Furnished, unfurnished rental, capital gains on sale: the new shock measures voted by the Senate

Friday, November 29, senators adopted several amendments to the 2025 draft budget reforming the taxation of furnished rentals, unfurnished rentals and capital gains on real estate sales.

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This Friday, November 29, senators adopted several amendments to the finance bill (PLF) 2025 important for real estate buyers. First, several amendments restrict the scope of thesection 24 of the PLF, which plans to increase resale taxation for non-professional furnished rentals (LMNP), by integrating the accounting depreciation, that is to say the annual loss in value of the property, in the calculation of the capital gain on sale. This will have the effect of increasing the amount of the capital gain and, therefore, the tax to be paid on it. A government amendment, adopted by the Upper House, limits the provisions of article 24 to transfers made from January 1, 2025. If you have sold your property before, don’t panic, the increase in taxation will not be retroactive.

Another amendment adopted by the senators, coming from their colleague Bernard Delcros, excludes from the scope of article 24 the senior residences and student residences. “In a context of attrition in the rental market, these structures play a key role, both for people losing their autonomy and for young people in precarious situations”argues the parliamentarian. In the same vein, a government amendment excludes from the scope of article 24 facilities for the elderly or disabled. This amendment, adopted by the Senate, is supplemented by a subamendment from Senator Martine Berthet which excludes tourist residences of the scope of Article 24. These “play a key role in the economic development of territories. They attract visitors, create jobs and boost local businesses and service providers.”explains the parliamentarian.

Alignment of the taxation of unfurnished rental with classified furnished accommodation

In terms of naked rentalthis time, the senators adopted two identical amendments from their colleagues Frédérique Espagnac and Max Brisson aiming to increase the reduction rate of the micro-land regime to 50%, which currently allows owners renting their bare real estate to benefit from a reduction of 30%, with a ceiling of 15,000 euros. The bare rental allowance is thus aligned with that of furnished tourist accommodationwhich was recently lowered from 71% to 50% by the “anti-Airbnb” law promulgated on November 19. “In four years, the number of unfurnished rental accommodations has been halved, while the rental of furnished tourist accommodation is experiencing rapid growth, to the detriment of the traditional rental stock”justifies Frédérique Espagnac.

Finally, in terms of real estate sales, the Upper House adopted an amendment from Senator Vincent Delahaye which reform the taxation of capital gains on transfers. “The current regime is based on a simple principle: fighting against speculation by promoting long detentions”recalls the parliamentarian. Concretely, capital gains are taxed at a rate of 19%, to which are added 17.2% in social security contributions, for a total of 36.2%. And they benefit from a dual system of reductions, tax and social, depending on the duration of ownership of the property.

The review of the 2025 budget is far from complete

“This regime no longer seems able to respond to the housing crisis and construction from which a large part of the population suffers”believes the senator. His amendment therefore proposes to reduce the effective tax rate from 36.2% to 15% after two years of holding the property. While “preventing real estate speculation” via maintaining a real tax rate of 30% for transfers occurring after holding of less than two years. These provisions would come into force for transfers occurring from January 1, 2026.

All of these measures must still remain in the final version of the PLF 2025, on which the Senate must solemnly vote on December 12. Provided that senators and deputies agree on a common text, it will return for second reading to the National Assembly around December 18, before a possible government recourse to section 49.3 to have it adopted without a vote in Parliament.