New DPE requirements affect 11 million flats in France

An estimated 11 million flat owners across France will be impacted by the latest phase of collective DPE (diagnostic de performance énergétique) certificates from January 2026.

Known as DPE collectif, the certificates evaluate the energy performance of exterior walls, windows, roofs and shared areas within apartment buildings and co-owned dwellings.

As with DPE certificates for individual residences, they are classified on a scale from A (best-performing) to G (worst).

Until now only large apartment blocks containing between 50 and 200 flats, or smaller buildings with fewer than 50 flats equipped with shared heating or cooling systems, were required to have a DPE collectif. Together, these categories represent 11% of French flats.

From January 2026, all residential buildings with fewer than 50 units will be subject to the DPE collectif assessment, extending the remit to cover the vast majority of the remaining 89% (around 11 million flats) of France’s apartment blocks and co-owned dwellings.

A DPE collectif costs between €1,000 and €5,000, depending on the size and complexity of the building, and is paid for by all members of a copropriété as part of annual service charges.

Apartment owners must also obtain individual DPE certificates if they rent or sell their property.

It has been suggested that the DPE collectif could make some residences with poor individual DPE ratings easier to sell, following a ban on renting out France’s least energy-efficient flats.

Owing to specific features of the assessment system, smaller flats frequently receive lower ratings than larger ones. However, sellers will now be able to refer to the DPE collectif for the entire building to demonstrate that the property overall is not excessively energy consuming.

Property professionals have been waiting for two years for a decision from the housing and environmental authorities on which DPE assessment may be legally applied for sales or rental purposes, owing to discrepancies between the DPE collectif and that of an individual flat within the same building.

Another unanswered question is whether the DPE collectif must be taken into account as part of individual DPE assessments.

If the syndicat de copropriété decides on renovation projects to obtain a higher energy rating, resultant bills may be costly.

An example is the renovation of 275 flats in a social housing project in Lyon classified as architecture contemporaine remarquable, completed in October 2025 after five years’ work costing €33million.

The project involved replacing individual electric radiators with collective central heating, changing windows and doors to double glazing, and spraying a thin insulating material over the exterior walls.