The new Jeanbrun scheme explained: houses, works threshold, energy-inefficient homes, what the Lecornu government wants to change.

Presented by Sébastien Lecornu on 23 January 2026 as the centrepiece of his housing revival plan, the Jeanbrun scheme came into force on 21 February. It did not wait for its first anniversary to be put back on the drawing board. As early as 23 April, the Prime Minister announced a bill to extend it to existing property, and the text has since moved forward at a good pace: adopted by the Senate on 8 July, voted in the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly on 22 September, it is expected in plenary session in the week of 16 November. Here is where the rules stand, those that apply today and those that could apply tomorrow.

The Jeanbrun scheme as it applies today

The scheme, which the tax authorities call “Relance logement” and which the press has named after the Housing Minister Vincent Jeanbrun, breaks with the logic of the Pinel scheme. It does not grant a tax reduction but depreciation: each year, a fraction of the price of the dwelling is deducted from taxable rents, which lowers the tax base instead of reducing the final tax. It applies to acquisitions made between 21 February 2026 and 31 December 2028, anywhere in France, with no zoning.

• New-build or off-plan purchase (vente en l'état futur d'achèvement), in a multi-unit building: 3.5% per year at intermediate rent, 4.5% at social rent, 5.5% at very social rent.
• Refurbished existing property: 3%, 3.5% or 4% on the same scale, provided the works represent at least 30% of the purchase price and the dwelling reaches rating A or B after works.
• Depreciable base: 80% of the price net of costs, the balance representing the land on a flat-rate basis, plus the amount of the works for existing property.
• Deduction cap: €8,000 per year and per tax household, all dwellings combined, raised to €10,000 if at least half of the rents fall under the social category and to €12,000 for very social.
• In return: unfurnished letting for at least nine years, as the tenant's main residence, within rent and income ceilings aligned with intermediate, social or very social housing.
• The deficit created by depreciation is set against overall income up to €10,700 per year, a ceiling raised to €21,400 for energy renovation works until the end of 2027. This is the real novelty compared with previous schemes.

Why the government already wants to reform it

The scheme was designed for new-build multi-unit housing. For existing property, its cumulative conditions, 30% works and a rating of A or B on completion, are out of reach for most projects: reaching rating B in a 19th-century building is often technically impossible. Detached houses, which account for more than half of the housing stock, were excluded. On the ground, professionals quickly found that the tool mobilised almost nothing in the existing stock, which is nonetheless where the homes to be brought back onto the market are to be found.

Two texts have taken over. A private member's bill from Valérie Létard, a former Housing Minister, tabled on 14 April and adopted by the Assembly on 28 May by 85 votes to 29, goes furthest: it opens the scheme to older houses and replaces the works threshold with a performance target, two ratings gained for an F- or G-rated dwelling, one rating for the others. In parallel, the government has taken up these relaxations in its own bill on the “revival and decentralisation of housing”, tabled on 24 June, which also carries the rest of the reform.

What the bill changes for the Jeanbrun scheme

• Older detached houses become eligible, whereas only multi-unit buildings were.
• The works threshold falls from 30% to 20% of the purchase price. MPs had removed it in committee in the spring; the Assembly committee restored it at 20% on 22 September. On a property bought for €200,000, the obligation drops from €60,000 to €40,000 of works.
• The energy requirement is relaxed: instead of a rating of A or B after works, the text adopts a gain in ratings on the DPE (diagnostic de performance énergétique, the French energy performance certificate), which is more realistic for older buildings.
• The conversion of non-residential premises, offices or shops, into housing comes within the scope of the scheme, a direction we are following closely.

The rest of the reform: energy-inefficient homes and decentralisation

The most commented part of the bill does not concern the Jeanbrun scheme but the ban on letting dwellings rated F and G. The text would allow them to be let again provided the landlord undertakes in writing to carry out the works, within three years for a house and five years for a flat in a co-owned building. Failing works within the deadline, the ban would apply in full. The government estimates at around 700,000 the number of dwellings that could thus return to the market. Current leases would not be affected, and a co-ownership that refuses the works at its general meeting would give the landlord additional time.

The bill also gives mayors a stronger say over the allocation of social housing, transfers to inter-municipal authorities the management of construction subsidies and of MaPrimeRénov', and creates “operations of local interest” with accelerated planning procedures. The Assembly committee examined more than 700 amendments on 22 September: the text that emerges from the plenary session in November may still differ on each of these points.

The criticisms, from left and right alike

The reform does not command consensus. On the left, the Communists denounce public support for the private stock at the expense of social housing. The Rassemblement national, in favour of opening the scheme to houses, contests the energy criteria and fears that the least efficient dwellings will leave the market. Tenants' associations are concerned about the signal sent on energy-inefficient homes, five years after the Climate and Resilience Act. And the memory of the Pinel scheme looms: the Cour des comptes, France's national audit office, had judged its cost high for an uncertain effect, which led to the Jeanbrun advantage being capped per household and not per dwelling.

And for a Covesta investor?

The Jeanbrun scheme requires unfurnished letting, a nine-year commitment and capped rents. Yet most of our transactions are carried out as furnished lettings under the actual regime (régime réel), which makes it possible to depreciate the whole of the property and the furniture with no rent ceiling or minimum term, with a taxable result that is often nil for many years. For a studio or a house share in a large city, furnished letting remains in most cases the most efficient structure, and the Jeanbrun scheme changes nothing there.

• The Jeanbrun scheme becomes attractive when you wish to let unfurnished, you are in a high tax bracket and the deficit that can be set against overall income, up to €21,400 with energy works, weighs heavily in your calculation.
• It comes into its own on a major renovation: this is precisely the type of project that Covesta coordinates, with vetted contractors, on dwellings rated F or G brought several ratings higher.
• If the reform is adopted, an older house to renovate, an office to convert or a building to refurbish with 20% works will come within scope: cases we already know how to source and cost.

We will follow the text in plenary session in November and update this article as soon as the final version is known. Until then, the figures to remember are those of the scheme in force: 30% works, a rating of A or B, nine years of unfurnished letting.