Encadrement des Loyers in France: Where Rent Caps Actually Apply (2026)

You are probably here because you were told your rent is capped, and you now want to know whether that is actually true where you live. It very often is not. The phrase encadrement des loyers is used loosely in French housing coverage to mean several different rules at once, and the version most people have in mind, a published ceiling per square metre that a landlord cannot exceed, exists in only about ten territories in the country.

The confusion has a specific source, and it is worth naming immediately: zone tendue and encadrement des loyers are two different legal statuses. Thousands of communes are in a zone tendue. Very few of them have a loyer de reference. This page separates the two, sets out where the ceiling genuinely applies and since when, explains how the ceiling is built and what a tenant can do about a rent above it, and flags the expiry date that is written into the scheme itself.

Information last verified on 21 July 2026. This page presents general legal information, not legal advice.

What encadrement des loyers actually is

Encadrement des loyers, in the strict sense, is an experimental scheme created by article 140 of the loi n° 2018-1021 of 23 November 2018, known as the loi ELAN. It is not automatic anywhere. An intercommunal authority has to volunteer, the government has to accept by decret, and only then does the prefet issue an arrete fixing the reference rents for that territory.

Where it is in force, the prefet publishes, each year, a table of reference rents. The tables are broken down by geographic sector, by the number of principal rooms, by whether the dwelling is let furnished or unfurnished, and by the construction period of the building. The figures are expressed in euros per square metre of surface habitable.

Because the scheme is experimental, it has a statutory end date rather than running indefinitely. That date is dealt with further down this page, and it matters more in 2026 than it has at any point since the scheme began.

Zone tendue is a different status, and it is the source of the confusion

A zone tendue is a commune in an urban area of more than 50,000 inhabitants where there is a marked imbalance between housing supply and demand. The list sits in the annex to decret n° 2013-392 of 10 May 2013, and that annex has been replaced and amended several times, most recently by decret n° 2025-1267 of 22 December 2025, in force since 24 December 2025. The annexe has two tables. The first lists communes in a continuous urban area of more than 50,000 inhabitants, currently about 1,430 of them, and that is the list carrying the tenancy consequences: the reduced one month tenant notice period and the annual relocation decret. The second table adds roughly 2,259 tourist communes to the vacant housing tax only, and those communes get neither the reduced notice period nor the relocation cap.

Zone tendue status does real work. It shortens the tenant notice period to one month, it brings the commune into the scope of the annual tax on vacant dwellings, and it triggers the relocation decret described below. What it does not do, on its own, is create a loyer de reference or any published ceiling per square metre.

So a landlord in a zone tendue commune with no encadrement scheme is generally free to set the rent for a first letting, subject to the relocation rule when there was a previous tenant. If you want to check the status of your own commune, the government publishes an official lookup tool on service-public.gouv.fr, and it answers the zone tendue question only. It does not tell you whether encadrement applies.

Where encadrement des loyers is in force, and since when

The territories currently applying the scheme, with the date each one started, are as follows.

• Paris, since 1 July 2019
• Lille and the neighbouring communes within the Metropole Europeenne de Lille, since 1 March 2020
• Plaine Commune, in the Metropole du Grand Paris, since 1 June 2021
• Lyon and Villeurbanne, since 1 November 2021
• Est Ensemble, in the Metropole du Grand Paris, since 1 December 2021
• Montpellier, since 1 July 2022
• Bordeaux, since 15 July 2022
• The Pays Basque agglomeration, 24 communes, since 25 November 2024
• Grenoble-Alpes Metropole, 21 of its 49 communes, since 20 January 2025

Two points about that list are easy to get wrong. The Grenoble scheme is partial: 13 communes are covered across their whole territory and 8 more only across part of it, and the reference rents are refreshed annually, most recently by a prefectoral arrete of 6 January 2026 applying to leases signed or renewed from 20 January 2026. And several territories that appear in press coverage as covered, including Annemasse Agglo and Marseille, are candidates or subjects of debate rather than territories where a ceiling is in force.

A separate and newer framework exists for the overseas departments. The loi n° 2025-534 of 13 June 2025 opened its own encadrement experiment there, with candidacies open into 2027. It works on the same logic: a territory has to apply, and a decret then a prefectoral arrete have to follow before any ceiling exists.

How the ceiling is built

Three figures come out of the prefectoral arrete for each combination of sector, size, furnishing and construction period.

The loyer de reference is the median rent for that combination, calculated from the data of the local rent observatory. The loyer de reference majore is that median increased by 20 %, and it is the operative ceiling: base rent excluding charges may not exceed it. The loyer de reference minore is the median reduced by 30 %, and it works in the landlord's direction, allowing an unusually low rent to be raised when the lease comes up for renewal.

All of this bites on base rent, the loyer hors charges. Provisions for charges, the deposit and any complement de loyer are handled separately, which is why a total monthly figure on a listing tells you very little on its own.

The complement de loyer

The complement de loyer is the pressure point in most disputes. It allows a landlord to charge above the loyer de reference majore, but only where the dwelling has characteristics of location or comfort that are genuinely exceptional for its sector, that are not already reflected in the reference rents, and that are not simply the ordinary features of a comparable flat nearby.

It must be shown separately in the lease, with its amount and its justification. It cannot be used to dress up a defect, and it is excluded where the dwelling suffers from problems such as poor thermal insulation, damp, infiltration, defective electrical installations or an F or G energy rating.

A tenant who considers the complement unjustified has three months from the signature of the lease to seise the commission departementale de conciliation. If conciliation fails or the landlord does not comply with the commission's opinion, the tenant then has three months from receipt of that opinion to bring the matter before the juge des contentieux de la protection. Before the judge, it is for the landlord to establish that the complement is justified.

What the lease and the advert have to say

In an encadrement territory, the lease must state the loyer de reference and the loyer de reference majore applicable to the dwelling. Rental advertisements must display them too. An advert that omits them is a red flag, and the omission is itself a breach that can be reported.

If the rent in your lease already exceeds the ceiling, the first step is usually a written demand to the landlord, sent by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, asking for the rent to be brought into line and for the overpayment to be refunded. Conciliation before the commission departementale de conciliation is free. The juge des contentieux de la protection is the court that decides these cases if conciliation does not resolve them.

There is also an administrative route that does not depend on the tenant going to court. The prefet may serve a formal notice on the landlord requiring the contract to be brought into conformity and the overpayment repaid within two months. If that notice is not complied with, the prefet may impose an administrative fine of up to 5,000 euros on an individual landlord and up to 15,000 euros on a company, under the procedure set out in decret n° 2019-437 of 13 May 2019.

Actions arising from a residential lease are generally time barred after three years under article 7-1 of the loi n° 89-462 of 6 July 1989, so delay has a real cost.

The 24 November 2026 expiry

The scheme was authorised for five years by article 140 of the loi ELAN and extended to eight years by the loi 3DS n° 2022-217 of 21 February 2022. Counting from the publication of the loi ELAN in the Journal officiel on 24 November 2018, that places the end of the experiment on 24 November 2026.

A proposition de loi making the scheme permanent, strengthening it and opening it to further territories was adopted at first reading by the Assemblee nationale in December 2025 and is before the Senat. A narrower two year extension for existing participants has also been discussed. Neither has been enacted. As at the date shown at the top of this page it had not been enacted, and no extension can be treated as law until it is. Anything you read that describes encadrement des loyers as a permanent feature of French rental law is describing a scheme that currently has an end date written into its founding text.

Note what would and would not fall away. The relocation decret in zones tendues, the F and G rent freeze, and the ordinary rules on annual rent revision all sit in different texts and do not depend on the ELAN experiment.

The rules that limit rent outside encadrement

Two other mechanisms are frequently mistaken for encadrement des loyers, and both apply far more widely.

The first is the relocation rule. In any zone tendue commune, when a dwelling is re let to a new tenant, the rent generally cannot exceed the rent paid by the previous tenant, adjusted at most by the IRL if no revision took place in the preceding twelve months. The rule is renewed by decret every year under article 18 of the loi of 6 July 1989. The current text is decret n° 2025-652 of 15 July 2025, which covers leases concluded or renewed between 1 August 2025 and 31 July 2026. There are limited exceptions, notably a first letting, a dwelling left empty for more than eighteen months, or significant improvement works.

The second is the energy performance freeze. Since 24 August 2022, rent on a dwelling rated F or G cannot be increased at all, whether by annual revision, by works clause, at renewal or on re letting. It comes from article 159 of the loi Climat et Resilience and was specified by decret n° 2022-1079 of 29 July 2022, and unlike the ELAN experiment it has no end date. Our page on how a rent increase is calculated sets out how that freeze interacts with the annual IRL revision, and the France legal information hub collects our other French law pages.

Frequently Asked Questions

My commune is in a zone tendue. Does that mean my rent is capped by a loyer de reference?

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding on the subject. Zone tendue status is set by decret n° 2013-392, whose annex was last amended by decret n° 2025-1267 of 22 December 2025. That annex has two tables, and only the first, about 1,430 communes in urban areas above 50,000 inhabitants, triggers the reduced one month tenant notice period, the vacant housing tax, and the annual relocation decret. The loyer de reference system is separate: it exists only where the intercommunal authority applied for the loi ELAN experiment and a decret and a prefectoral arrete were then issued. Around ten territories are in that position.

Which territories actually apply encadrement des loyers?

Paris since 1 July 2019, Lille and the neighbouring communes of the Metropole Europeenne de Lille since 1 March 2020, Plaine Commune since 1 June 2021, Lyon and Villeurbanne since 1 November 2021, Est Ensemble since 1 December 2021, Montpellier since 1 July 2022, Bordeaux since 15 July 2022, 24 communes of the Pays Basque agglomeration since 25 November 2024, and 21 communes of Grenoble-Alpes Metropole since 20 January 2025. Other authorities have expressed interest, but interest is not application. A territory only counts once its decret and prefectoral arrete are in force.

What is the difference between the loyer de reference and the loyer de reference majore?

The loyer de reference is a median figure per square metre, calculated by the local rent observatory for a given geographic sector, number of rooms, furnished or unfurnished status, and construction period. The loyer de reference majore is that figure increased by 20 %, and it is the ceiling: base rent excluding charges cannot exceed it. There is also a loyer de reference minore, set 30 % below the median, which a landlord can invoke to raise an unusually low rent when the lease is renewed.

The rent in my lease is above the ceiling. What is the procedure?

The usual sequence is a written demand to the landlord, sent by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, asking for the rent to be brought down to the loyer de reference majore and for the overpayment to be refunded. If that fails, the commission departementale de conciliation can be seised free of charge, and after it the juge des contentieux de la protection. Separately, the prefet may serve a formal notice on the landlord and, if it is ignored, impose an administrative fine of up to 5,000 euros for an individual and 15,000 euros for a company under the procedure set by decret n° 2019-437.

What happens to my rent if the experiment ends on 24 November 2026?

That depends entirely on what Parliament does, and nothing can be stated as settled. The experiment runs from article 140 of the loi ELAN of 23 November 2018, originally for five years and extended to eight by the loi 3DS of 21 February 2022, which places the current end point at 24 November 2026. A bill extending the scheme by two years for territories already participating was under discussion in 2026 but had not been enacted at the date shown at the top of this page. Existing leases, the annual relocation decret in zones tendues, and the freeze on F and G rated homes are governed by separate texts and do not depend on the experiment.