The annual service charge for an apartment in France rose 4% last year, according to a recently published survey.

Apartment owners in France are liable for the service charge that is applied to cover the costs of management, maintenance and improvement of the building.

These charges are set by the apartment owners themselves through a general meeting, on the advice on the managing agents - the syndic.

The level of the charges will depend on numerous factors - the location of the property, the services provided in the property, the size of your apartment and the maintenance and improvement requirements of the building.

Last year, according to 'OSCAR' (l'Observatoire national des charges de copropriété de l'ARC), the average service charge for an apartment in a block having the full range of services was €46.77/m2, an increase of 4% over 2015.

However, there are significant differences by geographic area, with the average outside of Paris at €36.40m2. Annual costs in the capital city Paris, ranged from €45.91m2 at the bottom end to €56.45m2 at the top end. The average charge in the Ile-de-France was €48.80/m2, whilst it averaged €34.10/m2 in Occitanie and €33.60/m2 in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in both cases due to lower heating costs.

Using the national average figure of €46.77m2, the distribution of costs between the different charges shows that the largest single item is the heating system (€13.47m2), followed by caretaking/cleaning staff (€9.28m2), general maintenance (€7.76m2), management costs (€5.62m2), cold water (€4.47m2), lift maintenance (€2.77m2), insurance (€2.58m2), and parking (€0.72m2).

According to OSCAR, for an apartment measuring 60m2 it corresponds to an annual service charge of €2,806, with the breakdown as follows: