Housing in France: MPs vote to relax the new status of private landlords in order to boost rental investment

This bill, put forward by former Minister of Housing and MP Valérie Létard, was adopted on first reading by 85 votes to 29, during the day reserved for initiatives of the Liot group (Independent).

A tax scheme designed to support the rental market in France

The government has introduced a new tax mechanism in the 2026 state budget, adopted in early February, aimed at encouraging private investment in rental properties. Called the "private landlord status" or the "Jeanbrun scheme," this measure seeks to promote the creation and renovation of rental housing in a context marked by a decline in the rental supply and difficulties in accessing housing in many French cities.

"This scheme allows for the depreciation of the property, provided that it is renovated and rented unfurnished at moderate rent. However, today, the criteria are too restrictive," according to Ms. Létard.

Its text notably provides for extending the scheme to older houses in order to further stimulate the renovation of the existing housing stock and to increase the supply of rental housing in the territories.

End of the cap on work required to qualify as a private landlord.

The text initially planned to lower the amount of work required to benefit from the scheme, from 30% to 20% of the acquisition amount.

However, an identical amendment tabled by the National Rally and the MoDem removed this cap. The authors of the amendment argued that this criterion created significant discrepancies between properties with very different prices per square meter depending on local real estate markets.

The rapporteur supported this removal, noting that energy renovation requirements remain. The work must result in an improvement of two energy classes in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for dwellings rated F or G before the work, and one class for those rated E and above.

Debate between private housing and social housing

On the left side of the chamber, several MPs expressed their opposition to these relaxations, recalling that a balance between the resources allocated to social housing and private housing had been found during the examination of the last budget.

The leader of the Communist group, Stéphane Peu, specifically mentioned the "precipitous drop in the supply of social housing" observed in recent years. He also emphasized the budgetary cost of such a tax break, arguing that this "public money would be better spent supporting the construction of social housing."

The National Rally criticizes the constraints linked to the Energy Performance Diagnosis (DPE).

During parliamentary debates, the National Rally reaffirmed its opposition to energy performance diagnoses (DPE), which have become a major issue for landlords and the real estate market.

"We want to get out of these constraints (...) if you continue to set the bar too high, then all rental properties will disappear from the rental market," said Frédéric Falcon.

Energy renovation and co-owned properties also concerned

The text also includes two other measures intended to support the renovation of the French housing stock.

The first aims to encourage companies to pool their resources to carry out comprehensive renovations and improve site productivity. The second is intended to facilitate the deployment of collective loans specifically designed to finance energy efficiency renovations in condominiums.

With this reform, parliamentarians hope to support rental investment, accelerate the renovation of older housing and strengthen the supply of available housing in areas facing high housing pressure.