**PRESS RELEASE — Paris, 15 October 2026**

# French housing bill: 19,057 G-rated energy sieves could return to the rental market thanks to their building's EPC

**If the French housing bill is adopted in the Senate's version, a flat would be considered decent in terms of energy performance when its building's energy performance certificate (EPC) reaches the required level. In the database of ADEME, the French environment agency, 19,057 G-rated homes could return to the rental market, according to a count by OneDpe. In return, 7,476 class F buildings would need works before 2028 for their homes to benefit.**

## A second route to decency: the building's EPC

In mainland France, a G-rated home has not been considered decent for a lease signed, renewed or tacitly extended since 1 January 2025; F-rated homes follow on 1 January 2028, then E-rated homes on 1 January 2034. The text adopted by the Senate on 8 July 2026 (projet de loi relance et décentralisation du logement) would open a second route: the building's collective EPC, even if the home's own EPC does not reach the required level. On 1 January 2027, with the 1.7 electricity factor applied to all existing EPCs (an assumption of the study), 19,057 G-rated flats in the ADEME database have a building of class F or better: they would be considered decent thanks to the building.

**Key figures** (ADEME database, mainland flats built before 2013)

- **19,057** G-rated flats, in 10,724 buildings of class F or better, could return to the rental market thanks to their building's EPC.
- **7,476** class F buildings, home to 52,087 homes rated F or G, would need works before 2028 to benefit from the rule.
- **28,336** class E buildings, home to 307,685 homes rated E, F or G, would need works before 2034 to benefit from the rule.
- Only **17%** of G-rated flats have a usable building EPC found in the database.

## The rule cuts both ways

On the gains side, 54,783 homes rated F or G would be considered decent in 2028 thanks to a building of class E or better, and 111,633 homes rated E, F or G in 2034, with an unchanged EPC.

But a class F building would no longer be enough from 2028, nor a class E building from 2034: the 7,476 class F and 28,336 class E buildings in the database would need works for their homes to stay considered decent through the building. This provision creates no obligation to carry out works: a home can also become decent through its own works, and an owner-occupier has no decency obligation. The same building can appear in both groups: their counts do not add up.

## The collective EPC is still missing from the database

Only 17% of G-rated flats (27,007 out of 161,537) have a usable building EPC found in the database, despite the collective EPC obligation (phased in from 2024 to 2026 by size). This rate is about flats, not co-ownerships, and a collective EPC that was carried out may be missing from the database: the real effect depends first on how the obligation is applied. Estimate, for the private rental stock alone: about 11,000 homes would return to the market at current collective EPC coverage, about 110,000 if every co-ownership had its own. This figure does not compare directly with 19,057, which counts all assessed flats, whatever their occupancy, social housing included.

> "Tying decency to the building's EPC would bring homes back onto the market, but the rule cuts both ways: a class F or E building becomes the business of all its occupants. And as long as most co-ownerships have no collective EPC, its real effect cannot be measured."
> — Steven Annonziata, co-founder of OneDpe (RIANN SAS)

## Social housing: a comparable share by number of buildings, more than half of the homes on the works side

By number of buildings, the share with some social housing is comparable on both sides: at least 18.9% on the return-to-market side, 23.5% and 29.8% on the works side (class F and E buildings). By number of assessed homes, it exceeds half on the works side (at least 54.9% and 57.0%, against 23.0%), because these buildings are large. These are homes in a building with some social housing, not necessarily social homes.

## What the study does not say

This is not the law: the bill is still going between the two chambers, and the provision was rewritten in committee at the National Assembly on 22 September 2026. The counts cover assessed flats, not the housing stock, and the EPC does not say whether a home is let. The projections are orders of magnitude. No figure by landlord, no list of buildings, no opinion on the reform.

**By département.** Figures for each mainland département, for all three deadlines, can be downloaded from the press page (CSV file).

**Method and sources.** ADEME EPC database as of 25 August 2026 (16,889,683 valid EPCs, Licence Ouverte 2.0); 1.7 factor applied to all existing EPCs (update announced by the ministry on 31 August 2026); mainland flats built before 2013. Social housing: SDES RPLS register. Estimates: SDES/ONRE stock on 1 January 2025. Method note, data by département and graphics free to reuse with the credit "Source: OneDpe.fr": **onedpe.fr/en/presse/decence-energetique-par-l-immeuble-2026**

**About OneDpe.** OneDpe (RIANN SAS) publishes free tools for analysing French EPCs (onedpe.fr/en/my-dpe-2027). The commercial interest is declared.

**Press contact: Steven Annonziata — presse@onedpe.fr.** Calculation chain and technical briefing available on request.