Letting News: Rent Caps

Rent caps have been extended to 28 new towns and cities across France.

Tougher controls have been rolled out in “zones tendues” (tense zones) or areas affected by severe housing shortages – preventing landlords from imposing unreasonable rent hikes on tenants.

The new regulations are now in force in cities including Ajaccio, Bordeaux, Grenoble, La Rochelle, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice, Strasbourg and Toulouse. The move follows hot on the heels of Paris’s rent-cap scheme, which was reintroduced in July after a court challenge saw it temporarily halted.

The controls apply to new contracts or the renewal of contracts for both furnished and unfurnished properties running from August 1, 2019 to July 31, 2020.

Different caps have been set for each town or city – in line with market value and the extent of the housing shortage in that particular area. But there are some exemptions to these controls. For example, when buildings have been vacant for more than 18 months, or where the landlord can prove either that the previous rent was under the market value or that they recently carried out extensive work on the property.