Paris (AFP)

Homes whose energy consumption exceeds 450 kWh per square meter per year, i.e. those classified G, the worst category, can no longer be offered for rent from 2023, according to a decree published on Wednesday in the Official Journal.

This text introduces the criterion of "energy performance in the definition of decent housing", and stipulates that to be rented, any housing must have "an energy consumption of less than 450 kilowatt-hours of final energy per square meter of living space and per year".

"We assume to start slowly with a fairly unconstraining threshold to tackle the worst thermal strainers as a priority and leave a little visibility to other owners. The goal is to gain momentum thereafter," explains the Minister for Housing Emmanuelle Wargon, in an interview Wednesday in the Figaro.

It indicates that checks will be carried out on "the announcements of real estate agencies, which will not be able to offer the rental of such thermal strainers".

Only 90,000 homes, or 4% of "thermal strainers", including 70,000 private homes, are affected by this deadline, while the bill resulting from the Citizen's Climate Convention provides for the end of the rental of 4.8 million energy-intensive housing by 2028.

Subsequently, the thresholds that will apply to exclude excessively energy-consuming housing from the rental market "will be expressed on the basis of the labels of the future Energy Performance Diagnosis (DPE), currently being redefined", specifies a press release from Ministry of Ecological Transition.

"Thus, on January 1, 2028, all energy strainers designated by labels F and G of the future DPE will be excluded from the rental market".

With 18% of emissions in 2017 in France (28% by adding the production of heat and electricity), the building is one of the four major sectors emitting greenhouse gases, along with transport, agriculture and industry.

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