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.
French law does not split copropriété charges by days when a flat changes hands. The owner on the due date pays the whole call, the owner on the accounts-approval date takes the whole adjustment, and the works fund is never refunded. What each rule means for a foreign seller or buyer.
The Senate has rewritten the Relance Logement bill and the Assemblée nationale takes it up this autumn. All ten articles explained: the works-contract reprieve for F and G homes, summer comfort in copropriété votes, planning derogation zones, the loosened Jeanbrun, the island second-home surcharge, and what each one means for a foreign owner.
Décret 2026-712 lets landlords of loi de 1948 homes raise rents by 0.78 percent from 1 July 2026, up to a ceiling that can be a tenth of the market rent. What the regime is, how the increase differs from an IRL revision, how a landlord gets out, and what a buyer of a flat with a 1948 tenant is really buying.
The Loi de Finances 2026 has ended a long-standing French quirk: non-resident landlords previously qualified for LMP status because only French-source income was compared against rental receipts. From 1 January 2026, foreign income now counts — pushing many non-resident owners back to LMNP, with material CGT consequences.
The Cour de cassation has ruled that a student internship — even one embedded in a university curriculum — does not count as a 'professional obligation' for the purposes of the 120-day annual cap on tourism rentals of a French primary residence. We unpack what the 16 April 2026 ruling closes off, what it leaves intact, and how it interacts with the Loi Le Meur tightening.
A field guide to the IRS reporting stack — FBAR, Form 8938, Form 8865, Schedule E, Foreign Tax Credit — that US persons take on the moment they buy French property, with the SCI classification puzzle and the post-2019 CSG/CRDS creditability under LB&I-04-0819-007.
When a French tenant overstays after lease termination, refuses to pay, AND shuffles their assets to dodge enforcement, the landlord has a criminal-law tool most don't know about. The Cour de Cassation, on 9 April 2026, confirmed that the post-termination occupation indemnity is quasi-delictual — and therefore covered by the criminal offence of organising fraudulent insolvency under article 314-7 of the Code pénal. Punishable by up to 3 years' imprisonment and a €45,000 fine. What every French landlord — domestic or foreign — should know.
From 1 April 2025, French départements can raise their DMTO rate from 4.5% to 5% under article 116 of the Loi de finances 2025. By April 2026, ~83 of France's 100 départements have done so. For a typical British buyer of a resale flat in Paris or the Côte d'Azur, the practical effect is a notary-fee bill that's €2,500 to €5,000 higher than a year ago — and most British buyers can't claim the primo-accédant exemption that would let them avoid it.
France raised CSG on capital income by 1.4 points on 1 January 2026 — but bare rental and real-estate gains were specifically exempted, while LMNP got hit. And UK-resident landlords with the right A1 or S1 paperwork can pay just 7.5% on every euro of net rental income, an 11-point saving most British landlords have never been told about.