Until 10 years ago, rental investors only glanced at the energy performance diagnosis (EPD) sheet out of pure politeness when purchasing a property. Today, “DPE is a central criterion for almost 80% of buyers”underlines the company Maslow.immo, specialist in rental investment, citing a study by the BPCE group published last May.
And for good reason! The Climate and Resilience law, promulgated in 2021, prohibits the rental of thermal strainers rated G on the DPE since January 1, 2025. A ban which will affect properties classified F in 2028, then those rated E in 2034. “Thousands of homes will become unrentable in the short term”summarizes Maslow.immo. This, “even with the reform of the method of calculating the DPE announced for January 2026”which will allow 850,000 homes heated with electricity to move beyond thermal sieve status.
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Good DPE and sustained population growth
“Investing in housing with poor energy performance means taking the risk of expensive asset to renovate And not very liquid on resale»insists the rental investment platform. This is why it has just carried out a study identifying 10 cities where the rental stock presents good DPE in general. Cities whose population is also increasing regularly, which supports rental demand. To arrive at this ranking, Maslow.immo studied French towns with more than 30,000 inhabitants located in tense areas, where the demand for housing is much higher than the supply.
The company then crossed two criteria: the average annual demographic growth between 2015 and 2021, based on INSEE data, and the energy performance of new and old housing which was the subject of a DPE between January 1 and August 31, 2025, on the occasion of a sale, rental or delivery, i.e. 2.4 million DPE listed by Ademe (Ecological Transition Agency). Based on these two criteria, Maslow.immo assigned each city a weighted DPE rating, from a maximum of 7 points for A-rated accommodation to a minimum of 1 point for G-rated accommodation.
Two cities in the South East at the head of the pack
“The cross-analysis of population curves and DPE reveals 10 separate territories, experiencing demographic growth and equipped with a housing stock increasingly in line with climatic deadlines”notes the company. Saint-Laurent-du-Varin the Alpes-Maritimes, comes at the top of the ranking (see infographic), with a score of 5.10 out of 7. Backed by the Nice metropolis, this commune “leads ambitious urban projects and supports the energy renovation of housing via dedicated help desks”explains Maslow.immo. As a result, almost a third of the DPEs carried out between January 1 and August 31, 2025 in Saint-Laurent-du-Var display an A label! At the same time, the city has seen its population grow by more than 1% per year for around ten years.
Istresin Bouches-du-Rhône, is close behind Saint-Laurent-du-Var, with a score of 4.96 out of 7. Maslow.immo also calls on “an urban transformation policy, with renovated buildings, fuel oil replaced (by less polluting energies) and the installation of solar panels”.
The other end of the ranking, with DPE scores lower than 4 out of 7, only includes cities in the Paris region. Certainly, rental demand is strong in Asnières-sur-Seine, Levallois-Perret and Saint-Germain-en-Laye but this should not overshadow “energy fragility” of part of the buildings of these municipalities, underlines Maslow.immo. The company points out properties whose prices are maintained at high levels by this rental tension but which are “structurally penalized” by their poor thermal performance. An imbalance which, “ultimately, will weaken the profitability and liquidity of these assets”she warns.
