Your property is rated F or G: a landlord's four options

You receive the diagnosis, the letter is an F or a G, and the question lands: what now. For an owner living abroad it is harder than for a resident, because each option requires a presence on site that you do not have. This guide sets out the four possible paths and what separates them, without selling the one that suits us.

It complements our reference page on works and energy renovation.

First, check the letter is correct

Before deciding anything, make sure the diagnosis tells the truth. Two frequent situations make it contestable.

The first concerns small units. The calculation method was corrected on 1 July 2024 for homes of forty square metres and under, which were heavily penalised by the relative weight of domestic hot water. Tens of thousands of studios gained a rating without any works at all. If your diagnosis predates that and the property is small, redoing it costs a few hundred euros.

The second concerns documentation. Without proof, the assessor applies default values, always unfavourable. An invoice for loft insulation, a boiler manual, minutes of a general meeting voting facade insulation can all raise the score. Gathering these documents and asking for a re-inspection is the first reflex, not the last.

Option 1: renovate

This is the route that preserves the property’s value and the right to let it. It is judged on three figures: the cost of the works, the expected rating gain and how long you intend to keep the property.

The order of works matters as much as their nature, and our reference page details the levers that actually shift a rating. Remember above all that changing the heating before insulating leads to oversizing the equipment, and that most decisive gains come through insulation or through leaving old electric heating behind.

The hard point for a non-resident is not technical, it is calendar-related. When the works affect common parts or the facade, they go to the co-ownership general meeting, held once a year. External insulation decided in January may only be voted the following June. Facing a 2028 deadline, you must count back from the meeting, not from the quote.

Option 2: sell

Selling an energy sieve remains possible, and it is even an active market: buyers who renovate look for exactly these properties. But three things weigh on the price.

• The energy audit is compulsory before marketing a single-ownership home rated F or G since April 2023, and E since January 2025. It costs out the works needed, and the buyer negotiates on that figure.
• The discount exists and is visible in market data: a property rated F or G sells for less than an equivalent better-rated one, and the gap widened as the deadlines approached.
• A non-resident’s capital gain follows its own regime, with its holding-period allowances and social charges, a subject covered by our guide on a non-resident’s capital gain.

Selling has one merit the other options lack: it ends the matter for good, which counts when you live ten thousand kilometres away.

Option 3: change the use

The energy decency criterion targets the tenant’s primary residence. A home rated G can therefore no longer be let year-round, but it can today be let as a tourist rental, serve as a second home, or be occupied by you during your stays.

That is a solution, but you should know what you are buying. The act of 19 November 2024 gave municipalities extensive powers over tourist letting, and many sought-after towns already use them: quotas, change-of-use authorisation, compensation. The tax regime for unclassified tourist lets has also tightened. Our guide on classifying a tourist let details that new calculation.

In other words, it is a reprieve, not a long-term strategy.

Option 4: wait

Waiting is a choice, and sometimes the right one. A property rated F remains lettable until 2028, and those two years can serve to vote insulation through the co-ownership, to assemble a grant application, or simply to let a lease run to its term.

Waiting becomes a fault when nothing is set in motion in the meantime. The companies capable of a large-scale renovation have full order books, co-ownerships vote once a year, and grants are applied for before the works, never after. The only waiting plan that holds is a dated one.

The decision table

Your situation	The option that usually prevails
Property held long term, co-ownership that votes works through	Renovate, timing it on the general meeting
Property held more than twenty-two years, no family plan	Sell, the capital gain being largely relieved
Small home, diagnosis predating July 2024	Redo the diagnosis before any other decision
Property in a tourist area, lightly regulated municipality	Change the use, checking the local rules first
Rated F, lease running to 2027	Wait, but vote the works at the next meeting

What we do

French Realty costs the scenarios before you spend: several packages of works, their estimated effect on the rating, their cost ranges, and what each implies in authorisations and calendar. If you renovate, your dedicated concierge opens the site, attends the milestones and is present at handover. If you sell, we coordinate the audit and the surveys. The works themselves are carried out by partner tradespeople, under their own guarantees.

To base the decision on figures, the complimentary personal study is the starting point.