Energy-inefficient housing and the start of the 2026 school year: Is renting out a room in your home the legal solution for hosts?

Since January 1, 2025, the French rental property market has been navigating an unprecedented period of turbulence. With the entry into force of the Climate and Resilience Law, renting out entire homes classified as G is strictly prohibited for principal residence leases. This radical measure aims to eradicate what is commonly known as the "thermal sieve" rental. Faced with this situation, many landlord hosts find themselves at an impasse, fearing the upcoming deadlines. At Roomlala, we see the growing concern of our host community on a daily basis. Fortunately, as the start of the academic year approaches, a legal and particularly advantageous alternative is emerging: renting a homestay room. But how exactly does the regulation apply to the 2026 energy performance certificate (DPE)? Is it the miracle solution to continue generating rental income without undertaking major energy renovation work? We decipher all the legal subtleties of this practice for you in order to support you safely.

Climate Law and thermal sieves: What changes with the 2026 DPE

To fully understand the current issues, it is essential to return to the foundations of the Climate and Resilience Law. Its objective is clear: to fight against energy poverty by gradually removing the most energy-intensive homes from the rental market. Since the beginning of 2025, it has been formally prohibited to sign a new lease or renew an existing lease for an entire home classified as G on the Energy Performance Certificate (DPE), provided that it constitutes the tenant's principal residence. This ban will extend to homes classified as F starting in 2028, further increasing the pressure on landlords. The 2026 DPE is therefore part of a turning point where energy transition is no longer an option but a strict legal obligation for traditional landlords.

Read also: 2026 rent control: Which new cities are taking the step in time for the start of the school year?, Mobility lease 2026: The legal framework for renting out your room with total flexibility and Porta 65 housing assistance in 2026: What young tenants and hosts need to know in Portugal

The concept of "thermal sieve" rental is now at the heart of all property concerns. A home is classified as a thermal sieve when it displays excessive energy consumption, resulting in exorbitant heating bills for the tenant and severely degraded living comfort. Public authorities, via the Ministry of Ecological Transition, have put this restrictive schedule in place to force renovation. However, this policy of constraint has significant collateral effects. Many small landlords, lacking the financial means to carry out exterior insulation or completely change their heating system, prefer to withdraw their property from the market. This creates unprecedented rental tension, particularly in large French university cities.

At Roomlala, we observe that this scarcity of supply directly impacts tenants looking for a roof. This is where the 2026 student rental regulation makes sense. Students are the first victims of this shortage of small spaces (studios and one-room apartments), which are historically the worst classified in the DPE. Faced with this alarming observation, the law has fortunately provided for differentiated legal frameworks depending on the nature of the rental. It is essential to understand that the drastic rules applying to an apartment rented in its entirety are not identical when it comes to sharing your own living space. It is this fundamental legal nuance that opens up new perspectives for occupant hosts.

The strict schedule of rental bans

The government calendar leaves no room for doubt. After the rent freeze for thermal sieves (classes F and G) in effect since 2022, the rental ban now affects class G homes in 2025. In 2028, it will be the turn of homes classified as F, then those classified as E in 2034. This schedule applies implacably to entire homes rented unfurnished or furnished as a principal residence. For a landlord whose apartment is currently classified as G, 2026 looks like a "blank year" if they do not undertake renovations. They will not be able to sign a new classic 9-month student lease, nor a renewable one-year lease. The penalty for non-compliance is severe: the tenant can demand a reduction in rent, or even have the court order the work to be done under penalty.

The impact on the 2026 student rental regulation

The 2026 student rental regulation is bearing the full brunt of these bans. The classic student lease, lasting 9 months, is considered by law to be a principal residence lease. Consequently, it is subject to the same energy decency requirements as a classic lease. If you rent an independent class G studio to a student for the start of the 2026 academic year, you are breaking the law. The entire home must strictly justify at least an F class in 2026 for this type of contract. This is a crucial piece of information that we often remind our users: protecting the student tenant is a priority, and the legislator makes no concessions on the energy performance of entire homes, even for durations reduced to the academic year.

Renting a homestay room: An exception to the DPE rule?

It is in this tense legal context that renting a homestay room reveals its full potential. The "Climate Law homestay" benefits from a special status, often unknown to the general public. The golden rule to remember is this: renting a room within your principal residence is exempt from carrying out an individual DPE for the room itself, provided that the surface area of the rented room is less than 14 square meters. In this specific case, the overall DPE of your principal residence is what counts. You do not need to call in a diagnostician to specifically evaluate the student's room. This administrative simplification is a breath of fresh air for hosts.

Furthermore, recent legislative news has strengthened the appeal of this model. The Le Meur law, enacted in November 2024, has considerably tightened the rules governing tourist furnished rentals (like Airbnb) by applying quotas and strict DPE obligations. However, the homestay room completely escapes this strict definition of tourist furnished accommodation. By renting a room within your own principal residence, you are not considered an operator of tourist furnished accommodation within the meaning of this new law. This means that for short-term rentals, you are exempt from the new rental bans linked to the DPE that strike traditional investors. This is a major legal opportunity to generate additional income without being blocked by increasingly punitive local regulations.

At Roomlala, we encourage this practice because it promotes social cohesion and optimizes the use of existing built space. Rather than leaving a room empty, the host makes it available to a tenant, thus participating in the collective effort against the housing crisis. However, it is essential to structure your rental project well to stay within the bounds of legality. The nature of the rental contract that you will have your tenant sign will directly determine the energy rules that will apply to your home. This is not a legal loophole, but an intelligent application of the texts in force, designed to protect the host's home while offering a flexible accommodation solution.

Student lease vs. short-term rental: What is the difference regarding the DPE?

It is crucial to distinguish the type of lease you offer. As mentioned previously, if you opt for a classic 9-month student lease, the room becomes the student's principal residence. In this scenario, the entire home (your house or apartment) remains subject to energy decency criteria. In 2026, your entire home must therefore not be classified as G. On the other hand, if you opt for short-term rentals (a few weeks, month-by-month outside of principal residence, or occasional professional stays), you bypass the strict DPE blockages related to principal residence.

Here are the major differences to remember according to the type of contract:

• The 9-month student lease: constitutes the principal residence. The overall home is subject to the DPE and must not be classified as G in 2026.
• The mobility lease (1 to 10 months): designed for temporary stays, it offers greater flexibility in the face of strict principal residence bans.
• Short-term rental (tourist or occasional): completely escapes DPE constraints and Le Meur law quotas, ideal for thermal sieves.

Let's take the example of Sophie, owner of a class G house in Lille. She cannot sign a 9-month student lease for the start of the 2026 academic year. However, she can certainly rent her room by the month via Roomlala to workers in training or international students on a short language stay, because these contracts do not constitute a principal residence within the meaning of the 1989 law.

Beware of the independent entrance trap

This is one of the major points of vigilance that we insist on at Roomlala. For the room to be legally considered a homestay room, access to this room must necessarily be through the main entrance of your residence. If you have converted a room on the ground floor or in your garden with an independent entrance door opening directly onto the street or the outside, the situation changes radically. In the eyes of the law, this room is reclassified as an entire home (an outbuilding or a studio). It immediately loses its protective status as a homestay room and finds itself subject to the strict bans on thermal sieves. If this outbuilding is classified as G, renting it out as a principal residence is totally prohibited in 2026. Therefore, ensure that your tenant shares your entrance door and moves through the common areas of your home.

Mandatory decency criteria for the homestay room

If the regulation is more flexible on energy performance for short-term rentals or rooms smaller than 14 m2, it remains intransigent on basic decency criteria. Renting a room in your home does not mean renting just anything. The legislator, through the Service-public.fr forms, imposes strict standards to ensure the health and safety of the tenant. As a responsible platform, Roomlala ensures that every listing respects these fundamental prerequisites. The first criterion concerns the dimensions of the room. The rented room must offer a living area of at least 9 square meters, with a ceiling height of at least 2.20 meters. Alternatively, a living volume of 20 cubic meters is tolerated, but the 9 m2 rule remains the most common and easiest to verify.

In addition to surface area, the habitability of the room is conditioned by essential comfort elements. The room must necessarily have a window opening onto the outside, thus ensuring sufficient natural lighting and adequate ventilation to avoid humidity problems. A blind room, even a spacious one, cannot legally be rented as a room. Furthermore, the tenant must have free and permanent access to the essential amenities of your home. This includes access to drinking water, electricity, a functional heating system, as well as decent sanitary facilities (toilets and bathroom). These facilities can be shared with you, which is the very principle of homestay accommodation, but they must not be subject to abusive restrictions.

To summarize, here are the essential decency criteria for renting your room legally:

• A minimum surface area: at least 9 m2 with a ceiling height of 2.20 m.
• An opening to the outside: mandatory presence of a window for ventilation and natural light.
• Access to networks: electricity up to standard and a functional heating system.
• Accessible sanitary facilities: free access to drinking water, toilets, and a bathroom.

Let's take a concrete example to illustrate these obligations. Let's imagine that Marc wants to rent an old maid's room located under the roofs of his house. The room measures 12 m2 on the floor, but because of the roof slope, the surface area where the height exceeds 2.20 m is only 7 m2. Legally, this room does not respect the living area criterion of 9 m2 (Carrez law) and therefore cannot be rented as is, even if it has a window and electricity. It is the owner's responsibility to ensure the compliance of their property before listing it online.

It is also fundamental to remember that the room must not present any obvious risk to the physical safety or health of the tenant. At Roomlala, we emphasize the importance of checking the condition of electrical outlets, the absence of pests, and the good sound insulation of the room. A tenant who feels safe and comfortable in their personal space is the guarantee of a serene and successful cohabitation.

2026 Student school year: Combining legal compliance and tax advantages

One of the major assets of renting a homestay room, beyond the flexibility regarding the 2026 DPE, lies in its extremely incentive tax system. To encourage owners to open their doors and compensate for the student housing crisis, the French state maintains a particularly advantageous income tax exemption mechanism. For the 2026 student school year, renting a room in your home remains fiscally very attractive, provided that certain annual rent ceilings are respected. These ceilings are reassessed each year by the tax administration. In 2026, for the rents collected to be totally exempt from tax, they must not exceed 206 euros per square meter per year in the Île-de-France region, and 152 euros per square meter per year in the rest of France.

It is important to understand how this calculation applies to optimize your profitability in full legality. This ceiling concerns the rent excluding charges. Let's take a concrete use case: You live in Bordeaux (rest of France) and you rent a 15-square-meter room to a student. The annual ceiling to benefit from the exemption amounts to 15 m2 multiplied by 152 euros, i.e., 2,280 euros per year. This corresponds to a maximum monthly rent excluding charges of 190 euros. If you set your rent at this amount or below, you will not have to pay a single cent of tax on this rental income, and you will not even have to declare it in your classic real estate income. This is a considerable net financial advantage compared to a heavily taxed traditional rental.

Finally, keep in mind that these tax benefits are conditional on a precise declaration. Even if you are exempt from taxes thanks to compliance with the ceilings, it is sometimes necessary to mention this income in certain sections of your annual declaration, depending on the evolution of tax forms. We recommend that you always consult the tax notice of the current year or call on a tax advisor to secure your approach 100%.

At Roomlala, we are convinced that this legal and tax framework makes the homestay room the solution of the future for landlords facing the challenges of energy transition. Not only do you avoid the penalties linked to thermal sieves if you opt for the right short-term rental formats, but you also benefit from a significant tax boost. Our platform simplifies all your steps: from secure matching with trusted tenants, to the signing of dematerialized contracts adapted to your specific situation. By anticipating the 2026 DPE rules today, you transform a legislative constraint into a real human and financial opportunity, while offering a warm and legal living environment to the new generation of students.