, New York among them, levy a mortgage recording tax proportional to the amount secured. In Monaco, the cost is proportional on the way in and on the way out: releasing that same mortgage at the time of resale has its own tariff, higher still.
Key TakeawaysMortgage fees Monaco
Key Takeaways: mortgage fees in Monaco
Mortgage fees in Monaco amount to roughly 0.92% of the amount secured. These are the points that determine the actual bill.
- The total cost of registering a mortgage in Monaco is 0.92% of the registered amount.
- That rate combines a duty of 0.65% on the mortgage formality and a notarial fee of 0.27% for the registration form (bordereau).
- The basis of calculation is the amount of the mortgage charge, never the purchase price of the apartment.
- A €20 million purchase financed with €10 million generates roughly €92,000 in registration costs, not €184,000.
- The bank may register the principal plus ancillary sums intended to cover interest and costs: the amount secured then exceeds the capital borrowed.
- A registration preserves the mortgage for ten years and must be renewed before that term to keep its ranking, which can generate a second cost on a long loan.
- Selling before the end of the term requires a release of the mortgage (mainlevée), charged at 0.50% in notarial fee and 0.50% in duty, whereas an operation that merely reduces the collateral is charged a few euros.
- The cost is often revealed after the deposit has been paid, when the buyer is already committed and has no bargaining power left.
Petrini tip: raise the cost of the security at your very first financing discussion, before paying a deposit. Ask your bank in writing for the exact amount that will appear on the registration form. That figure, and that figure alone, determines the sum to budget for.
Why people speak of a 1% mortgage cost in Monaco
The exact figure is 0.92%, and it is not a bank commission. Two regulated charges are levied together when the security is created.
The first is a duty levied on the mortgage formality. Law No. 580 of 29 July 1953 on registration and mortgage duties sets the rate applicable to the registration of mortgage debts at 0.65%. There is nothing negotiable about it: the duty is payable as soon as the security is registered with Monaco's Mortgage Registry (Conservation des Hypothèques).
The second is the notary's fee for drawing up the registration form, set at 0.27% by Sovereign Ordinance No. 15.252 of 13 February 2002 establishing the tariff of notaries. It is therefore not a freely set fee but a remuneration fixed by statute, like the other deeds a notary's office prepares. The distinction matters: the notaries of Monaco apply a public scale that the buyer can check line by line.
Added together, these two items give 0.92%, commonly rounded to “about 1%” in conversations with banks. The rounding is convenient, but it obscures the real question, the one almost nobody asks before signing: 0.92% of what?
On what sum is the 0.92% calculated
Mortgage fees are calculated on the amount of the mortgage charge, that is, the sum actually entered on the registration form, and not on the price paid for the apartment.
The nuance changes everything once the buyer's own contribution is significant. A buyer who purchases an apartment for €20 million, contributes €10 million and borrows the remaining €10 million does not pay 0.92% of €20 million. If the bank registers a mortgage of €10 million, the basis is €10 million, and the cost of the registration comes to roughly €92,000. The difference from a calculation based on the purchase price exceeds €90,000, which is hardly trivial, even in this segment of the market.
This is also why two buyers who purchase the same property at the same price do not bear the same security costs. The one who finances the entire acquisition bears a registration on the whole. The one who borrows only a fraction of the price bears a registration on that fraction alone. The cost of the mortgage is not indexed to the value of the property; it is indexed to the level of risk the bank wishes to cover. That still requires knowing exactly what the bank registers, because the loan amount is not always the amount of the security.
The amount borrowed and the amount secured do not always match
The registered amount can exceed the capital borrowed, because the bank is entitled to have ancillary sums secured as well, intended to cover interest, costs and any arrears.
The mechanism is standard in the law of real security: the mortgage covers not only the principal but also what attaches to it. Depending on the wording adopted in the deed, the basis of calculation can therefore be higher than the capital lent alone. This is why one must speak of the amount of the mortgage charge and not of the loan amount: the two often coincide, but not always, and the gap is paid in duty.
The practical rule that follows is simple. Never calculate your budget on the capital you borrow; ask your banker for the precise amount that will appear on the form, ancillary sums included. Asked before the loan offer is issued, that question takes thirty seconds and tells you exactly where you stand. Practices vary from one institution to another, and the list of banks present in Monaco gives a sense of how many lenders may finance an acquisition in the Principality. Once that amount is known, the calculation fits on a single line.
Four worked examples of the registration cost
The following orders of magnitude illustrate the gap between the purchase price and the actual basis of mortgage fees. They assume that the registered amount corresponds exactly to the capital borrowed, an assumption to be confirmed case by case.
Indicative cost of a mortgage registration in Monaco
Calculated at 0.92% of the registered amount (duty of 0.65% under Law No. 580 of 29 July 1953 and notarial fee of 0.27% under Sovereign Ordinance No. 15.252 of 13 February 2002). Position as at 2 September 2026.
| Property price | Registered amount | Cost at 0.92% | Petrini benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| €5,000,000 | €3,000,000 | €27,600 | Minority financing: the cost remains contained |
| €20,000,000 | €10,000,000 | €92,000 | The most common case of an unanticipated budget line |
| €20,000,000 | €15,000,000 | €138,000 | Majority financing: the gap becomes structural |
| €30,000,000 | €20,000,000 | €184,000 | To be built in from the first financing discussion |
Table by Petrini Exclusive Real Estate Monaco. Indicative amounts calculated excluding any ancillary sums and other acquisition costs, to be confirmed with the bank and the notary for each file.
These figures are deliberately unrefined. They do not replace a notarial statement, but they provide the order of magnitude most often missing when a buyer weighs paying cash against borrowing. For the rest of the acquisition budget, our Monaco notary fee calculator gives a first estimate in a few seconds. One question remains that these figures do not settle: why does the buyer discover them so late?
Why the buyer discovers this cost too late
The cost arrives late because it only surfaces when the security is put in place, that is, at a stage where the buyer is already committed to the property.
The timeline of an acquisition in Monaco explains the phenomenon. The buyer chooses an apartment, agrees a price, signs, and pays a deposit, generally 10% of the price, into the hands of the notary. The financing is structured afterwards. By the time the bank finally details its security and the cost of registering it, the file is under way, the deposit is locked in and the calendar is set. The buyer does not walk away from the acquisition over ninety-two thousand euros. They pay it.
Then comes a question our clients invariably ask: why did nobody tell me before? The answer lies in how the roles are distributed. We consider that it falls first to the lending institution to detail this cost when it presents its offer, since it is the bank that decides on the security and its amount. The notary intervenes at the deed stage and quantifies what was decided upstream. That leaves the agency, and this is where the matter is really decided: a professional who does not know this mechanism obviously cannot alert their client. The subject is not hidden. It is simply absent from the conversation until someone puts it on the table.
We recently assisted a buyer whose financing exceeded fifteen million euros and who had not included this item in his financing plan. The information had not reached him before the final stages of the file, when the amount at stake was approaching one hundred and fifty thousand euros. Since then, we flag this cost systematically as soon as bank financing is contemplated, even before the property search begins. This is not financial advice, it is market information: we say that an expense exists, we give its order of magnitude, and we refer the client to their banker and their notary for the exact figure in their own file.
Professional insight
Monaco is not the all-cash market it is made out to be
Media coverage of Monaco often suggests that acquisitions there are systematically settled without financing. Our observations point the other way: borrowing remains frequent, including among buyers who could afford to pay cash. Credit then serves a logic of leverage and wealth structuring, not a cash constraint. The international fortunes settled in Monaco are no exception to this practice, so the cost of mortgage security concerns far more buyers than one would imagine in this segment.
The entry cost, however, is only the first appointment. The second comes ten years later.
What happens after ten years of credit
A mortgage registration preserves the mortgage for ten years and must be renewed before that period expires in order to preserve the security and its ranking.
This point is very poorly known among buyers, yet it has direct financial consequences for long-term financing. The principle is long established and constant in Monegasque law: Article 113 of the Ordinance of 29 April 1828 sets this ten-year period, and the case law of the Monaco Court of First Instance has confirmed that failure to renew within ten years extinguishes the mortgage security and its ranking, without extinguishing the debt itself. The creditor may then proceed to a new registration, but loses its original ranking, which no bank accepts with good grace.
The concrete consequence for a borrower: on a twenty-year loan, and even more so on an interest-only (bullet) loan whose capital remains outstanding until maturity, the renewal of the registration takes place while the outstanding balance is still very high. The renewal form is itself subject to a notarial fee of 0.27% under the same tariff, and the renewal formality gives rise to a charge. In other words, a second significant mortgage cost can appear after about ten years, on an outstanding amount that has not necessarily fallen.
This second appointment weighs all the more heavily when the capital has not decreased. That is where the very structure of the loan comes into play.
Amortising or interest-only: the structure changes the bill
The way the capital is repaid determines the cost of any renewal of the registration after ten years.
An amortising loan repays capital with each instalment. After ten years, the sum outstanding has fallen markedly, and the renewal of the registration bears on a smaller amount. An interest-only (bullet) loan repays the capital only at maturity, the borrower paying nothing but interest in the meantime. After ten years, the outstanding balance has remained close to the initial amount, and the renewal is calculated on that high basis.
Two buyers who borrowed the same sum at the same time can thus bear very different security costs over the life of the loan, solely because of the repayment structure chosen. It is a parameter to build into the financing plan from the outset, on a par with the interest rate. One must also take care not to confuse this renewal with another mechanism, often raised in the same conversation.
Renewal of the registration and revaluation of the property: two separate matters
The ten-year renewal is a legal formality that preserves the security. The periodic revaluation of the apartment is a banking practice for monitoring risk. The two follow different logics and are not triggered at the same time.
A bank may perfectly well provide in its loan agreement for the property it finances to be revalued periodically, in order to check that the ratio between the outstanding debt and the value of the security remains within the agreed limits. If that ratio deteriorates beyond a contractual threshold, the institution may ask the borrower to provide additional security, to pledge further assets or to repay part of the loan early. These are covenant provisions, whose terms are set out in the loan documentation and vary from one file to another.
This revaluation has nothing to do with the ten-year lapse of the registration. The former belongs to the contractual relationship between the bank and its client, the latter to the law of security interests and land registration. A borrower may see the property revalued several times without any renewal of the registration falling due, and vice versa. Confusing the two leads to misjudging both the costs and the obligations. Entry, renewal: a third moment remains, that of the exit.
The exit cost: what the release costs when you sell
Having a mortgage released has its own tariff, distinct from that of the registration, and it is higher still: roughly 1% of the sum released.
The mechanism is as follows. As long as the loan runs, the registration remains published at Monaco's Mortgage Registry (Conservation des Hypothèques). If you sell the property before that registration lapses, the purchaser requires a property free of any charge, and a release of the mortgage (mainlevée) must therefore be carried out, that is, the formal discharge of the security. That formality is priced, too, by the same texts. This is the point at which the Monegasque system departs most sharply from what a British or American seller expects. Discharging a charge at HM Land Registry is a routine filing that costs practically nothing. Even in the American states that tax the recording of a mortgage, its satisfaction is a filing formality rather than a proportional levy. In Monaco, the exit is priced on the same proportional logic as the entry.
Sovereign Ordinance No. 15.252 of 13 February 2002 distinguishes two situations under the heading “Release of a mortgage or privilege registration”. A final or partial release that reduces the debt gives rise to a notarial fee of 0.50%. A release that merely reduces the collateral gives rise to a notarial fee of €1. Law No. 580 of 29 July 1953 follows the same logic on the duty side: total or partial releases of mortgages fall under the 0.50% rate, but where there is merely a reduction of the registration, only a fixed duty of €10 per deed is levied.
Two ways of lifting a mortgage, two tariffs that bear no comparison
Notarial fees under Sovereign Ordinance No. 15.252 of 13 February 2002, duties under Law No. 580 of 29 July 1953 (art. 8). Position as at 2 September 2026. Illustration on a €10 million security.
| Operation | Notarial fee | Duty levied | Order of magnitude on €10M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final or partial release reducing the debt | 0.50% (minimum €2) | 0.50% | Roughly €100,000 |
| Operation merely reducing the collateral or the registration | €1 | Fixed duty of €10 | A few euros in formalities |
Table by Petrini Exclusive Real Estate Monaco. The precise characterisation of the operation is a matter for the officiating notary and the bank's agreement, file by file.
The gap is not a nuance of the tariff, it is a ratio of several thousand to one. And it explains a practice encountered on the Monaco market that few buyers understand when it is described to them.
Why some sellers keep a cellar
Because removing an apartment from the scope of a mortgage costs a few euros in formalities, whereas the full release of the security costs roughly 1% of the sum released.
The starting point is a reality of Monegasque property: one rarely buys a single unit. An acquisition most often covers an apartment, one or two parking spaces and a cellar, and the bank registers its mortgage over all of these units. The scope of the security therefore embraces the whole.
Then comes the day of resale, before the registration has reached its term. Two paths open up. The first is to request the release of the mortgage, which records the extinction of the debt and triggers the tariff of 0.50% in notarial fee and 0.50% in duty. The second is to remove from the scope only the units actually sold, the apartment and the parking space, leaving the registration alive on a unit the seller keeps, in practice the cellar.
A common formulation needs correcting here, because it gets in the way of understanding the mechanism. One does not “transfer” the mortgage from the apartment to the cellar. The cellar was already within the scope from the outset. What one does is remove the other units from that scope. The registration does not move, it shrinks.
The apartment and the parking space are then sold free of any registration, while the security formally continues to bear on the cellar retained. And the ten-year calendar does the rest: if the registration is not renewed, it ceases to have effect at the end of the ten years, without any final release ever having had to be paid for.
Three conditions make this reasoning work, and none of them depends on the seller. The units must be legally separate and identified as such. The bank must agree, which presupposes that its debt has been repaid or is sufficiently covered otherwise, since a cellar obviously does not constitute serious economic security for an outstanding balance of several million. Finally, the notary must characterise the operation, since it is that characterisation that determines the applicable tariff. In other words, this is not a borrower's right, it is a possibility to be negotiated, and it is prepared well before the property goes on the market.
We have seen this arrangement implemented. It is therefore neither a theory nor a corridor rumour, and that is precisely why it deserves to be explained properly: a seller who discovers the possibility once the preliminary sale agreement is signed no longer has the means to organise it. The question arises when deciding which units to part with, not at signing.
The cellar arrangement plays on the exit. Other choices, made upstream, play on the entry: the very nature of the security.
Not all securities carry the same formality cost
The applicable tariff depends on the nature of the security taken by the bank, and the gap is considerable: from 0.92% for a mortgage to a few tens of euros for a pledge of securities.
The finding is purely documentary. The same Law No. 580 of 29 July 1953 that sets the duty on registrations of mortgage debts at 0.65% provides, in Article 29, a rate of 0.01% for the registration of pledges, and, in Article 2 bis, a fixed duty of €50 for the registration of any deed creating a pledge of cash or securities (full text on Legimonaco). The table below sets these mechanisms side by side.
The four main families of security, and what they cost in formalities
Formality tariffs under Law No. 580 of 29 July 1953 (art. 2 bis and 29) and Sovereign Ordinance No. 15.252 of 13 February 2002. Position as at 2 September 2026. Excluding interest, arrangement fees and valuation fees.
| Security | What it covers | Formality cost | What it implies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conventional mortgage | The financed apartment | 0.92% of the registered amount | The bank can have the property sold and be paid in priority. Registration to be renewed before ten years. |
| Pledge of financial assets, known as a Lombard loan | A portfolio of shares, funds or bonds | 0.01% on registration, €50 fixed duty on the pledge deed | The assets remain your property and continue to generate income. Additional collateral may be required if markets fall. |
| Mixed structure | The property plus a portfolio as a complement | 0.92% on the mortgaged portion only | Frequent on large files. The cost follows the amount actually registered, not the amount lent. |
| Promise of mortgage charge | An undertaking to grant a mortgage later | No registration, hence no registration duty | Nothing is published today. The bank will have to register when the time comes, without the ranking it would have had. |
Table by Petrini Exclusive Real Estate Monaco. The costs shown are those of the security formality only. The choice of security rests with the lending bank and depends on each file.
The Lombard loan: security without a mortgage
A Lombard loan is a loan secured by the pledge of a financial portfolio, not by a mortgage over the property purchased.
The mechanism is simply summarised. You hold shares, bonds or funds, and you do not wish to sell them to buy your apartment. You pledge them to the bank, which in return lends you a percentage of their value. You remain the owner of these assets and continue to receive the dividends and coupons they produce. On the other hand, you can no longer dispose of them freely while the loan runs.
The percentage lent depends on the nature of the assets deposited. A good-quality bond portfolio allows a higher level of financing than a volatile line of equities, because the bank calibrates its advance on the risk of the collateral falling in value. The same logic explains the main trade-off of the arrangement: if the value of the portfolio declines, the institution may require additional collateral or a partial repayment in order to restore the agreed ratio between the debt and the security. This is what is known as a margin call.
The Lombard loan therefore shifts the risk from the property to the financial markets. It is not “cheaper” in absolute terms, since it carries its own interest and its own requirements. What is certain and documented is the only point that concerns us here: without a registered mortgage, the 0.92% formality does not apply. The comparison stops where advice begins, and that boundary deserves to be drawn clearly.
What we say, and what we do not say
Our role stops at market information. We do not advise on financing structures and we express no view on the merits of any particular banking product: that is neither our profession nor our licence.
What we know and what we tell our clients comes down to three points. A security cost exists. It varies greatly according to the security chosen, in a ratio that can run from one to several thousand. And the choice of that security belongs to the lending bank, according to the profile of the file, never to the buyer alone. The question therefore deserves to be asked early, of those with the authority to answer it. One still needs to know which question to ask.
How to anticipate the real cost of your financing
Three questions asked before signing the loan offer are enough to avert the unpleasant surprise.
- What exact amount will appear on the registration form, ancillary sums included?
- What is the total cost of the formality, with the duty and the notarial fee itemised separately?
- Does the term of the loan require a renewal of the registration, and when?
Those three answers, obtained in writing, turn a vague item into a precise budget line. They then combine with the other property purchase costs in Monaco to give the complete cost of the acquisition, the one to compare with the asking price of the property.
This is where the quality of the support is measured. Our agency has followed the Monaco market building by building for more than forty years, with the memory of transactions and residences that such continuity allows. That knowledge does not serve only to place a price: it allows a file to be put in order, points of friction with the bank and the notary to be anticipated, and a buyer to be told what nobody told them before the hour when they can no longer withdraw. On a purchase of several million euros, the value of advice is judged by what it avoids, not by what it promises.
A buyer contemplating today a penthouse for sale in Monaco financed by half must read their financing plan with one more line. It is not the highest on the statement. It is simply the one discovered latest, and that is what makes it expensive.
FAQMortgage fees Monaco
Frequently asked questions on mortgage fees in Monaco
- How much does a mortgage cost in Monaco?
Registering a mortgage in Monaco costs roughly 0.92% of the amount secured. That rate combines a duty of 0.65% on the mortgage formality and a notarial fee of 0.27% for drawing up the registration form (bordereau). On a €10 million registration, the cost therefore comes to roughly €92,000. - Are mortgage fees calculated on the property price or on the amount borrowed?
Neither exactly one nor the other: they are calculated on the amount of the mortgage charge, that is, the sum actually entered on the registration form. That amount often corresponds to the capital borrowed, but it can exceed it when the bank has ancillary sums covering interest and costs secured as well. The purchase price of the property never enters into the calculation. - How much does the release of a mortgage cost in Monaco?
It all depends on the nature of the operation, and the gap is considerable. A final or partial release that reduces the debt gives rise to a notarial fee of 0.50% and a duty of 0.50%, roughly 1% of the sum released, close to €100,000 on a €10 million security. An operation that merely reduces the collateral is charged a notarial fee of €1 and a fixed duty of €10. The precise characterisation of the operation rests with the notary and the bank. - Do you have to pay for the mortgage again during the life of the loan?
Yes, if the loan runs beyond ten years. A registration preserves the mortgage for ten years and must be renewed before that term to preserve the security and its ranking. The renewal form gives rise to the same notarial fee of 0.27%, and the formality to a charge, on the outstanding amount. A long interest-only loan can thus generate a second substantial cost. - Can a mortgage be avoided when buying in Monaco?
The choice of security rests with the lending bank, not with the buyer. Other forms of security exist and do not carry the same formality tariff: Law No. 580 of 29 July 1953 sets the duty on registrations of pledges at 0.01% and the registration of a deed pledging securities at €50, against 0.65% on mortgage registrations. That is the case of the Lombard loan, secured by the pledge of a financial portfolio: without a registered mortgage, the 0.92% formality does not apply. Petrini Exclusive Real Estate Monaco recommends putting this question to your banker and your notary before the loan offer is issued.
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