Real Estate

The Commission Départementale de Conciliation, Explained

A tenant or landlord can bring the other before a free, State-run conciliation body long before any court is involved. What it can examine, whether its findings bind anyone, and why not turning up is the worst move available.

No Attestation, No Lease: the One-Month Insurance Rule That Can End a French Tenancy

A Montpellier court has evicted a tenant not for unpaid rent but for failing to hand over an insurance certificate. Why the judge had no discretion, the one-month clock behind the ruling, and the two levers every French landlord should understand.

How the French Taxman Decides Your Flat Is Empty: the TVLH Evidence Rules

From January 2027 France's new vacancy tax will decide whether your home is empty on the strength of a database, your own declaration and, sometimes, a neighbour's tip-off. What fiscally vacant means, how occupation is proven, and the two defences that actually work.

France Is About to Upgrade Your DPE by Decree: the 1.7 Coefficient Explained

A draft arrêté would cut the DPE electricity coefficient from 1.9 to 1.7 on 1 January 2027, lifting hundreds of thousands of electrically heated homes out of passoire status with no works and a free updated label. What it changes for foreign owners, and why it is not signed yet.

Six Weeks, Not Two Months: France Rewrites the Unpaid-Rent Clause in Every New Lease

From 1 October 2026 every new French lease gives a non-paying tenant six weeks, not two months, to clear the debt after a commandement de payer. What the new contrat type changes, which clock governs your existing lease, and the procedure that actually gets a property back.

UK House Prices Revisited: The Crash That Never Quite Arrived

Three years after our January 2023 piece asked if there was any end in sight to the UK house-price slide, here is what actually happened: a shallow floor, three years of sideways nominal prices, and a real-terms repricing via inflation.

London Housing Revisited: The Real-Terms Correction That Quietly Arrived

In 2018 we predicted London house prices would keep falling. Seven years on, here is what actually happened to the capital - and what non-dom reforms mean for 2026 buyers.

UK Buy-to-Let Revisited: The Slow Professionalisation of a Squeezed Market

In 2018 we argued the Government had murdered UK buy-to-let. Seven years on, here is how Section 24, the Renters' Rights Act, and the 5% SDLT surcharge actually reshaped the market.