At the same time, the oldest real estate union in France, the FNAIM Chamber of Alpes-Maritimes, celebrated its centenary in Cannes, with debates on housing policy preceding a gala dinner with many local figures from the economic world, including senator Dominique Estrosi-Sassone and deputy Eric Ciotti, at the same time as the National Assembly voted on thedepreciation of new and old private rental investments acquired between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2028.
Quite a symbol: it took years for the industry to make people understand that the lessor – a somewhat abstruse term for the general public – was an entrepreneur in his own right and that he deserved the possibility of accessing the accounting depreciation of his operating assets. The fiscal benefit of this system is what it is: some people wanted more and moreover the legislative process is not finished, the Senate is preparing to improve the system. His advent nevertheless constitutes a victory over the anti-real estate ideology, which the President of the Republic personally embodied. His assessment that real estate investment was a form of income left deep marks in the minds of households and professionals.
What has just happened in Parliament rehabilitates him. This is where true victory lies in doubt. For the rest, we understand that the multiple criteria and conditions for being able to benefit from this depreciation will take away its breath and that a proportion of investment candidates will be dissuaded. What variables can the Upper House review to improve them?
The Senate should raise the deductible income limit to at least 10,000 euros
Depreciation rates? They stand between 3.5% and 5.5% in new properties depending on the level of rent, from very social to intermediate, and from 3% to 4% in existing properties. Bercy, under pressure from deputies, has almost doubled the rate provided for in its own amendmentand expanded to the existing one. Could the planned cost be further increased by the Senate? It is clear that the rate, depending on its level, guarantees or not the success of the measure. This is the first element that will be seen by the investor. He will also see the limits: the maximum two homes are not a problem and most make a purchase. On the other hand, the limit of 8,000 euros deductible from income per year amounts not only to limiting the fiscal power of the system, but also to optimizing the choice of housing to saturate the ceiling without exceeding it: medium-sized housing, essentially new, is likely to give way to acquisitions of smaller modules, at least in tight and expensive markets. The Senate should raise this limit to at least 10,000 euros.
The obligation to rent the property for at least 12 years is not inconvenient and we can only understand the intention to stabilize the rental stock and divert mercenaries from rental who come to reduce their taxes without attachment to the mission of housing households sustainably. The ban on renting to family members will cause hundreds of investments to be lost: the reflex to make an investment with a financial intention is traditionally coupled among the French with the desire to provide a service to a child or a parent, under common law conditions and not free of charge – a major clarification. The argument according to which this facility directs the measure towards the most advantaged does not hold: if they have the means, what does it matter? Their loved ones will not swell the queues of rental housing applicants and that will already be a win in decongesting the market!
“It is urgent that depreciation also concerns individual rental investment”
And then, once again, the individual house pays the price for the ideology hostile to this habitat, on the grounds that it threatens land frugality. This ignores the fact that houses are being built today on plots of land of 300 to 400 m2, that two-storey and terraced houses are multiplying, to accommodate several households… and it forgets that the rental demand for houses is very strong in our territories and unsatisfied. It is urgent that depreciation also concerns individual rental investments.
Is the obligation of 20% work for old housing prohibitive? It is ultimately in the investor’s interest to buy properties to be renovated at a lower price, in particular with the aim of improving their environmental performance, to reduce their tax bill. What’s more, it is likely that the extension for two years of the doubling of the 21,700 euros budget will be confirmed.imputation of the deficit generated by works of ecological improvement on overall income, a measure desired by the Minister of Cities and Housing himself.
Finally, the question of reincorporating depreciation into the calculation of capital gain is just normal in all accounting orthodoxy. How can we support the opposite? Moreover, if an investor completes the depreciation, that is to say up to 80% of the value of the property (the residual 20% is supposed to constitute the value of the land), he will have greatly reduced his tax and will be able to accept taxation. In addition, if the reduction devicetaxation of capital gains for holding periodwhich was improved during this parliamentary debate with a shortening from 30 years to 22 years, is maintained and compatible, the taxation will be zero in the event of lasting conservation of the rental investment.
One last variable will matter for the wealthiest investors: the base of the new unproductive wealth tax will it be reestablished by the Senate in its original version, desired by MP Jean-Paul Mattéi, namely exclusive to rental housing? If this is the case, Parliament will have successfully completed the operation of moral and political rehabilitation of residential real estate investment. To put it bluntly, it was an authentic revolution in the first sense of the term that took place: Pierre-André Périssol, Minister of Housing in 1995, imposed depreciation on new rental housing. By sacrificing it for a return to a tax reduction shortly after, in the name of simplification, the sector had not realized that it was destroying a virtuous economic concept… that it would take 30 years and many efforts to resurrect, with the help of a few lucid and courageous public women and men. It is appropriate to salute them.
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