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French Lawmakers Urge Permanent, Expanded Rent Control in Bipartisan Report

The bipartisan plan sets up a bill before the 2026 expiry.

Overview

  • Co-rapporteurs Annaïg Le Meur and Iñaki Echaniz recommend making the rent-control experiment permanent and opening it to all willing communes in designated tight markets and their neighboring municipalities.
  • The scheme, currently applied in 72 collectivités and slated to end in November 2026, would be the subject of a fast-tracked bill informed by a government-commissioned economic evaluation.
  • Technical fixes include clarifying how the reference rent is calculated and assigning standardized values to annex surfaces such as terraces, cellars and mezzanines to better frame rent supplements.
  • Enforcement proposals call for doubling fines with proceeds paid to communes, requiring platforms to display how listings compare to legal caps and the justification for any supplement, and giving municipalities a council-vote mechanism to exit the scheme.
  • Citing APUR, the report notes Paris rents were 8.2% lower than a no-control scenario in July 2023–June 2024, says participating cities report concrete effects, and argues the policy is not driving the broader decline in rental supply.