Real Estate

Brussels Picks a Side: the EU Law Coming for Europe’s Holiday Rentals

The EU is preparing an Affordable Housing Act that backs city crackdowns on short-term lets. France is already ahead, and the one reliable legal challenge is closing. What owners should do.

Signed and Published: France’s DPE Rewrite Will Erase 300,000 Passoires in January

The arrêté of 19 August 2026 is in the Journal officiel: the DPE electricity coefficient falls to 1.7 on 1 January 2027, and around 300,000 homes will shed passoire status without a single work being done.

The Foreign Owner’s Guide to the French Copropriété AGM (Assemblée Générale)

Convocation deadlines, proxies, postal votes, the four majorities and the procès-verbal: how the French copropriété AGM really works for foreign owners.

Taxe Foncière Discounts: Which Ones Can You Actually Claim?

France offers six taxe foncière reliefs, from a €100 automatic discount to a cap that stops the bill exceeding half your income. Which ones a non-resident owner can actually claim, with the 2026 thresholds and deadlines.

Is It Worth Contesting Your Taxe Foncière? A Decision Guide for Foreign Owners

Your taxe foncière keeps climbing, but the rate is not the part you can fight. How to check the cadastral base behind your bill for free, the five grounds that actually win, the deadlines, and when a réclamation is genuinely worth your time.

You Cannot Serve Notice to Repair a Flat You Knew Was Indecent: France’s Top Court, 4 June 2026

France's top court just closed a landlord trap: if you knew a flat was substandard when you let it, you cannot serve notice to evict the tenant and do the upgrade works. Civ. 3e, 4 June 2026, n 24-16.993.

Forced Works Forever, Damages Capped at Three Years: France’s Top Court on Indecent Rentals

France's top court confirms the double exposure on indecent rentals: tenants can force the works for as long as the breach lasts, while damages reach back exactly three years. What every foreign landlord should take from Civ. 3e, 4 June 2026.

Leave a French Property to Rot and the Town Can Take It: the Constitutional Court Just Confirmed It

Own a French property and let it stand empty and crumbling? A commune can expropriate it on a fast-track procedure - and on 22 May 2026 the Conseil constitutionnel confirmed that procedure is constitutional.

Spotting a Fake French Tax Notice: How to Verify a Tenant’s Income Proof (2026)

Fake tax notices are a common rental-application scam. France gives landlords two free, official ways to check a tenant's avis d'imposition is genuine - the 2D-Doc barcode and the SVAIR online tool.

Renting Your Own French Home Short-Term: The Rules for a Primary Residence in 2026

Letting your own French home for a few weeks a year is legal, but tightly framed. Here are the 2026 rules: the 120-day cap, the new nationwide registration, and the tax that follows.

A Small Debt, a Whole Home: France Tightens the Rules on Disproportionate Property Seizure (Cour de cassation, 21 May 2026)

Can a creditor force-sell your French home over a debt that is small next to its value? On 21 May 2026 the Cour de cassation reset how judges must answer - and it cuts both ways.