On 23 April 2026 in Marseille, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Housing Minister Vincent Jeanbrun presented the outline of a "Relance logement" (Housing Recovery) bill. Its most discussed measure directly targets landlords of thermal sieves (passoires thermiques — energy-inefficient dwellings): a property rated F or G under the DPE (Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique — the French Energy Performance Certificate) could be put back on the rental market, provided the owner signs a works contract with a building company, with the energy improvement works to be completed within three years for a single-family house and five years for an apartment in a condominium. The Government's stated objective: keeping or returning 650,000 to 700,000 dwellings to the rental market by 2028.
If you own a G-rated property withdrawn from the market since 1 January 2025, or an F-rated one threatened by the 1 January 2028 deadline, this announcement may change your rental strategy. Conditionally only: the text has been neither tabled nor voted, and the ban schedule of article L.173-1-1 of the French Construction and Housing Code (CCH) remains fully applicable.
650,000 to 700,000 dwellings kept on or returned to the rental market by 2028 — the figure put forward by the French Government on 23 April 2026 in Marseille, when presenting the Relance logement housing bill.
⚠️ Status as of 12 June 2026: the Relance logement bill has not been voted. Its presentation to the Council of Ministers is scheduled for 24 June 2026, its tabling in the Senate is expected to follow immediately, and the Government hopes for a vote before the end of 2026. Until the law is enacted, the current rules apply in full: a G-rated dwelling cannot be put or returned on the rental market (CCH art. L.173-1-1).
What this article covers
The content of the 23 April 2026 announcement and its parliamentary timetable, the mechanism for re-letting under a works commitment (three years for a house, five years in a condominium), the five pillars of the bill including the broadened private landlord status known as the "Jeanbrun" scheme, three possible strategies for the landlord of a G-rated two-bedroom apartment, the questions the text leaves open, and the four mistakes to avoid as long as the law is not voted.
The rental ban on F and G-rated homes: what applies today
The Climate & Resilience Act of 22 August 2021 (law no. 2021-1104) wrote into article L.173-1-1 of the French Construction and Housing Code (CCH) a progressive schedule banning the rental of energy-inefficient dwellings, determined by the dwelling's DPE class. That schedule entered its active phase on 1 January 2025 and, based on the Government's announcements, the Relance logement bill does not change it.
| Deadline | Class banned from rental | Status as of 12 June 2026 | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January 2025 | G | In force — rental banned | CCH art. L.173-1-1 |
| 1 January 2028 | F | Maintained by the bill | CCH art. L.173-1-1 |
| 1 January 2034 | E | Maintained by the bill | CCH art. L.173-1-1 |
This point shapes the entire reading of the text: the bill neither repeals nor postpones any of these three deadlines — it would add a conditional derogation route. The 2034 deadline for E-rated dwellings raises its own scope questions, covered in our analysis of the 2034 rental ban on E-rated dwellings and its exceptions.
One last piece of context: since 1 January 2026, the primary-energy conversion coefficient for electricity (the factor applied to electricity consumption in the DPE calculation) has dropped from 2.3 to 1.9 (decree of 26 August 2025), taking around 850,000 electrically heated dwellings out of classes F and G with no works at all. Before reasoning about the bill, first check whether your property is still, legally speaking, a thermal sieve.
Where does the text stand in Parliament?
The announced timetable is tight: presentation to the Council of Ministers on 24 June 2026, tabling in the Senate immediately afterwards, vote hoped for before the end of 2026. Three caveats apply. First, a bill can be amended at every stage of the parliamentary shuttle: the mechanism described in this article is the one announced on 23 April 2026, not that of a final text. Second, even if voted before the end of 2026, the scheme's actual entry into force would depend on implementing decrees — the exact content of the works contract is expressly referred to them. Third, nothing has been specified at this stage for leases already in progress.
Re-letting under a works commitment: the announced mechanism
The core of the scheme fits in one sentence: an owner whose dwelling is rated F or G could put it or return it on the rental market, provided they sign a works contract with a building company covering energy improvement works to be completed within a set period. Renting would become possible again not because the dwelling had left classes F or G, but because the landlord had contractually committed to getting it out of them.
Three years for a house, five years in a condominium
The works completion period would be three years for a single-family house and five years for an apartment in a condominium. The gap reflects the specific mechanics of condominiums: the works with the biggest impact on an apartment's rating — external wall insulation, replacement of a collective heating system, roof renovation — fall under the common areas and require a vote at the general meeting of co-owners, sometimes spread over several budget years. The owner of a single-family house controls their works schedule alone; a co-owner does not.
The exact starting point of the period — signature of the contract, actual re-letting, entry into force of the law — has not been specified: it is one of the parameters the text or its decrees will have to set, and it materially changes the landlord's calculation.
The five pillars of the Relance logement bill
Re-letting F and G-rated homes is only one part of a broader text. The 23 April 2026 announcements structure the bill around five pillars.
| Pillar | Announced content |
|---|---|
| 1. ANRU 3 | New national urban renewal programme covering 2030-2040 (ANRU — French national urban renewal agency) |
| 2. Re-letting F and G-rated homes | Rental allowed under a commitment to energy improvement works: three years for a single-family house, five years in a condominium |
| 3. Broadened private landlord status | "Jeanbrun" scheme: tax advantage through depreciation with a nine-year letting commitment, extended to existing housing stock (detail below) |
| 4. Simplified construction | "Local-interest operations" inspired by the derogatory procedures of the 2024 Olympic Games |
| 5. Decentralisation | Transfer of housing subsidies and of MaPrimeRénov' (the French national energy renovation grant) to local authorities |
For landlords counting on subsidies to finance their works commitment, the fifth pillar is not trivial: a MaPrimeRénov' managed by local authorities could see its award conditions vary from one territory to another.
The broadened "Jeanbrun" scheme: depreciating an older property with works
The third pillar is of direct interest to investors. The private landlord status — known as the "Jeanbrun" scheme, after the Housing Minister — rests on a tax advantage through depreciation: each year, the landlord deducts a fraction of the property's price from their taxable rental income, in exchange for a nine-year letting commitment. The bill would provide for three extensions:
- extension to single-family houses in the existing stock, opening the scheme to the segment where thermal sieves are concentrated;
- a works threshold lowered from 30% to 20% of the purchase price to qualify for the tax advantage;
- replacement of the requirement to reach class A or B after works with a two-letter DPE gain — for example moving from F to D.
This last point changes the economics of renovating older buildings: reaching class A or B there is often out of technical or financial reach, whereas a two-letter gain corresponds to a realistic works bundle on most thermal sieves. Combined with the threshold lowered to 20%, the broadened scheme would make buy-renovate-let operations eligible that are excluded today.
The questions the text leaves open
Three grey areas remain at this stage, and honesty requires naming them rather than filling them with assumptions:
- The exact content of the works contract. Which works would qualify, what performance would be targeted, whether the company would need a specific certification: everything is referred to the implementing decrees to come.
- The penalties if the commitment is not honoured. Nothing has been specified at this stage. Yet the penalty regime will determine how solid the scheme is, for the landlord as for the tenant.
- The fate of leases in progress. How a lease signed under the derogation regime would interact with the expiry of the works period has not been described.
Landlord of a G-rated two-bedroom apartment: three strategies facing the bill
Let's take the most discussed case since the 23 April 2026 announcement: the landlord whose dwelling left the rental market on 1 January 2025.
Profile: you own a G-rated two-bedroom apartment in a condominium, vacant since the rental ban of 1 January 2025. You are hesitating between waiting for the law to be voted, starting works now, or selling. No market prices are quoted here: the amounts depend entirely on your city, your condominium and the works bundle chosen — the exercise is about comparing decision logics, not figures.
Scenario A — Wait for the law to be voted
You collect no rent throughout the parliamentary shuttle, with no guarantee on the entry-into-force date or on the scheme's final content: the mechanism may be amended, tightened or dropped along the way. Even if voted before the end of 2026, the scheme would remain suspended on its implementing decrees. Waiting is only rational if the rental vacancy is financially bearable — and if you have first checked that your property really is still rated G (see scenario C). If the vacancy is not bearable, selling remains the alternative; on that market, the most structured buyers are property dealers (marchands de biens — French BIC tax status), whose approach we detailed in the property dealers' renovation strategy on thermal sieves in 2026 — knowing their playbook helps you negotiate.
Scenario B — Start the works without waiting
You have the energy improvement works carried out now, to exit classes F and G and re-let without depending on the vote of the law or its decrees. This is the most legally robust strategy: it works in every parliamentary scenario, and it spares you the uncertainty over the penalties for an unfulfilled commitment. Its cost depends on the scale of the bundle (insulation, heating, ventilation, joinery) and on the subsidies available in your situation; in a condominium, the items falling under common areas add the delay of general meeting votes. Before signing any quote, cost the bundle and the 2026 subsidies with the Mon Simulateur Immobilier renovation works and subsidies simulator.
Scenario C — Check your 2026 rating first
This is the step many landlords skip. If your DPE was issued before 1 January 2026 and the dwelling is electrically heated, its rating may have changed without any works: the drop of the electricity coefficient from 2.3 to 1.9 (decree of 26 August 2025) took around 850,000 dwellings out of classes F and G. ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency) issues a free certificate of the new rating on its DPE-Audit Observatory — the step-by-step procedure is detailed in our guide to the free 2026 DPE rating update certificate from ADEME. If your apartment has become an E, the rental ban no longer concerns you before 1 January 2034: no works commitment, no waiting for the vote.
| Strategy | Rent resumes | Dependence on the bill | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| A — Wait for the vote | After enactment and decrees, at the earliest | Total | Text amended, delayed or not voted; prolonged vacancy |
| B — Immediate works | After the works | None | Cost of the bundle; general meeting delays in condominiums |
| C — 2026 certificate first | Immediately if the property leaves F and G | None | None (free procedure) — no effect if the property remains F or G |
Key takeaway: whatever the strategy, the first step is the same and free: establish your property's real 2026 DPE rating. Scenarios A and B can only be compared seriously once that check is done.
The four mistakes to avoid as long as the law is not voted
Mistake no. 1 — Treating the text as already applicable
The 23 April 2026 announcement was widely covered, sometimes as if it were a done deal. It is not: the bill will be presented to the Council of Ministers on 24 June 2026 and the vote is only hoped for before the end of 2026. If you put a G-rated dwelling back on the rental market today, you are in breach of article L.173-1-1 of the CCH — the existence of a bill creates no rights. And signing a "works commitment" with a company right now offers no protection either: the contract envisaged by the scheme has no legal existence yet.
Mistake no. 2 — Starting works without checking the 2026 rating
Around 850,000 dwellings left classes F and G on 1 January 2026 through the sole effect of the electricity coefficient lowered to 1.9 (decree of 26 August 2025). Committing to a works bundle — or postponing a letting — on the basis of a DPE calculated with the old 2.3 coefficient potentially means financing works to solve a problem that no longer exists. The free certificate from ADEME's DPE-Audit Observatory establishes the new rating without redoing the diagnostic: it is the check to run before any quote.
Mistake no. 3 — Confusing a maintained schedule with a derogation
The bill postpones no deadline: G banned since 1 January 2025, F on 1 January 2028, E on 1 January 2034 (CCH art. L.173-1-1). The announced scheme is a conditional derogation route — letting despite the rating, against a works commitment — not a shift of the schedule. Concretely, for an F-rated dwelling, the 1 January 2028 deadline will arrive whatever happens to the text; if the law is voted, the scheme would then offer a conditional door, not an exemption.
Mistake no. 4 — Ignoring the condominium constraint
The five-year period in condominiums is not a comfort: it acknowledges that the decisive works there go through general meeting votes you do not control alone. Before signing a works commitment on a condominium lot, check what falls within your private areas, what depends on a collective vote, and the status of works projects already voted or on the agenda — your individual commitment must not rest on a hypothetical collective decision.
⚠️ Warning: do not sign any works contract "under" the future scheme before the law is enacted and its implementing decrees published. The exact content of the required contract (eligible works, company qualification, target performance) is not defined at this stage, and there is no guarantee that a contract signed before entry into force would be recognised.
Check your 2026 DPE rating before any decision
Mon Simulateur Immobilier My DPE 2026 simulator
Simulate your 2026 DPE rating — 1.9 electricity coefficient included — from the data of your existing DPE, and check in a few minutes whether your property is still concerned by the rental ban before waiting for the law, signing a quote or committing to a works contract.
To go further: the renovation works and energy retrofit simulator costs your future works commitment, net of 2026 subsidies (MaPrimeRénov', CEE energy saving certificates).
Conclusion
The Relance logement bill sketches a way out for landlords of F and G-rated homes: re-letting against a works commitment of three years for a house and five years in a condominium, and a private landlord tax status broadened to the existing stock, with a works threshold lowered from 30% to 20% of the purchase price and a target of a two-letter DPE gain. But as of 12 June 2026, none of this is in force: presentation to the Council of Ministers on 24 June 2026, vote hoped for before the end of 2026, implementing decrees afterwards — and a ban schedule of G in 2025, F in 2028 and E in 2034 which, for its part, does not move.
The rational decision therefore does not depend on Parliament: it starts with establishing your property's real 2026 rating, then comparing waiting, works and sale on that basis. The Mon Simulateur Immobilier My DPE 2026 simulator calculates your rating with the 1.9 coefficient and tells you whether your dwelling is still concerned by the rental ban — before you commit a single euro.
