This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice. Rules change and individual situations differ. Always confirm the current position with a qualified professional before acting.
The rumour we wrote about in early August is now the law of the land. An arrêté (ministerial order) dated 19 August 2026 appeared in the Journal officiel on Wednesday 26 August. It cuts the number at the heart of every French energy rating from 1.9 to 1.7. From 1 January 2027, every diagnostic de performance énergétique (energy performance rating) and every energy audit will convert electric consumption into primary energy at the new, kinder rate. If your French home is heated electrically, its label is about to improve without a single workman crossing the threshold.
A number that moves 300,000 labels
The impact study sent to the Conseil supérieur de l’énergie in early August, and reported by Le Monde, puts figures on what a two-decimal tweak does across a housing stock. Lowering the coefficient mechanically improves the DPE grade of a significant share of dwellings. About 14% of the passoires énergétiques (energy sieves, the F and G rated homes) will leave the private rental stock, roughly 125,000 dwellings.
And this is the second such wave. The previous cut, from 2.3 to 1.9, took effect this past January and had already lifted about 275,000 dwellings in the private rental stock out of passoire status, according to the same study. Add the waves together and France will have erased over half a million passoires in two years, almost entirely with a pen.
| In force | Coefficient | Effect on passoires | Text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 2026 | 2.3 | The old regime | Original DPE method |
| 1 January 2026 | 1.9 | About 275,000 rentals out of F and G | Arrêté of 13 August 2025 |
| 1 January 2027 | 1.7 | About 300,000 main residences out of F and G | Arrêté of 19 August 2026, JO of 26 August |
Why electricity is winning the argument
The coefficient exists because the DPE measures primary energy, the fuel burned somewhere upstream, rather than what your meter records. Electricity has always paid a penalty on that conversion while natural gas enjoys a coefficient of 1, which is why a gas-heated flat could outscore an identical electric one. The government presents the change as part of its electrification plan for the building stock. The electrical industry federation Fieec welcomed a correction to what it called the unequal treatment of electricity, the only energy penalised by such a coefficient. Its lobbying does not stop there, since the federation now argues for full equivalence with gas on taxation too.
Gas owners should read the direction of travel rather than the decimals. Nothing in the arrêté worsens a gas-heated home’s rating, but each cut to the electricity coefficient shrinks the advantage gas has enjoyed since the DPE was born, and the politics behind the arithmetic are not subtle.
What to do between now and January
The practical playbook has not changed since August, and it starts with patience. If your electric-heated home sits in F or G today, think twice before commissioning renovation works whose only purpose is to escape a label the new arithmetic may erase for you in January. If you are selling or reletting an electric-heated property, the calendar now matters as much as the insulation. And if you are buying, ask whether the E you are being shown is an E of masonry or an E of mathematics. We walk through all of it, the worked examples, the letting-ban interactions and the copropriété wrinkles, in our full guide to the 1.7 coefficient, now updated for the confirmed text. The wider rules live in our explainers on the DPE letting regime and the softened letting ban.
The decision rule
Electric heating and a label you dislike: wait for January before spending on works, then re-run the DPE. Gas heating: your rating is safe for now, but plan renovations on the assumption that the arithmetic will keep drifting against you. Either way, a DPE dated 2027 will read better on an electric home than the same DPE dated December, and notaires, banks and tenants will all be reading the date.
