The English Investor

How a French off-plan purchase (VEFA) actually works for a foreign buyer: the 5% deposit, the 35/70/95 payment grid, the completion guarantee, delivery day and the thirteen-month clock, with the case law and the tax layer.

A couple let a care-home room on a commercial lease with a guaranteed 1.5 per cent annual rent increase. On 3 September 2026 the Cour de cassation held the clause deemed unwritten, reversing its 2022 position, and the operator can claim five years of increases back. What it means for every managed-residence investor and commercial landlord in France.

Your child has a place in Paris or Lyon and the agent wants your signature on an acte de cautionnement by Friday. What you are guaranteeing, what an agency may and may not ask a parent abroad for, the free State guarantee that can replace you, and the legal ceilings on deposit and fees, from the finance ministry's student guide and the texts behind it.

France has not touched the depreciation that makes furnished letting tax-free, but the Senate in June and the Assemblée in July have both put it on the table before the 2027 budget. What has already changed, what a cap would cost on a €300,000 flat, and what a foreign owner should do now.

A buyer whose registered letter from the SAFER could not be delivered is never out of time to challenge the pre-emption, the Cour de cassation ruled on 9 July 2026, whatever he knew from other sources. What that means for foreign buyers of French farmland, and how the SAFER's reach grew on 20 August.

Loi 2026-553 ties social housing to the job that justified it, hands public employers half the flats built on land they sell at a discount, and lets town halls override the local plan to build for nurses, police and transport staff. Nothing in it touches a private lease. Here is what it changes for the buildings around you.