Buying Property Abroad as a Same-Sex Couple: Ownership, Inheritance and Residency

Published on: July 24, 2026

Last verified: 24 July 2026. Relationship recognition, succession law and immigration rules change. Verify before acting.

Quick answer: Recognition of your relationship in the country where the property sits determines whether the surviving partner inherits automatically, what inheritance tax rate applies, whether a partner can be included on a residency visa, and which co-ownership structures are available. In France, spouses and PACS partners are fully exempt from inheritance tax while unmarried partners are taxed at a flat 60%. Where recognition is absent or uncertain, the main tools are a properly drafted local will, an election of your national succession law under EU Regulation 650/2012 where the property is in the EU, and an ownership structure that does not depend on inheritance law at all.

Buying property with a partner is a legal act as much as a financial one. It creates a co-ownership relationship, it creates an inheritance question, and if you are moving rather than holidaying, it creates an immigration question.

For same-sex couples buying outside their home country, all three of those turn on a single upstream fact: whether the country where the property sits recognises the relationship. That answer is not the same everywhere, it is not the same as the answer at home, and it changes five separate things at once.

This is a practical guide to what those five things are and what you can do about each. It is descriptive, not political: the object is to set out how the law currently works in the places people actually buy.

The five things recognition changes

1. How you can hold title

Common law systems, including England and Wales, Ireland, most US states, Canada outside Quebec, Australia and New Zealand, offer joint tenancy with right of survivorship. When one owner dies, their share passes automatically to the survivor outside the will and outside probate. It is the simplest protection available to any couple.

Most civil law systems do not have this device. In Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Greece, co-owners hold defined undivided shares, and on death that share goes into the deceased's estate and is distributed under succession law. There is no automatic survivorship. This is the single most important structural difference for couples buying in continental Europe, and it applies to opposite-sex unmarried couples too. It simply bites harder where the relationship is not recognised at all.

Some jurisdictions offer workarounds. France has the clause de tontine (an accroissement clause), which can produce a survivorship-like outcome, and the SCI, a family property company where partners hold shares rather than the building itself. Both have tax and practical consequences and need local advice, but they are the standard answers.

2. Who inherits

Several major destination countries apply forced heirship: a fixed share of the estate must pass to specified relatives, usually children, regardless of what the will says.

France is the clearest example. Children are protected heirs and receive at least half the estate where there is one child, two thirds where there are two, and three quarters where there are three or more. Only the remaining portion, the quotité disponible, can be left freely. Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece have their own versions. Under French law a surviving spouse is not automatically a protected heir, and an unmarried partner has no automatic inheritance rights at all unless named in a will.

The main tool for foreign owners in the EU is Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, known as Brussels IV, which applies to deaths on or after 17 August 2015. It lets you elect, in a will, that the succession law of your nationality governs your entire estate rather than the law of your habitual residence. A British, Irish or American national who elects their home law can, in principle, displace forced heirship over their EU property. The election must be expressly stated in a disposition of property upon death.

Three limits worth knowing:

• Brussels IV governs succession law, not tax. Electing English law over your French house does not make French inheritance tax go away.
• France passed a law in 2021 creating a compensatory mechanism allowing protected heirs to claim against assets in France where their reserved share has been reduced by the application of a foreign law without forced heirship. So the election is weaker in France than it was.
• Denmark and Ireland are not bound by the Regulation, and the UK never opted in, though UK nationals can still be the subject of an election as third-country nationals.

3. What inheritance tax you pay

This is where recognition produces the largest single number, and France is the example everyone should see:

• Spouses and PACS civil partners: fully exempt from French inheritance tax.
• Unmarried partners: taxed at a flat 60% on anything above an allowance of roughly €1,600, because they are treated as unrelated persons.

The PACS, France's civil partnership, has been open to same-sex couples since 1999 and gives full inheritance tax exemption. But it does not confer automatic inheritance rights. A PACS partner still inherits nothing unless there is a will. The combination people need is both: a PACS or marriage for the tax rate, and a will for the entitlement.

The same pattern, in varying degrees, appears across Europe. Spain's inheritance and gift tax is regionally administered and several regions give spouses and registered partners very large reductions that unrelated beneficiaries do not get. Italy applies a large allowance and a low rate between spouses and a higher rate with no allowance to unrelated beneficiaries. Portugal has no inheritance tax as such but charges stamp duty on transfers, with exemptions that follow relationship categories. In each case, whether you land in the favourable category depends on whether the state recognises your relationship.

4. Whether your partner gets a visa

If the purchase is part of a relocation, the property is usually the easy part and the visa is the hard part. Most residency routes, including retirement visas, income-based visas and residency-by-investment programmes, allow the main applicant to include family members. The definition of "family member" is set by the destination country.

Some programmes name a spouse only. Some extend to a registered or de facto partner on proof of cohabitation for a defined period. Some make no provision at all. Where the destination does not recognise same-sex marriage, a marriage certificate from home may not be accepted as evidence of a family relationship for immigration purposes.

Within the EU there is a significant protection. In Coman (Case C-673/16, 2018), the Court of Justice of the European Union held that where an EU citizen has lawfully married a same-sex spouse in a member state, other member states must recognise that marriage for the purpose of granting the spouse a right of residence under free movement rules, even if their own law does not permit same-sex marriage. The ruling is about residence rights, not about marriage recognition generally, and not about inheritance or tax. But for couples where at least one partner is an EU citizen, it is the most useful single case to know.

5. Day-to-day treatment

Legal recognition, legal safety and social treatment are three different things and they do not always move together. Some countries recognise foreign marriages for limited purposes but not domestically. Some have no recognition and no criminalisation. Some criminalise same-sex conduct.

The neutral, current sources are government travel advisories: the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office country pages, the US State Department's country information pages, and the equivalent Canadian and Australian services all carry specific LGBTQI+ traveller sections and are updated as circumstances change. Local LGBTQ+ organisations in the destination are the second source, and often the more granular one, because treatment frequently varies enormously between a capital city and a rural municipality within the same country.

At a glance: how the pieces fit together

Structural summary only. Every entry needs local confirmation.

A practical checklist

1. Establish the recognition position in the destination country before you make an offer, not after. It determines which of the following steps you need.
2. Make a will in the country where the property is, or a will that expressly covers it, drafted by a local lawyer. This is the highest-value hour of legal work in the entire process. Do not rely on a home-country will alone.
3. Where the property is in the EU, consider a Brussels IV election of your national law, and understand its limits, especially in France.
4. Match the structure to the risk. Where survivorship is available, use it. Where it is not, ask specifically about tontine clauses, property-holding companies and life insurance written to the survivor as a way of funding an inheritance tax bill that would otherwise force a sale.
5. Check the visa route's definition of family member in writing, from the immigration authority or a licensed immigration lawyer, before you buy anything on the assumption that both of you can stay.
6. Instruct your own lawyer. Not the seller's, not one recommended by the selling agency. This is standard advice for all cross-border buyers and it matters more here, because the questions you need answered are ones a seller's lawyer has no incentive to raise.
7. Keep certified, apostilled and translated copies of marriage, civil partnership or cohabitation certificates. Foreign authorities frequently require a legalised translation, and getting one from abroad after a death is far harder than getting one in advance.

Frequently asked questions

Will my marriage be recognised where I am buying?
It depends entirely on the country. Some jurisdictions perform and recognise same-sex marriage, others recognise civil unions, some recognise foreign marriages for limited purposes only, and some do not recognise the relationship at all. Check the specific destination and check what recognition covers, since a country can recognise a relationship for residence purposes but not for inheritance.

What is the single most useful thing I can do to protect my partner?
Make a will in the country where the property is, drafted by a local lawyer. In most civil law systems the surviving partner inherits nothing automatically, and a will is the difference between inheriting the home and being a legal stranger to it.

Does a French PACS protect my partner?
For inheritance tax, yes: PACS partners are fully exempt, whereas an unmarried partner is taxed at 60% above a very small allowance. For inheritance rights, no. A PACS partner does not inherit automatically. You need both the PACS and a will.

Can I use Brussels IV to avoid forced heirship?
You can elect the succession law of your nationality to govern your estate, which in principle displaces forced heirship over EU property. It governs succession law only, not inheritance tax, and France's 2021 law lets protected heirs claim compensation from French assets where a foreign law has reduced their reserved share.

Can my partner be included on my residency visa?
Sometimes. It depends on how the destination defines family member. Where at least one of you is an EU citizen moving within the EU, the Coman judgment requires member states to recognise a same-sex spouse for residence purposes even where their own law does not allow same-sex marriage. Outside that, get the answer in writing before you buy.

Is a country that recognises same-sex marriage automatically a safe place to live?
Not necessarily, and the reverse is also true. Legal recognition, legal safety and everyday treatment are separate questions, and treatment often differs sharply between a capital city and a rural area of the same country. Government travel advisories and local LGBTQ+ organisations are the current sources.

Keep reading on JanusHermes

The practical problem for couples in this situation is that the shortlist has to be filtered by law before it can be filtered by taste. JanusHermes covers more than 50 countries in one search, in 11 languages, with listings from local agencies, which makes it straightforward to build a shortlist across several candidate jurisdictions at once and then narrow it down after you have taken advice.

On the ownership mechanics, see joint ownership for unmarried couples and single women buying property abroad. On the succession side, read why you need a separate will for foreign property, inheritance laws on foreign-owned property and cross-border estate planning. On the visa side, check golden visa family inclusion rules, and before you commit, how to hire a real estate lawyer abroad and the foreign ownership restrictions table.

This article is general information as at July 2026 and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Relationship recognition, succession law, inheritance tax and immigration rules change, and outcomes turn on your nationalities, residence, family circumstances and the exact location of the property. Instruct an independent lawyer in the country where the property is situated, and where relocation is involved, a licensed immigration adviser, before making any commitment.

Primary sources: Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on jurisdiction and applicable law in matters of succession; Court of Justice of the European Union, Coman and Others, Case C-673/16 (5 June 2018); French Civil Code provisions on reserved shares and the PACS; UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and US State Department country information pages.