Number of real estate agencies in France: 33,900 in 2026

Number of real estate agencies: the answer depending on your question#

The right answer depends on the question. To know how many storefronts to visit or call, the benchmark is 33,900. To know who decides, separate the 24,323 independent agencies, which choose on their own, from the 112 brand networks, where the head office carries weight. For an offer aimed at agents without a storefront, the market consists of roughly 86,800 authorized independent agents (89,095 certificates).

For a sales rep: who, how many, where.

• Who decides: the person who runs the agency, at about 7 agencies in 10 that belong to no brand network. For a network supplier approval agreement, the top 10 networks cover 6,353 locations.
• How many: 33,900 agencies in operation, of which 22,519 have at least one employee.
• Where: Île-de-France (7,029) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (4,437) together hold 1 agency in 3.

Why the number of real estate agencies varies by source#

Today, none of the public statistics we consulted (Urssaf, Insee, the CCI file) gives a total of real estate agencies in France across all legal statuses. Insee is France's national statistics office.

The professional license file kept by the chambers of commerce and industry (CCI) comes close. As of November 2, 2026, 41,424 companies hold a valid "transaction" license in it, the one France's Hoguet Act requires to sell or rent someone else's property. They also declare 16,094 secondary locations, including at least 4,400 bank branches. A license does not say whether the company has an agency open to the public.

As of November 2, 2026, Scalon estimates that about 33,900 real estate agencies are in operation in France. This total combines two counts:

• about 27,300 places listed as a real estate agency in public business listings that have an active SIRET number (the French ID of a business location) or a review less than a year old, after removing those that are not agencies (independent agents without an office, concierge services, social landlords, developers);
• about 6,600 agencies listed on a property listing portal or a business directory at the end of October 2026, with no agency listing found in public business listings.

Our sources cover France's overseas territories poorly: this total mostly reflects mainland France.

The Sirene registry lists far more: 165,608 locations open under code 68.31Z as of November 2, 2026. Sole proprietors account for 101,233 of them, and only 2 in 100 of those are linked to a public agency listing.

In practice: for anyone selling to real estate agencies, a file built from the activity code alone holds nearly 5 rows for 1 agency in operation.

From the registry down to a sales rep's target, the counts narrow. They come from different sources and do not nest exactly: each row says what mainly separates it from the next.

These counts answer different questions. Three reasons keep them from being compared line by line, or matched to the 30,000 agencies (25,000 to 32,000 depending on the page) that industry sites put forward with no published method.

First, the date. The same Urssaf series goes from 25,644 agencies in 2021 to 22,519 four years later. A figure without a year can't be compared with anything.

Second, the scope. Urssaf counts only employers: a total across all statuses adds agencies with no employees. The chambers of commerce count licensed companies, not storefronts: among their secondary locations, at least 4,400 are bank branches. The Sirene registry counts mostly sole proprietors: 6 locations in 10 are sole proprietors, nearly all of them independent agents with no storefront.

Third, the unit. An agency is not an agent. Code 6831Z had 80,549 employees at the end of 2025, versus 94,715 in 2021. Not all of them are real estate agents, and the independent agents of the networks, who are self-employed, are not among them.

Two public sources give more recent totals. FNAIM, the industry’s trade association, reported 29,000 agencies in January 2026 without explaining its counting method. As of January 1, 2026, the CCI file held 43,886 professional licenses, according to the Journal de l'Agence.

Independent agents also blur agency counts. Among public business listings, about 4,800 classified as real estate agencies actually belong to independent agents, based on the listings we read. Among agency listings with no SIRET number, nearly 3 in 10 are independent agents.

How big is the real estate agency market in euros?#

According to Insee’s Esane survey, sales in the real estate agency industry (68.31Z) totaled €13.2 billion in 2021, the latest year for which figures have been published. FNAIM gives €24.5 billion for the whole industry, two thirds in transactions and one third in property management. The two figures do not cover the same scope.

These totals don't say what one account is worth. We therefore reviewed the published financial statements of the companies operating the agencies we identified as of November 9, 2026. Of the 2,163 agency operators reporting revenue for a fiscal year ending in 2024 or later, half reported more than €532,000. A quarter fall below €176,000 and a quarter exceed €1.49M. Half reported net income above €20,100.

Revenue depends mainly on how many agencies the company runs. A company with 1 agency makes €384,000 (1,766 companies), a company with 2 to 4 agencies €1.4M (313), a company with 5 agencies or more €7.9M (84). Each figure is the revenue of the middle company when the companies in that group are ranked by revenue.

Published revenue is concentrated: the top 10 companies account for 22.5% of the published total, the top 100 for 55.3%. In practice: to size an account, start from €384,000 for a single agency and €1.4M for a small local group; the budget of a network head office runs into the millions.

These figures come with a caveat: only companies that publish their accounts appear, and they are larger than average. We excluded 1,680 records showing zero revenue (confidential financial statements), 6,231 older fiscal years, 1,310 companies outside real estate (banks, La Poste…) and 19 independent-agent networks with no storefront agency.

What NAF code does a real estate agency use?#

The APE code, or NAF code, is the activity code assigned by Insee. Code 68.31Z covers "intermediation in the purchase, sale and rental of real estate on behalf of third parties." That is the definition in the NAF rev. 2 classification, on an Insee page updated on December 19, 2025.

The same code excludes transactions on one's own property, classified under 68.10Z. Buying and reselling property for your own account does not make you an agency.

The code is not enough to find every agency, either. Of the 25,133 locations publicly listed as agencies and linked to an active SIRET number, 21,337 are classified under 68.31Z, or 85%. The others are mainly under 68.32A, property management (1,621), or 46.19B, the code for commercial agents (801).

The market's vocabulary#

Level 1. The universe: 43,953 licensed companies#

The broadest level is the professional license file, which CCI France publishes as a free download. As of November 2, 2026, 43,953 companies hold a valid license in it. This universe counts companies, not agencies: a license does not say whether the company has a storefront.

In all, 41,424 companies are licensed for "transaction," 15,631 for "management" and 5,136 for "syndic." In practice: to sell rental management software, the market is the 15,631 "management" licenses, not the 33,900 agencies.

The file also counts the people authorized to work under these licenses: 89,095 valid certificates for commercial agents, meaning independent agents, covering 86,805 people, and 62,614 certificates for employees (61,007 people).

Level 2. The 33,900 agencies in operation#

Unless noted otherwise, the levels that follow are based on the 44,430 places identified by Scalon in the Sirene registry, public business listings and business directories. When a measure uses another base (companies that publish their accounts, places with a public listing), the sentence names it.

Not all of these places are agencies in operation. To estimate 33,900 agencies from the 44,430 locations, we reviewed a random sample from each group and applied the proportion confirmed as agencies.

That leaves 10,498 locations that are not counted as operating agencies: about 5,100 independent agents, 4,400 unclassified locations and 1,000 locations with other activities or unsuccessful assessments. In practice: independent agents are one place in nine, and they skew any file that does not set them aside.

To check this calculation, we randomly selected 100 locations, each reviewed twice independently by Scalon. The two readings give the same answer for 87 places out of 100. Result: 78 agencies, 12 independent agents, 6 other activities and 4 locations that could not be classified. Our estimate predicted 76 agencies out of 100; the sample of 100 locations gives an interval of 69 to 85, supporting the estimate without improving its precision: applied to the 44,430 locations, that interval would run from 30,600 to 37,800 agencies. The estimate’s margin of error, about 1,800 agencies in either direction, comes from the larger random sample of 330 locations described in the method.

Level 3. Specialties#

An agency doesn't only sell property. We reviewed the main category and listed activities on public business listings: 36,589 locations have a listing, and 35.6% advertise at least one specialty in addition to general real estate agency services. This base is the 36,589 identified places that have a public listing; the other 7,841 identified places have none. These listings still include independent agents and places that are not agencies: the shares are shares of listings, not of the 33,900 agencies.

The license file confirms the overlap among services: 1 in 3 holders of a "transaction" license also has a "management" or "syndic" license (13,830 out of 41,424). In practice: a software vendor for rental management or condominium management targets a share of agencies, not all of them. These shares are minimums: an agency that shows nothing may still offer the activity.

Level 4. Brands and independents: who decides#

For a supplier, the question is: how many buying decisions, and at what level? An agency affiliated with a brand network (franchise, cooperative, group) uses tools, contracts and rules negotiated by the network’s headquarters. An independent agency, outside any brand, chooses its suppliers on its own.

7 agencies in 10 are independent#

Of the 33,900 agencies in operation, about 24,300 (71.7%) belong to no brand: no franchise, no cooperative, no group, no brand of 10 agencies or more. The other 9,609 (28.3%) are agencies of brand networks. The check of 100 randomly selected locations gives a similar result: of the 78 agencies reviewed, 60 belong to no brand network (77%) and 18 belong to one.

In practice, at 7 agencies in 10, the person running the agency is the one to convince. For the other 3, the first meeting is often with the head office.

From the 44,430 places identified to the 33,900 agencies: locations affiliated with brand networks are operating agencies, and we count all of them as such; independent agents (about 5,100, nearly all under their own name) and places that cannot be classified are among the places with no brand. Hence 24,323 independent agencies out of 33,932.

Brand networks by type#

We classify each network using publicly available evidence: the network’s website, a press release or trade press coverage.

The "other brands" are mostly regional networks operating under their own names (Arthurimmo, Cabinet Bedin, Pozzo, AJP Immobilier, Blot Immobilier…), with no public page stating whether their agencies are franchised or company-owned. Immo de France, the property management brand of the Procivis network, is listed here because there is no evidence that its agencies belong to the group. The 10-agency threshold is Scalon's choice: at 5 agencies, the share of agencies outside any brand would be 66.5%; at 20, 74.4%.

Independents with several agencies#

Among independents, 2,519 companies run 2 to 9 agencies under their own name (7,178 places). They remain independent from a buyer's point of view, but a single contact makes decisions for several storefronts. We spot them by a shared company number (SIREN, the French company ID), a shared website or a shared email address domain: this is a sign of affiliation, not a brand.

Networks often remain local: among the 2,682 companies and networks with multiple locations, 4 in 5 operate within a single region (80.0%) and more than 6 in 10 within a single département, a French administrative area roughly comparable to a county (62.8%). The top 5 networks hold 4,356 places, the top 10 hold 6,353.

The ten largest networks#

The claimed numbers come from the networks' websites, at different dates; Nestenn's is the Arche group's. The ten together hold 6,353 agencies identified, or 18.7% of the 33,900 agencies in operation.

Agencies identified and agencies claimed do not count the same thing. We count the places whose public listing shows the network; a network agency whose name, website and email do not carry the brand is still counted on its own. Conversely, a network sometimes counts offices with no storefront.

Franchise, cooperative, group: who decides#

In a franchise or a cooperative, each agency is a separate company: Orpi has 920 companies for 1,347 agencies. You sell to individual agencies or work through the network’s headquarters to gain approval as a supplier.

In a group, a few companies run hundreds of agencies: Foncia has 64, Human Immobilier 14 and Square Habitat 44. Purchasing decisions are made at headquarters.

Stéphane Plaza Immobilier, Sixième Avenue, RE/MAX, Côté Particuliers, 123webimmo and Espaces Atypiques are also franchises, according to their public pages cited in the method. Arthurimmo calls itself a brand-licensing network: with no page naming franchisees, it stays among the "other brands."

The groups#

The Arche group brings together Century 21, Laforêt, Guy Hoquet, Nestenn and Citya: 2,757 agencies identified, run by 1,966 separate companies. The group announces 2,870.

A review of the company registry on November 9, 2026, shows other groupings. Lamy brings together 24 companies and 94 agencies identified; the brand has belonged to Bridgepoint since Nexity sold it in 2024. Foncia's transaction company and 3 other companies of the group have the same president: 526 agencies identified. Square Habitat Bretagne has 4 companies for 97 agencies. The registry does not identify a parent company for Citya or Human Immobilier.

Networks of independent agents#

The CCI file counts 89,095 valid commercial agent certificates. Six networks account for 36,806 of these certificates, or 41%: iad (15,845), SAFTI (7,413), BSK (5,147), Stellium (4,342), Efficity (2,047) and Capifrance (2,012).

The La Maison des Mandataires barometer counted 47,000 independent agents affiliated with networks at the end of 2025; of the sellers who used a professional in 2025, 28% worked with an independent agent. The barometer counts only the advisors of independent-agent networks; the CCI file also counts the commercial agents of agencies with storefronts, and one person may hold several certificates. These networks have no storefront: their agents are not among the 33,900 agencies. To reach them, go through the network's head office or the agent directly.

Level 5. Size of accounts#

The CCI file gives the size of "transaction" license holders: 37,349 of the 41,424 declare a single location (90.2%). A location is the head office or a secondary location.

49 holders declare 50 locations or more and together hold 6,779 locations. They are mostly banks (Caisses d'épargne, Banques populaires, Crédit agricole). Excluding banks, the companies reporting the most locations are Human Immobilier (605 locations), Foncia Transaction France (585) and Lamy (196). In practice: these banks form a separate segment, which does not buy like a neighborhood agency.

The company registry gives the size of agencies. Among those whose headcount is known, 48% have 1 or 2 employees, 30% have 3 to 5, and fewer than 1 in 10 have 10 or more. The legal forms are SARL, a French limited liability company (45%); SAS, a French simplified joint-stock company (40%); and sole proprietorships (14%). The typical age of agency leaders is 51, and 23% are 60 or older.

Level 6. Where are the agencies?#

Île-de-France has about 7,029 agencies, 20.7% of the total, ahead of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (4,437) and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (4,246). France has 4.9 agencies per 10,000 residents.

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is the densest region: 8.5 agencies per 10,000 residents, versus 3.2 in Hauts-de-France. Density climbs further at the département level (a French administrative area, roughly county-sized): 13.2 in Alpes-Maritimes and 12.0 in Paris, versus 2.2 to 2.4 in Haute-Saône, Haute-Marne, Sarthe, Indre and Aisne. In practice: in Paris or Alpes-Maritimes, a sales rep finds five to six times more agencies per resident than in Indre or Aisne.

The départements with the most agencies are Paris (2,534), Alpes-Maritimes (1,491), Bouches-du-Rhône (1,325), Gironde (1,237) and Rhône (1,123).

Overseas territories are poorly covered by our sources: 114 agencies are estimated there, which probably understates the total.

Is the market changing?#

Urssaf's series gives the agencies with employees as of December 31 each year.

Between 2022 and 2025, the number of agencies with employees fell by 3,900, close to 15%. By the end of 2025, the total had fallen back below its 2019 level. The series does not say why. An agency may close, or simply no longer have any employees.

The Sirene registry, as of September 24, 2026, shows the decline continuing among companies. Here are the company locations opened and closed each year under code 68.31Z:

Closures have outnumbered openings since 2024. From October 2025 to September 2026, 4,981 company locations (all legal forms other than sole proprietorship) opened under code 68.31Z and 5,804 closed: 823 fewer in one year, after 968 fewer the year before. For sole proprietors under the same code, who almost never have a storefront, the net gain was 3,949 locations. In the registry, a move or a takeover under a new number also counts as a closure.

Among the locations linked to agencies, 17.1% are less than 3 years old. In practice: an agency file ages fast. Last year’s list already includes agencies that have closed, changed hands or changed names.

Real estate submarkets#

Depending on what you sell, the useful market is not the 33,900 agencies but one of these submarkets:

How do you use these figures for a market study?#

A market study of real estate agencies takes four steps.

1. The addressable market. Start from the 33,900 agencies in operation, not from the 165,608 locations under code 68.31Z. To count decision-makers, separate the 24,323 independent agencies from the 112 brand networks: 33,900 storefronts, but fewer purchasing decision-makers. The 33,900 already exclude independent agents: don't add them back through the activity code.
2. Segmentation. Split by type of structure (independent, franchise, cooperative, group), by specialty shown and by account size: €384,000 for a single agency, €1.4M for 2 to 4 agencies, €7.9M beyond.
3. Territory. Calculate agency density: 4.9 agencies per 10,000 residents on average, 13.2 in Alpes-Maritimes and 2.2 in Haute-Saône.
4. Market changes. In 2025, 5,765 company locations opened and 6,765 closed: the list ages (see "Is the market changing?").

How do you build a prospecting file of real estate agencies?#

Start from agencies, not from the activity code (see the callout). Start by screening the public CCI license file yourself: it lists each company’s authorized activities (transaction, management, syndic) and declared locations. Then set aside independent agents, who have no storefront, and add contact details.

Of the 44,430 places identified, 99% have a phone number, 70% a website and 47% an email address (39% outside free email services). The phone remains the surest channel.

Finally, handle networks separately. For a group (Foncia, Human Immobilier, Square Habitat), purchasing decisions are made at headquarters: one company gives you access to hundreds of agencies. For a franchise or cooperative (Century 21, Orpi, Laforêt), each agency makes its own decisions: you sell to individual agencies or work through the network’s headquarters to gain approval as a supplier.

Frequently asked questions#

How many real estate agencies are there in France?#

About 33,900 in operation in November 2026, according to Scalon (33,932 before rounding). Urssaf counts 22,519 with at least one employee at the end of 2025, and the CCI file 41,424 companies holding the "transaction" license.

How many agencies are independent?#

About 7 in 10, outside any brand: 24,323 of the 33,932 agencies in operation are not franchised, not cooperative members, and not in a group or a brand of 10 agencies or more. Of 78 randomly selected agencies reviewed twice, 60 belong to no brand network (77%). Among these independents, some companies run 2 to 9 agencies under their own name.

What is the largest real estate agency network?#

Orpi, a cooperative: 1,347 agencies identified, versus 1,250 claimed by the network. It is ahead of Century 21 (940) and Foncia (774). The Arche group brings together 2,757 agencies under five brands. Among networks of independent agents, iad has 15,845 valid certificates.

How much does a real estate agency make?#

Half of agency operators that publish financial statements report revenue above €532,000; among those operating a single agency, half report more than €384,000. Half make more than €20,100 in net income. These figures cover 2,163 companies that publish financial statements.

What is the NAF code of a real estate agency?#

68.31Z, "intermediation in the purchase, sale and rental of real estate on behalf of third parties." It is not enough to spot an agency: it also includes 101,233 sole proprietors, nearly all independent agents.

How many independent real estate agents are there in France?#

The CCI file counts 86,805 people holding a commercial agent certificate as of November 2, 2026 (89,095 certificates, 41% of them in six networks); the La Maison des Mandataires barometer counts 47,000 advisors in independent-agent networks alone at the end of 2025.

Method#

The total comes from Scalon's graph, which brings together for each location its records in the Sirene registry, in public business listings and in business directories. Data reviewed as of November 2, 2026: Sirene registry as of that date, public business listings collected from June to October 2026, dated reviews, business directory listings collected from October 26 to 29, 2026. Company financial statements, specialties and the regional breakdown were reviewed on November 9, 2026. Scope: agencies that sell or rent property on behalf of clients, rental management included; not independent agents without an office, not developers, not condominium managers who only manage condominium buildings.

Key takeaways#

France has about 33,900 real estate agencies in operation in November 2026, versus 22,519 with at least one employee at the end of 2025. To sell to agencies, the useful question is not "how many?" but "to whom?": about 7 agencies in 10 are independent, outside any brand, 2,757 belong to brands of the Arche group, and tens of thousands of independent agents work with no storefront. Half of agency operators that publish financial statements report revenue above €532,000.

Cite this study#

Sources#

• Stéphane Plaza Immobilier, devenir franchisé
• Sixième Avenue, devenir franchisé
• RE/MAX France, devenez franchisé
• Square Habitat, organisation de l'enseigne nationale (Crédit Agricole)
• Côté Particuliers, qui sommes-nous
• 123webimmo, qui sommes-nous (franchise)
• Espaces Atypiques veut passer de 87 à 120 agences, L'Express Franchise
• Nombre d'établissements employeurs et effectifs salariés du secteur privé, par commune x APE, Urssaf (données au 31 décembre 2025, jeu modifié le 29 mai 2026)
• Nombre d'établissements employeurs et effectifs salariés du secteur privé, France entière x APE, Urssaf (jeu modifié le 29 mai 2026)
• Nomenclature NAF rév. 2, sous-classe 68.31Z, Insee (page mise à jour le 19 décembre 2025)
• Chiffre d'affaires du code 6831Z en 2021, Esane, Insee (paru le 11 mars 2024)
• Conférence de presse, FNAIM, janvier 2026
• 5 chiffres clés sur les professionnels de l'immobilier en 2026, Journal de l'Agence, 17 mars 2026
• Transaction : les réseaux de mandataires gagnent encore des parts de marché, baromètre La Maison des Mandataires, immomatin
• Combien d'agences immobilières en France : panorama, enjeux et opportunités, Nicolas Immobilier, 25 avril 2026
• Fichier des professionnels de l'immobilier, CCI France ; public data download, read on November 2, 2026
• Loi n° 70-9 du 2 janvier 1970 (loi Hoguet), Légifrance
• Orpi, le réseau
• Century 21, à propos
• Laforêt, qui sommes-nous
• Foncia
• Human Immobilier, franchise
• Guy Hoquet, le groupe
• L'Adresse
• ERA Immobilier, franchise
• Groupe Arche, les entreprises
• Groupe Arche, les meilleures franchises en immobilier en 2026
• Lamy, qui sommes-nous ; Nexity, cession à Bridgepoint
• Sirene registry (Insee), public business listings and business directories: state of Scalon's graph on November 2, 2026.