In his general policy speech, where important announcements on taxes or pensions were made, the Prime Minister also slipped in a revelation on a system closely followed by owners.
It was not the most anticipated announcement nor the one that will be the most commented on after the general policy speech given by Michel Barnier this Tuesday, October 1. However, it promises to change the lives of many owners or future buyers of real estate.
While discussing the issue of renewable energies, after having praised an “ecology of solutions”, the Prime Minister returned to the thorny issue of the energy renovation of buildings. Regularly considered essential to reduce energy consumption and therefore act on emissions and France’s carbon footprint, energy renovation nevertheless proves costly for many owners.
However, some simply have no choice. Among the measures put in place in recent years, one of them has been particularly criticized. This is the Energy Performance Diagnosis, the DPE, which makes it possible to measure whether a home is energy-intensive, or even “an energy sieve”. In this case, that is to say if an accommodation is classified among the worst categories E, F or especially G, the accommodation will gradually be prohibited for rental.
This was even to be the case from January 1, 2025 for G-rated housing, the worst “energy sieves”. For housing classified F, the calendar set a ban in 2028, starting in 2034 in class E. As a reminder, classes F and G would represent 4.8 million housing units, or 15% of the real estate stock in France according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition at the end of 2023. A freeze in rents for these accommodations is also planned. Enough to greatly influence the price of housing and its attractiveness for potential buyers…
This schedule had already been criticized, in particular for certain housing in large cities that is difficult to renovate, particularly for small areas. This could change after Michel Barnier’s announcement on October 1 since the latter mentioned better targeting and “support for individuals and businesses, particularly for the thermal renovation of buildings”.
But above all, it brought about a major change for the DPE. While waiting for this better support, the DPE will be “simplified” according to the Prime Minister and his “adapted timetable”. We could therefore see in the coming weeks a total overhaul of the DPE, whose criteria sometimes considered vague had also led to certain abuses. Unreliable according to many experts, the DPE had led to diagnoses carried out hastily, imprecise and even misleading. It could be revised from top to bottom to be more precise. And less severe? A postponement of the calendar will also be closely monitored by real estate agents, buyers and sellers…