Loic Raboteau, a specialist French legal adviser from The International Property Law Centre LLP, has contributed the below article to our Information Library.

‘The new energy efficiency legislation in France – what will the proposed changes mean to the average property owner?’

It is essential for property investors to understand how this new legislation will affect tenant and buyer choices and indeed this article highlights the importance of buying the right kind of property today to remain competitive in the French lettings and selling markets in the future.

By this we mean a property that is either brand new (and therefore meets today’s more stringent energy efficiency requirements) or that does not require too much updating to bring it up to the required standards.

Property purchasers should always bear in mind the exit strategy for their investment. One day they may want to sell their holiday home or investment property, and to do so easily, the property will clearly need to have a good ‘energy performance’ rating.

Some buyers take energy performance more seriously than others. If you do not want to limit your re-sale market or spend a fortune on improving the energy performance of your French property, you will need to make a careful choice at the point of purchase.

For more details on the current energy performance standards imposed for all new properties in France, please see our article ‘New-Build Property Lowdown’.