Bad news for tenants and their owners, personal housing assistance (APL) will not be revalued in 2026. Article 67 of the finance bill for 2026, presented to the Council of Ministers this Tuesday, October 14, provides for a “stabilization” of the amount of this aid which finances part of the rent. This, in “derogating from the annual revaluation APL housing parameters”also calculated according to parameters relating to the tenant’s resources, explains the draft budget for 2026.
“Within public expenditure, expenditure on services represents a preponderant share”underlines the government in the explanatory memorandum of article 67. “Without calling into question the benefit or infringing the rights acquired by the beneficiaries of these benefits”the public authorities, in search of around thirty billion euros in savings, however judge “indispensable for slow down the progression of this part of expenditure». Expenditures which increase due to structural factors, such as the aging of APL beneficiaries, and cyclical factors, such as inflation.
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108 million euros in savings for the State
This is why the government is proposing “that a transversal stabilization measure applies to all benefit income”including the APL. Let their beneficiaries not worry too much, their effort will be “moderate in scale»assures the PLF 2026. It will no less have one “decisive overall effect to curb spending” public, the text continues. This measure appears in the Social Security financing bill for 2026, also presented to the Council of Ministers this Tuesday, for benefits falling within the scope of Social Security. As APL fall within the scope of finance laws, a similar measure is included in article 67 of the PLF.
APLs which are usually subject to two mandatory annual revaluation orders. On the one hand, the resource parameters of beneficiaries are revalued on January 1 of each year and, on the other hand, the housing expenditure parameters of beneficiaries are revalued on October 1 of each year. To limit expenditure on services, article 67 aims, for 2026, not to revalue the parameters of APL relating to housing. In the same vein, a regulatory measure will supplement this article in order to waive, also for 2026, the revaluation of parameters relating to resources. In 2026, maintaining the APL at their 2025 level will allow the State tosave 108 million euros.
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APLs refocused on foreign scholarship students
Article 67 also introduces a measure relating to APL paid to non-EU students. Help open to “all internationally mobile students, including those whose personal or family financial situation is already satisfactory”underlines the government. Article 67 therefore provides “to improve targeting” APL allocated to foreign students who are not nationals of a Member State of the European Union, another State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area or the Swiss Confederation. This, in reserving them for holders of a higher education scholarshipbased on social criteria. A measure which aims to “rationalize public spending by targeting it on non-community scholarship students, who have priority in the allocation of personal housing assistance in view of their economic situation and their vocation to settle permanently in the territory”argue the public authorities.