Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Tax and housing rules in France change frequently and depend on your personal situation. Always consult a qualified French notaire, avocat fiscaliste, or chartered accountant before acting on anything you read here. The English Investor accepts no liability for decisions taken on the basis of this article.
Update, 7 November 2026: this article describes the April 2026 announcement. The bill went to Parliament on 25 June 2026 and the Senate adopted it on 8 July. It’s now before the Assemblée nationale and isn’t law, and several details have changed in the texts, so check the current version before acting.
Less than a fortnight after we walked you through the 2026 DPE letting ban, the script has been rewritten. In April 2026, from a stage in Marseille, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced a draft housing bill that would soften the absolute ban on letting passoires énergétiques (energy sieves), giving landlords of F- and G-rated properties a way to keep their tenants — provided they sign a renovation contract within a fixed window. For British landlords with a buy-to-let in France, this is the most consequential housing announcement of the year so far. It has since been rewritten again, into the Relance Logement bill that would let F and G homes back if owners pledge to renovate. The government’s bill already limited the copropriété works-refusal shield to 18 months, and the Senate’s July 2026 first-reading vote kept that limit.
The headline: F and G properties get a stay of execution
Under current law, a home rated G on the Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique (DPE) can’t be let as a tenant’s main home under a new, renewed or tacitly renewed lease, a rule in force since 1 January 2025. Homes rated F join it on 1 January 2028. Roughly 453,000 G-rated rentals are already affected, and a further 693,000 F-rated homes will be caught from 2028, about 1.15 million homes in all. The official rules and timeline are spelled out on Service-Public.fr.
Lecornu’s projet de loi sur le logement (housing bill), which went to Parliament on 25 June 2026, would replace that absolute ban with a conditional one. As announced in April, a landlord of an F or G property would be allowed to re-let to a new tenant on the strict condition that they sign a renovation contract — and the work must lift the property out of the F/G band within a defined window. The texts have changed since: the Senate’s version requires the works to reach the band the law requires at the time.
Three years for houses, five for flats
In the April announcement, the window depended on what you own. Single-family houses get three years from the signing of the contract to complete the renovation. Apartments in copropriété, where works often have to clear an assemblée générale and coordinate with the syndic, get five years. It’s a pragmatic split: anyone who has tried to push a façade insulation vote through a Parisian copro will recognise why flats need the extra runway. The bill now before the Assemblée sets these periods differently, so check the current text. (For a flavour of how copropriété politics actually plays out in court, see our piece on the Conseil Constitutionnel’s ruling on copropriété Airbnb bans.)
If you’re sitting on a G-rated rental that has been sitting empty since January 2025, this is the announcement you’ve been waiting for. If you’re staring down the 2028 cliff for an F-rated flat in Lyon or Bordeaux, you’ve just been handed a planning horizon — and a contractual obligation. Map the renovation calendar against your French tax-year deadlines early, because the two will collide.
What else is in the bill
The DPE softening is the eye-catching headline, but the bill goes wider. Vincent Jeanbrun, the Minister of Cities and Housing, proposed extending the dispositif Jeanbrun — the new statut du bailleur privé tax break — to old single-family houses (it had previously been limited to new-build and renovated apartments). The announcement lowered the renovation-work threshold from 30% to 20% of acquisition cost, with at least DPE grade D after works, though the energy condition has changed in the texts since. The amortisation mechanic and rent caps look attractive on paper, but the interaction with IFI (the French wealth tax on real estate) is worth modelling before signing anything.
The bill also introduces opérations d’intérêt local — fast-track planning procedures inspired by the regime used to deliver the Paris 2024 Olympic infrastructure — and decentralises management of MaPrimeRénov’ and aides à la pierre down to the intercommunalités. Mayors would get more say over social-housing allocations in their commune. Renovation costs feed straight back into local taxation; if you haven’t yet read our explainer on how TEOM and REOM bills are calculated, the next twelve months are a good time.
The bigger picture: 2 million homes by 2030
The bill backs the government’s target of building 2 million homes by 2030. It would also launch a third national programme of renouvellement urbain (urban renewal), covering 2026 to 2040, to follow the current ANRU programmes.
The reaction was, predictably, mixed. Manuel Domergue of the Fondation pour le logement des défavorisés warned that softening the DPE ban risks slowing the renovation push that the original deadline was designed to force. Sébastien Miossec of Intercommunalités de France welcomed the decentralisation, calling it overdue. For the broader political backdrop — Barnier, Bayrou, the OAT spread, the snap dissolution and what it has and hasn’t done to French housing — see France’s political turmoil revisited.
What this means for you, the British landlord
If you own a French rental and your DPE is F or G, nothing has changed in law yet. If the bill passes in its announced form, three things would change. First, the cliff edge becomes a slope: provided you sign a renovation contract, you can keep letting. Second, the Jeanbrun extension could apply to your old maison de ville in Toulouse or Pézenas, opening a tax-break route that didn’t exist for second-hand single-family stock before. Third, the works deadlines would become real planning horizons — work them backwards into your devis, your artisan bookings, and (for copros) your AG calendar. If you’re not on the ground in France, our guide to managing French property remotely walks through the artisan/syndic side of the workflow in detail.
None of this is law yet. The bill went to Parliament on 25 June 2026, the Senate adopted it on 8 July and it’s now before the Assemblée nationale, and anyone who has watched a French housing bill go through the Sénat and Assemblée Nationale knows it can change shape several times before promulgation. The current DPE rules — including the G ban already in force — remain the law of the land until then. If you’re considering re-letting an F or G property on the strength of the April announcement, wait for the texte voté, not the press conference. The bill is not the only plan on the table either. Les Républicains’ housing platform calls the DPE letting ban the wrong tool altogether, which we cover in our breakdown of Libérer le logement.
If you’d like a refresher on the DPE rules as they stand, our DPE letting ban guide walks through the bands, the calendar, and the renovation maths. For investors weighing whether to keep, sell, or restructure, our pieces on the Paris vacant-property tax doubling in 2027 and IFI are good companion reads.
Frequently asked questions
Has the DPE letting ban been scrapped?
No. The current ban on letting G-rated properties (in force since 1 January 2025) and the upcoming 2028 ban on F-rated properties remain on the statute book. The Lecornu bill, if voted as announced, would replace the absolute ban with a conditional one tied to a signed renovation contract.
How long do I have to complete the renovation?
In the April announcement, three years from the signing of the renovation contract for single-family houses and five years for apartments held in copropriété. The bill now before the Assemblée sets the periods differently, and nothing applies until the law is passed and published.
When will the bill become law?
The bill went to Parliament on 25 June 2026 and the Senate adopted it on 8 July. It’s now before the Assemblée nationale. It isn’t law, and it can still change before it’s passed and published. Don’t act on the announcement alone.
Does the dispositif Jeanbrun now cover my old French house?
Not yet. Today the relief covers new flats in blocks and older flats bought with works worth at least 30% of the price. The April announcement proposed extending it to houses with a 20% works threshold. The texts have changed since, and the energy condition is still being debated.
What if my G-rated property has been empty since January 2025?
Once the law is passed and published, you may be able to re-let it to a new tenant under a renovation commitment, on terms still being debated in Parliament. Until then, the ban still applies.
