DPE 2026: The G-Rated Rental Ban in France — What It Means for Buyers and Investors

Updated 2026-06-20 · The French Property Playbook

Updated 20 June 2026; re-verified 2 July 2026 (bill status; new section on the 1 Jan 2026 DPE coefficient reform below). France has begun phasing its worst-performing homes out of the rental market on the basis of their energy rating. The first and most important threshold has already passed: a class G dwelling has been legally unlettable on any new or renewed lease since 1 January 2025. Class F follows in 2028 and class E in 2034.

For an overseas buyer, this is one of the most consequential rules in the French market — and one of the most widely misunderstood. The headline "ban" sounds absolute, but it is narrower and more specific than the panic suggests. It blocks letting, not the sale. It does not retroactively cancel a lease already running. And it turns the cheapest homes on the market — the so-called passoires thermiques, or "thermal sieves" — into both a genuine risk and a real negotiating lever.

This is a fast-moving area of French law, with a relaxation of the F/G timeline currently proposed but not enacted. Treat every date below as a moving target and verify the position before you commit. Below is the calendar, the nuances that actually matter, and a worked scenario for buying a passoire on purpose.

What the DPE energy rating actually is

The DPE (Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique) is France's mandatory energy-performance certificate. Every home that is sold or let must carry one, and it sorts the property onto a familiar A-to-G scale — A being the most efficient, G the worst. The rating reflects both energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions, and it is now legally binding rather than merely informative.

A few practical points:

• A DPE is valid for 10 years.
• It must be presented at marketing stage and annexed to the sale or lease documents.
• A 2024 recalculation of the method for small surfaces (under 40 m²), in force since 1 July 2024, reclassified roughly 140,000 units — so a studio that "was" a G may sit in a different class today. Always check the current certificate, not an old one.

The bottom two classes, F and G, are what the French call passoires thermiques. These are the homes the energy rules are designed to force out of the rental market — or into renovation.

Update — 1 January 2026: the electricity coefficient changed, and ~850,000 homes left F/G

(Added 2 July 2026.) Before you price renovation works — or walk away from a listing — check the date on the DPE. Since 1 January 2026 (arrêté du 13 août 2025), the primary-energy coefficient for electricity dropped from 2.3 to 1.9, which mechanically improves the rating of electrically heated homes. The result: roughly 850,000 dwellings — mostly electric-heated — exited classes F and G with no works at all. No rating gets worse under the new coefficient.

The practical angle for a buyer or landlord: your electric-heated F/G flat may have just left the ban zone — re-check before you act. A pre-2026 DPE remains legally valid, but if it was calculated under the old coefficient it may understate the property's class today; owners can obtain a free updated label via the ADEME observatory without commissioning a new audit. That cuts both ways in a negotiation — a seller's "G" may really be an F or E (weakening your renovation-discount lever), and a unit you assumed was unlettable may be compliant as it stands. (ecologie.gouv.fr; service-public A18446.)

The calendar: which classes become unlettable, and when

The rental bans come from the loi Climat & Résilience and are set by décret n° 2023-796 du 18 août 2023 (the décret that fixed the post-2025 décence thresholds — note this is not the older décret 2021-19, which governed an earlier consumption criterion). For mainland France (métropole), the phased calendar is:

Overseas France (DROM) runs on a different, later schedule: G from 2028, F from 2031.

The mechanism is precise and it is the single most important nuance in this whole topic: the ban bites on new leases and on renewal or tacit renewal — not retroactively on a lease already in place. A landlord who signed a tenant into a G-rated flat before 1 January 2025 is not forced to break that lease the day the rule lands. But the moment that lease ends, renews, or rolls over by tacit renewal, the property must comply — and a G can no longer be re-let until it is renovated out of class G. (Rent freezes on F and G properties were already in effect before the letting ban itself.)

The two nuances that change everything

1. It blocks letting — NOT the sale

This is the point most foreign buyers get wrong. The DPE rental ban does not stop you from buying or selling a G-rated home. A passoire thermique can be freely bought, sold, inherited, and owned. What it cannot legally be is let on a new or renewed lease until it is renovated out of the banned class.

So the worst-rated homes are not frozen assets — they trade every day. The energy rating affects price and future rental income, not the right to transact. For a buyer, that distinction is the whole opportunity: the market for these homes is liquid, but discounted.

2. It does not void leases already in progress

To restate it plainly, because it matters: a lease signed before the relevant ban date is not cancelled by the ban. The rule applies to new lettings and to renewals/tacit renewals going forward. An in-progress lease runs its course. This is what prevents the ban from triggering mass mid-tenancy evictions — and it is also why an investor inheriting a sitting tenant in a G-rated unit has breathing room, not an instant crisis.

The audit énergétique required when you sell the worst homes

Separate from the DPE itself, France requires a fuller audit énergétique réglementaire when you sell a single-owner house or whole building (monopropriété) in the lowest classes. The phase-in by class is:

• F and G: since 1 April 2023
• E: since 1 January 2025
• D: from 1 January 2034

The audit is valid for 5 years, must set out at least two renovation scenarios, and typically costs around €500 to €1,500. It is distinct from the DPE and is a sale-side document — note that even here, the requirement is to provide the audit, not to renovate before selling. (DROM has its own sale-audit start date of 1 July 2024, which does not track the DROM décence calendar.)

The investor angle: buying a passoire on purpose

Here is where the rule flips from threat to strategy. A G- or F-rated home is, by definition, the kind of property most other buyers are nervous about — which is exactly why it can be acquired below the price of an equivalent compliant unit. The trade-off is that you cannot let it on a new lease until you renovate it out of the banned class.

That renovation has a cost, and it is the number that should anchor your offer. Exiting class G typically runs €10,000 to €30,000 or more, depending on the unit's size, the works required (insulation, heating, ventilation, glazing), and the gap to the target class.

This cuts two ways:

• As a risk: if you misjudge the works, the property stays unlettable and produces no income while you carry it. Budget the renovation as a hard cost, not a hopeful estimate, and get the audit énergétique scenarios costed before you sign.
• As a negotiating lever: the ban is public, dated, and non-negotiable. That makes the renovation bill a legitimate, documentable basis for knocking money off the asking price. You are not haggling on taste — you are pricing in a legal constraint the seller cannot wish away.

France also offers tax mechanics aimed squarely at this kind of work. Under the déficit foncier rules, an enhanced cap of €21,400 per year applies to energy-renovation works that move a dwelling out of the E/F/G band into A/B/C/D, with the new DPE class to be justified by 31 December 2027 (a deadline extended by the loi de finances 2026). The interaction with your overall position is technical — model it before relying on it.

Worked scenario — the "buy-a-passoire" play

Numbers below are illustrative, to show the mechanics — not a forecast or a quote.

• Target: a G-rated 55 m² apartment in a tier-2 city, asking €150,000. A comparable C-rated unit in the same building trades around €175,000.
• The constraint: it is currently let to a tenant on a lease signed in 2024. That lease is valid and runs on — but it cannot be re-let on a new or renewed lease while the flat is class G.
• The lever: you obtain the seller's audit énergétique (mandatory on a G sale) and price the works. Exiting class G is costed at €22,000 — within the typical €10,000–€30,000+ range.
• The negotiation: you offer €140,000, anchored on the documented €22,000 renovation cost and the letting ban. The seller, aware the pool of investor buyers shrinks every year as 2028 approaches, has limited leverage.
• The exit from non-compliance: once the sitting lease ends, you complete the works, secure a new DPE at class D or better, and the flat becomes lettable again — now a compliant asset bought below the compliant-unit price.
• The total in: ~€140,000 purchase + ~€22,000 works = ~€162,000, against a compliant comparable near €175,000 — before acquisition costs, which on older stock are themselves substantial.

Crucially, those purchase costs are not trivial in France. The transfer duties and notaire fees on older property typically run several percent of the price, and the departmental share has been rising. Model the all-in number before you decide a discount is real — our Buying-Costs Calculator does exactly this, and the cost of buying property in France in 2026 hub and the breakdown of notaire fees and DMTO explain each line.

A relaxation is being discussed — but it is PROPOSED, not law

You will see French headlines suggesting the F/G ban is being softened. Read them carefully. As of 2 July 2026:

• The Sénat adopted the Gacquerre bill on 1 April 2025, but the Assemblée nationale never voted it.
• The projet de loi "relance et décentralisation du logement" (Jeanbrun/Lecornu) went to the Conseil des ministres on 24 June 2026 and is now before the Sénat (n° 801), with the séance publique scheduled for 7–8 July 2026. It would let F/G owners keep renting against a registered works commitment — 3 years for individual houses / 5 years for copropriété apartments, with a target of at least class D — and would also allow copropriété energy works to pass at a simple majority.

None of this is enacted — it is STILL A BILL, NOT LAW. The class G letting ban remains fully in force. Do not buy, price, or plan on the assumption that the F/G timeline will be relaxed — treat any relaxation as a possibility to monitor, not a fact to rely on. This is a moving target (the Sénat debates it within days of this update); verify the current text before you act. For a dedicated breakdown of the 7–8 July séance and what it would and would not change, see what the Senate votes on July 7–8.

FAQ

Can I still buy a G-rated property in France in 2026? Yes. The ban blocks letting, not buying or selling. A G-rated passoire thermique can be freely purchased — what you cannot do is let it on a new or renewed lease until you renovate it out of class G.

Does the ban cancel a lease I already have with a tenant? No. The rule applies to new leases and to renewals or tacit renewals. A lease signed before the ban date for that class runs its course; it is not retroactively voided. Compliance bites when the lease ends, renews, or rolls over.

What does it cost to get a home out of class G? Typically €10,000 to €30,000 or more, depending on size and the works needed. Get the audit énergétique renovation scenarios costed before you commit, and use that figure as your negotiating anchor.

Do I have to renovate before I sell a G-rated home? No. You must provide an audit énergétique when selling a single-owner house or whole building in class F or G (required since 1 April 2023; E since 1 January 2025). The audit is a disclosure document — it does not force you to do the works before selling.

Is the F/G ban definitely going to be relaxed? No. A relaxation is in a bill before the Sénat (séance publique 7–8 July 2026) but is not enacted as of 2 July 2026. The class G ban is in force now, F follows in 2028 and E in 2034 under current law. Verify the latest position before relying on any change.

My flat is electrically heated and rated F/G on an old DPE — is it really banned? Maybe not. The 1 January 2026 coefficient reform (electricity 2.3 → 1.9) moved ~850,000 mostly electric-heated homes out of F/G with no works. Get the free updated label via the ADEME observatory before treating the property as unlettable.

Run your real numbers before you bid

A discount on a passoire is only real once you've added the renovation bill and the substantial cost of buying older property in France. Model both before you make an offer with our free Buying-Costs Calculator — then read the full cost-of-buying guide, the notaire fees and DMTO breakdown, and, if you're filing from the US, buying property in France as an American in 2026.

This article is educational content, not legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. French energy regulations and the DPE rental-ban calendar are a moving target — figures and dates are stated as of 20 June 2026, re-verified 2 July 2026, and the proposed F/G relaxation (relance-logement bill, Sénat séance publique 7–8 July 2026) is not law. Verify the current rules and your specific position with a qualified French notaire, lawyer, or tax adviser before acting.