Rental Agency Fees: A Long‑Awaited Shift in the French Rental Market

After more than a decade of stagnation, the long‑standing freeze on rental agency fees in France is finally ending.

From 1 January 2026, regulated agency fees paid by tenants will be allowed to increase for the first time since 2014, as they will now be linked to the Rent Reference Index (IRL) – a key inflation indicator for rents. This move aims to bring rental fees more in line with real market conditions.

Under the current regime, set up by the loi ALUR nearly 12 years ago, estate agency fees charged for the combined services like property visits, application processing and lease drafting were capped at fixed amounts per square metre — regardless of inflation. But those caps had never been updated, leaving agencies to absorb rising costs for compliance, technology, staffing and paperwork.

The new system restores annual indexing to the IRL, meaning fees will move in step with broader rental price trends rather than remain artificially frozen.

For 2026, the revised ceilings reflect a modest increase of around +0.87 %:

• high-density urban areas “zone très tendue”: €12.10/m²
• Moderately dense areas “zone tendue”: €10.09/m²
• Other areas: €8.07/m²

with a corresponding slight rise in the allowable fee for inventory checks.

For tenants, the financial impact is expected to be limited, with typical increases of only a few euros per square metre. Still, the change is symbolically important — and not without controversy. Some consumer advocates have pointed out that renters already shoulder a significant financial burden when securing a lease, particularly in congested markets like Paris where competition is fierce.

From the perspective of real estate professionals, this update is long overdue. Agencies argue that the frozen fee structure had become untenable given inflation and rising operational costs, and that indexation finally provides clarity and predictability to a system that has driven many smaller firms into strain.

Ultimately, the 2026 adjustment reflects an effort to balance tenant protection with a more sustainable economic model for intermediaries — offering a modest but meaningful modernization of France’s rental landscape.