The Climate and Resilience Law has been having its most visible effects on the French real estate market since autumn 2025. The gradual ban on renting out properties classified as G, and then F by 2028, is triggering a wave of sales of poorly rated small units in major metropolitan areas. This movement, combined with the persistent scarcity of new properties and increasingly selective credit conditions, is reshuffling the deck among buyers, landlords, and tenants.
Energy Performance Certificate and Thermal Performance: The Filter That Segments the Real Estate Market
The energy classification of a property now serves as a binary sorting criterion. A property rated F or G is no longer negotiated on the same basis as a property rated D or higher, and the price gap between these two categories continues to widen.
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We observe that small landlords, often owning only one old unit, face a costly dilemma: to undertake energy renovation work with uncertain returns on investment, or to sell in a market where buyers factor the cost of compliance into their offers. Thermal sieves are selling, but with a significant discount.
The Clameur Observatory 2025-2026 and the economic report from the Notaires de France published in November 2025 confirm this very clear increase in the sale of poorly rated properties. This surplus of supply in the degraded old segment is driving prices down in certain neighborhoods, while renovated or new properties maintain their values. To follow all real estate on Clarity News, this gap between segments is the standout feature of the first half of 2026.
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Scarcity of New Properties and Prices of New Housing in France
The production of new housing remains below pre-crisis levels. The building permits issued do not compensate for demand, particularly in tight areas. This scarcity mechanically supports new prices and pushes some buyers towards renovated old properties.
New properties act as a buffer that the market can no longer mobilize. When new supply contracts, the pressure shifts to the old market, amplifying price disparities between regions well-endowed with programs and those that are not.
Regional metropolitan areas with active development projects maintain a strong transaction dynamic. Medium-sized cities without significant new programs see their market stagnate or even decline due to a lack of renewal in the housing stock.
Selectivity of Mortgage Credit: Rates and Access to Financing
Loan rates have stabilized after the marked increase of 2023-2024, but lending conditions remain strict. The maximum effort rate and capped loan duration continue to limit households’ purchasing power, particularly for first-time buyers.
This selectivity in credit does not affect all profiles in the same way:
- Households with substantial personal contributions and stable incomes access financing without major difficulties, often with favorable negotiated conditions.
- First-time buyers without a contribution or with modest incomes find themselves excluded from the purchase market, which fuels rental demand in tight areas.
- Rental investors face a double effect: more demanding credit conditions and profitability compressed by energy renovation obligations.
Credit acts as an accelerator of wealth inequalities. Those who can buy benefit from a market where competition among buyers has decreased. Those who cannot see their prospects of ownership recede.
Real Estate Trends by Territory: Winners and Losers in Five Years
The combination of these three forces (energy standards, scarcity of new properties, selectivity of credit) does not produce the same effects everywhere in France. We recommend reading price indices and transaction volumes at the local level, not the national level.
Paris and the inner suburbs maintain a structural demand floor. Prices have corrected there after 2022, but sales volumes are picking up, driven by solvent buyers taking advantage of the relative decline. Major regional metropolitan areas remain attractive as long as new supply feeds the market.
Rural or peri-urban areas without efficient transport links or dynamic employment pools concentrate risks. Poorly rated old properties struggle to find buyers there, and the absence of new programs limits the renewal of the housing stock. Rental vacancies are increasing in these areas.
Small Landlords: The Most Exposed Segment
Small landlords owning one or two old units in city centers are facing the convergence of all constraints. Renovation obligations, rent controls in certain metropolitan areas, and less favorable taxation since the reform of the micro-property regime: the net profitability of non-renovated old rentals is eroding rapidly.
Some of these landlords are opting for sales, which increases the stock of available properties and moderates prices in the old segment. Owner-occupiers able to finance renovations are acquiring these properties at a discount, reinforcing wealth concentration.
Tenants: Unrelenting Pressure
The removal of G and F classified properties from the rental market reduces available supply. Tenants in these properties must either accept relocation or absorb rent increases related to the partial pass-through of renovation costs. In tight areas, rental pressure is intensifying.
Real Estate Climate and Price Indices: What Notaries Show
The Immonot trend of the real estate market published at the end of February 2026 indicates that the increase in activity is noted by a growing proportion of corresponding notaries. The market for properties above 300,000 euros remains stable, while a decline in value affects properties below this threshold, according to a notarial negotiator from Loiret cited in the same survey.
This price polarization directly reflects the segmentation by energy performance certificate and access to credit. Transactions are concentrated on quality properties, renovated or well-located, while the lower end of the market struggles to find buyers at the listed prices.
The French real estate market is entering a phase where location and energy performance weigh more than the gross price per square meter. National indices mask very contrasting local realities, and only a cross-reading of price data, energy performance certificates, and volumes by area allows for a proper assessment of a territory’s dynamics.