Week of 25-31 August 2026
Legislative, regulatory and case law digest.
I. Legislation and regulation
Energy renovation grants: MaPrimeRénov’ and the zero-rate eco-loan are tightened
Decree No. 2026-822 of 25 August 2026, amending Decree No. 2020-26 of 14 January 2020 on the energy transition grant, removes a series of previously eligible works from the “single measure” route of MaPrimeRénov’: standalone wood or biomass heating and hot water equipment, heat pumps dedicated to hot water, ventilation systems, insulation and, outside the overseas territories, solar thermal or hybrid collector equipment. For the measures retained, access to the scheme is extended until 31 December 2027 in mainland France for dwellings rated F and G. The decree applies to applications filed on or after 1 September 2026.
An order of the same day amends the zero-rate eco-loan: “overall energy performance” offers for a detached house must now finance a project that decarbonises heating and hot water, through a non-hybrid heat pump, connection to a heating network, or a biomass or solar system. The condition does not apply to co-owners’ associations or to households carrying out works on private parts.
The timing is harsh. An application filed on 31 August still falls under the old rules; the same application filed the next day loses funding for several items. Quotes priced this summer on the basis of measures now removed from the scale will leave a shortfall that someone must bear, the contractor or the owner. Check the filing date before signing anything.
Energy performance certificates: the electricity coefficient cut to 1.7
An order of 19 August 2026, published in the Official Journal of 26 August, lowers from 1.9 to 1.7 the coefficient converting final electrical energy into primary energy used for the energy performance certificate (DPE) and energy audit, from 1 January 2027. It is the second revision in a year, the coefficient having already fallen from 2.3 to 1.9 on 1 January 2026. According to published estimates, some 300,000 main residences would leave the F and G classes without any work being done. The order follows the order of 11 June 2026, published in the Official Journal of 13 August, which transposes Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of 24 April 2024 and introduces from 1 January 2027 the “A0” label for zero-emission buildings, together with the amount of renewable energy produced on site and its breakdown by source.
An energy sieve today, a lettable home tomorrow, without a euro of works. The contractual consequence is immediate: the date on which the certificate is issued becomes a negotiating point in its own right. A DPE carried out before 1 January 2027 keeps its rating and validity period, whereas the same property assessed afterwards may show a better class. In a preliminary contract signed this autumn for a sale completing in 2027, who orders the certificate, and when, deserves to be dealt with expressly.
Social housing sales: the “Relance” depreciation scheme opens to the social housing stock
Decree No. 2026-826 of 25 August 2026, published in the Official Journal of 28 August and in force on 29 August, adapts the conditions under which social housing bodies (HLM) may sell homes built for sale. These homes may now be sold to individuals who will let them under the depreciation scheme created by the 2026 Finance Act. The deduction is capped at 8,000 euros per year and per tax household, raised to 10,000 or 12,000 euros depending on the use of the dwelling. Until now, the body could only sell to a private investor who committed to the social or very social rent levels of an Anah agreement; the new depreciation scheme was closed to such investors.
A single regime for hedgerows
Decree No. 2026-829 of 28 August 2026, published in the Official Journal of 29 August, sets out the rules for the single declaration provided for in Article L. 412-22 of the Environmental Code and the single authorisation under Article L. 412-23, introduced by Law No. 2025-268 of 24 March 2025 on food sovereignty and generational renewal in agriculture. Thirteen separate sets of rules give way to a single procedure, run through a dedicated online service, the “hedgerow one-stop shop”: anyone planning to remove a hedgerow files a single declaration with the prefect of the department. The decree applies to projects subject to declaration filed on or after 1 October 2026 in mainland France. Development and subdivision operations involving the removal of hedgerows are directly affected.
II. Case law
Conseil d’État, 6th and 5th chambers combined, 3 August 2026, No. 497092, published in the Recueil Lebon
A developer had applied on 31 January 2023 for a permit for three buildings with fifty-two homes in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon. The mayor refused the permit on the ground that the application was incomplete. The Lyon administrative court had annulled the refusal, on the twofold ground that the mayor had not invited the applicant to complete the file and that no omission or shortcoming had prevented the authority from ruling on the project’s compliance. The Conseil d’État holds that an incomplete file may justify a refusal even though the authority requested no additional documents during the review, provided that the missing documents actually prevented it from assessing the project’s compliance with the applicable planning rules.
Practical significance. The condition is not a mere formality. A refusal based on incompleteness that does not show how the missing document prevented the review remains unlawful, and the reasoning of the decision becomes the battleground. For applicants, the absence of a request for further documents no longer cures the defect.
Conseil d’État, 3rd and 8th chambers combined, 16 July 2026, No. 504075
A municipality challenged a levy of 37,377 euros imposed for 2021 because it had too few social housing units; its appeals had been dismissed by the Rennes administrative court. The dispute concerned the three-year exemption from the levy for a municipality newly subject to the obligations of Article 55 of the SRU law, where it had already been subject to them before 2015. The Conseil d’État holds that the exemption introduced by the law of 27 January 2017 on equality and citizenship benefits all municipalities that did not meet the conditions for being subject on 1 January 2015, and that earlier liability does not bar it.
Conseil d’État, 25 March 2026, Établissement public foncier d’Île-de-France, No. 504317
The administrative court of appeal had held that the public land agency had not shown that its project, an apartment building of fifty-two homes including sixteen social rental units, could be carried out with certainty and within a reasonable time, since the pre-empted 68-square-metre plot was one of eight plots needed for the operation, only two of which had been acquired. The Conseil d’État overturns this as an error of law: the court only had to ascertain whether the holder of the pre-emption right could show, on the date it exercised that right, that a genuine development project or operation existed that met the purposes listed in Article L. 300-1 of the Planning Code, even if the actual completion date could not yet be fixed because other nearby properties still had to be acquired.
Practical significance. A pre-emption decision must answer the question “what?”, not “when?”. For the ousted buyer, the argument based on timing uncertainty no longer carries weight; the challenge shifts to whether the project relied on is real and substantial, and to whether its nature is stated in the decision, a requirement maintained since Commune de Meung-sur-Loire of 7 March 2008.
Bordeaux Administrative Court of Appeal, 26 June 2026, No. 25BX00348
A mayor who serves formal notice on the author of irregular works to regularise the situation under Articles L. 481-1 et seq. of the Planning Code must follow an adversarial procedure, both for the formal notice and for the order setting the daily penalty. The court holds that this requirement does not apply again at the stage of quarterly liquidation: since the legislature intended to lay down all the procedural rules for decisions taken on this basis, Article L. 121-1 of the Code of relations between the public and the administration does not apply to an order liquidating the penalty under Article L. 481-2. The solution matches that adopted by the Nantes administrative court of appeal in March 2026 for the comparable mechanism in Article L. 171-8 of the Environmental Code.
Practical significance. The Conseil d’État has not ruled: this analysis rests on two concurring appellate decisions and no more, and prudence requires saying so. As things stand, the adversarial stage takes place upstream, at the formal notice. That is where the person concerned must raise circumstances beyond their control; Article L. 481-2 also allows them, at each quarterly liquidation, to ask for a partial or total waiver of the penalty.
Conseil d’État, 10th and 9th chambers combined, 7 July 2026, No. 505473
A neighbour’s standing to challenge a building permit is assessed on the date the permit application is posted at the town hall, save in duly justified particular circumstances. The applicants, beneficiaries of a promise to sell signed on 4 August 2023 for neighbouring land, challenged a permit granted on 21 May 2024. The application had been posted on 31 July 2023, four days before the promise was signed. The Conseil d’État holds that ongoing negotiations leading to a promise concluded after the posting are not a particular circumstance within the meaning of Article L. 600-1-3 of the Planning Code.
Practical significance. Four days. The advice to a buyer fits in one sentence: before signing the preliminary sale agreement, go to the town hall and check the register of planning applications. A project posted the day before signing permanently deprives the buyer of any challenge to it, and this check should rank among the routine diligence of the drafter of the deed.
The Third Civil Chamber issued no published decision during the period, given the judicial vacation. Legal commentary published this week concerns earlier judgments, notably on the cap on ten-year liability cover relative to the cost of the operation, and on the interruption of the time bar by an action of the co-owners’ association on behalf of individual co-owners.
III. Other points to watch
Energy renovation and subcontracting
Decree No. 2026-774 of 12 August 2026, amending Decree No. 2014-812 of 16 July 2014, draws the consequences of the law of 30 June 2025 against all public aid fraud: from 1 January 2027, on a subcontracted job, the company issuing the invoice must itself hold the RGE quality label. Subcontracting has also been limited to two tiers since 1 January 2026. The target is explicit: unqualified business introducers who subcontracted the whole job while capturing the public aid.
Mortgage lending and over-indebtedness prevention
Decree No. 2026-719, published in the Official Journal of 2 August 2026 and applicable from 20 November 2026, strengthens the duty to assess creditworthiness: consultation of the national register of consumer credit repayment incidents, verification (rather than mere declaration) of income, recurring expenses and assets, formalised procedures, and retention of the data on which the lending decision was based for the entire life of the contract.
Tax and administrative guidance
Administrative guidance published this week clarifies the temporary property tax exemptions available to businesses in “France ruralités revitalisation” zones and extends the transfer duty exemption applicable in Mayotte. The micro-BIC thresholds for 2026-2028 have also been updated, a point to watch for furnished-letting landlords.
Housing market and policy
Mortgage rates are stabilising, pressure on student housing persists and renegotiation of office leases is advancing. Speaking to the Cercle des managers de l’immobilier, the Minister for Cities and Housing, Vincent Jeanbrun, set out the levers of his housing revival bill: shorter procedures, more flexible rules for letting G-rated homes subject to a commitment to carry out works, and a simpler tax relief scheme. The bill has not been tabled. Nothing is settled.
For advice on a real estate matter, see our page on real estate law, as well as those on latent defects in property, construction defects and ten-year liability, property purchases by non-residents, late delivery of off-plan property and commercial leases.
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