France May Soften the DPE Rental Ban — What the Senate Votes On July 7–8 (and What Stays Law)

Updated 2026-07-03 · The French Property Playbook

On 7–8 July 2026, the French Senate (Sénat) debates a government bill that would let the worst-rated homes — the passoires thermiques in classes F and G — keep being rented, provided the owner signs up to a renovation timetable. If you own, or are about to buy, an energy-poor French property, you will see headlines this week saying the rental ban is being scrapped. It is not. What is happening is narrower, slower, and less certain than the headlines suggest — and one genuinely important change that has already taken effect is getting lost in the noise.

Here is what the Senate is actually voting on, what stays law regardless of the outcome, and what an overseas owner or buyer should do this week. As always on this site: dated, sourced, and marked clearly where the ground is still moving.

What the Senate is actually voting on

The text is the projet de loi visant la relance et la décentralisation du logement — Sénat text n° 801 (2025–2026), tabled by housing minister Vincent Jeanbrun on 25 June 2026 under the accelerated procedure (procédure accélérée), with the séance publique — the floor debate — set for 7 and 8 July 2026. On the energy-rating front, its headline measure would let an owner continue to let an F- or G-rated dwelling instead of being frozen out of the rental market, on condition of a registered commitment to renovate — within 3 years for an individual house and 5 years for a flat in a copropriété, targeting at least class D. Alongside it, the bill would let copropriétés approve energy-renovation works by simple majority, and would ease an investor-facing threshold in the new "statut du bailleur privé" (lowering a works test from 30% to 20% of the purchase price on older stock).

The government's stated aim is to return roughly 700,000 F/G homes to the rental market. Treat that figure as a political target attached to the bill, not a legal fact — it is the number ministers are using to sell the reform, reported across the French housing press (batiweb.com; selectra.info; franceinfo).

What stays law no matter what happens this week

This is the part the headlines bury. Nothing the Senate does on 7–8 July changes the law that is in force today. Under décret n° 2023-796 du 18 août 2023, applying the loi Climat & Résilience, the letting calendar for mainland France stands unchanged:

And the two nuances that always matter still hold. The ban blocks letting, not selling — a class G passoire can be bought, sold, and owned freely; it simply cannot be let on a new or renewed lease until it is renovated out of the banned class. And it does not void a lease already running — it bites on new lettings and on renewal or tacit renewal, not retroactively. If you want the full mechanics, our DPE rental-ban guide walks through them with a worked passoire purchase.

A bill is not a law — and this one has an unusually long road

It is worth being precise about why this remains a monitoring item, not a planning assumption. The bill was first tabled at the Assemblée nationale (as text n° 2981 on 24 June), then withdrawn by the Prime Minister on 25 June and re-tabled in the Senate — so its parliamentary journey is only just beginning, at the second chamber. The accelerated procedure limits each chamber to one reading, but the Senate still has to adopt it, and then the Assemblée nationale must vote it too before anything is enacted. With no stable majority, ministers themselves expect a clause-by-clause negotiation, with the deadlines and the renovation counterparties among the most likely things to be amended. The government's own timetable has already slipped from an earlier hope of final adoption by end-2026 toward a vote by both chambers only after the autumn session.

In plain terms: even in the most favourable scenario, an F/G relaxation would not be law for months, and it could emerge amended — or not at all. Do not buy, price, or plan on the assumption that the F/G timeline will be relaxed. The class G ban is in force now.

The change you might be missing — 850,000 homes already left F/G

Here is the reform that actually took effect, and that far fewer people are talking about. Since 1 January 2026 (arrêté du 13 août 2025), the primary-energy coefficient for electricity dropped from 2.3 to 1.9, mechanically improving 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, and no rating gets worse under the new coefficient.

Note the two numbers are not the same thing. The ~850,000 is an enacted reclassification that has already happened; the ~700,000 is the hoped-for effect of a bill that has not passed. If your F/G rating sits on a pre-2026 DPE, it may understate your property's class today. A pre-2026 DPE stays legally valid, but you can obtain a free updated label via the ADEME observatory without commissioning a new audit — worth doing before you treat a flat as unlettable, or accept a "G" discount as a buyer (ecologie.gouv.fr; service-public A18446).

What to do this week

• If you own an F/G electric-heated flat: check whether the 1 Jan 2026 coefficient already moved you out of the ban zone before you budget any works.
• If you are buying a passoire on the discount: price the renovation from the seller's audit énergétique, not from a hoped-for law change. Model the all-in cost — works plus France's substantial acquisition costs — with our free Buying-Costs Calculator.
• If you just want to follow the reform: watch the Senate vote on 8 July. We will update this page within 24 hours of the outcome.

FAQ

Is the F/G rental ban being cancelled? No. A bill before the Senate (7–8 July 2026) would let F/G owners keep renting against a renovation commitment, but it is not law. The class G ban has been in force since 1 January 2025; F follows in 2028, E in 2034.

If the Senate passes it on 8 July, is it law? No. The Assemblée nationale must also vote it, and the accelerated procedure still means real debate in both chambers. Even a favourable outcome is months away and may be amended.

What would actually change for an F/G owner if it passed? You could keep letting the property instead of being frozen out — but only against a registered commitment to renovate to at least class D, within 3 years (house) or 5 years (copropriété flat). The final thresholds and deadlines are exactly what may shift in committee.

My electric-heated flat is rated F/G on an old certificate — is it still banned? Maybe not. The 1 January 2026 coefficient reform moved ~850,000 mostly electric-heated homes out of F/G with no works. Get the free updated label via the ADEME observatory before acting.

Run your real numbers before you act

Whatever the Senate does this week, the decision in front of you is the same: what does this property actually cost to buy and to bring into compliance? Model it before you bid with our free Buying-Costs Calculator, read the DPE rental-ban guide for the full calendar and the passoire strategy, and see what changed in French property in 2026 for the year's other moving parts.

This article is educational content, not legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. It is current as of 3 July 2026; the relance-logement bill (Sénat text n° 801) is scheduled for the séance publique on 7–8 July 2026 and is not law, while the class G letting ban and the 1 January 2026 DPE coefficient reform are in force. French property law here is a moving target — we will update this page within 24 hours of the Senate vote. Verify your specific position with a qualified French notaire, avocat, or tax adviser before acting. Sources: Sénat dossier législatif pjl25-801; décret n° 2023-796; arrêté du 13 août 2025; ecologie.gouv.fr; service-public.fr.