As is common practice, apartment owners in France pay a service charge to cover the costs of management and maintenance, as well as improvements to the building.

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

The level of the charge depends on numerous factors - the number of apartments in the block, the location of the property, the services provided, the size of each apartment and the maintenance and improvement requirements of the building.

The official government Registre national des copropriétés has recently published figures for average service charges by size of apartment block and by department, as shown on the table below.

Although the figures are the most authoritative available, they do not take into account the different levels of services offered, eg, lift, caretaker.

The average annual figures range from €485 in the Gers to €2,395 in Paris.