For an energy transition that protects tenants without sacrificing homeowners

Energy performance certificates (EPCs) are no longer just alphabetical codes attached to advertisements: they are becoming genuine economic and climate factors. Designed to measure the energy consumed and the climate impact of a dwelling, they now guide the choices of the real estate market, tenants… and public authorities.

Since August 2022, successive laws aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions have introduced a rent freeze for the most energy-inefficient housing, with classes F and G being the first to be affected. This measure prohibits any rent increase, whether it be annual revision, re-letting or renewal, as long as the property remains a thermal sieve.

For now, properties classified as DPE E are not yet subject to the ban on rent increases, but the regulatory trend is clear: the objective is to gradually eradicate energy-inefficient housing from the rental stock, with class E to be subject to the rental ban from 2034.

This perspective, while justified by the climate emergency, raises a fundamental question: how to reconcile the energy transition with the freedom to rent and invest?

• For tenants, energy-inefficient housing often means excessively high energy bills, poor thermal comfort, and the risk of exclusion from the market if regulations become stricter. It is legitimate to protect households from these problems.
• For landlords, however, the reality is quite different: many are not professional investors but individuals who have acquired older properties, sometimes with a considerable financial investment. Their assets are now threatened not only by the potential decrease in value of poorly rated properties, but also by the impossibility of offsetting the costs of necessary renovations with a simple rent increase.

The tension surrounding the freeze on rents for E-rated energy performance certificates should remind us of an obvious truth: the energy transition will only happen if it is fair and incentive-based, and not punitive and mechanical.

It is imperative that the government simultaneously strengthen support mechanisms for homeowners to undertake major renovations: targeted financial aid, simplified procedures, technical and tax support, not just prohibitions. Because if homeowners cannot invest in renovations, if tenants cannot afford decent rents in comfortable housing, then energy policy backfires on those it claims to protect.

France must aim for an ambitious emissions reduction trajectory, certainly, but without sacrificing either tenants or owners in a sterile confrontation.

Energy performance should become an opportunity to enhance the value of the property and improve comfort for residents, not just a regulatory threshold to be met to avoid a penalty.

Today, I am calling for a new, balanced approach: a policy that empowers without excluding, that encourages without penalizing, and that unites rather than divides.

The issue of freezing rents for housing classified as DPE E cannot be addressed solely from the perspective of regulatory constraint: it must be considered as a lever for transforming the French housing stock.

We will not succeed in the energy transition of housing through fear, prohibition, impoverishment of homeowners, or the weakening of tenants. We will succeed through collective intelligence, innovation, support, and the empowerment of all stakeholders.

Rather than pitting ecology against purchasing power, rather than setting tenants against owners, it is time to build an energy renovation pact based on trust, clear rules and real support for those working on the ground.

Housing is an essential commodity. It must be comfortable, accessible, and sustainable. This is the ambition we must pursue together.

The debate on the E energy performance certificate and the freeze on rents is therefore not a simple technical debate: it is a societal choice, and this choice must be one of a just, pragmatic and resolutely forward-looking transition.

Tribune by Eric Houdet, Founder of Homapi (LinkedIn).