Pinel: keeping your letting commitment

Did you buy under Pinel (a French income tax reduction for new-build rental investment) before the end of 2024? The reduction is only yours if you let the property unfurnished, as the tenant's main home, for 6 or 9 years, at a rent and to a tenant that stay within the caps. Break the initial commitment and the tax office takes back all the reduction you have had so far, in one go.

The scheme itself is closed: it covers investments made up to 31 December 2024, according to impots.gouv.fr. The rules below still govern the commitment you are in.

The commitment term and its extension#

The initial commitment is 6 or 9 years, chosen when you invested (article 199 novovicies of the French tax code, CGI). It runs from the date the first lease took effect.

When it ends, you can extend it (prorogation) in 3-year periods, according to the BOFiP, the tax administration's official guidance:

Initial commitment	Possible extensions	Maximum length
6 years	3 years, renewable once	12 years
9 years	3 years, once	12 years

Each extension earns an additional reduction, at a rate that depends on the year and place of the investment:

Investment	6 years: 1st / 2nd extension	9 years: extension
2014 to 2022, or 2023–2024 in a priority neighbourhood or above the quality standard	6% / 3%	3%
2023, other cases	4.5% / 2.5%	2.5%
2024, other cases	3% / 2%	2%

During an extension the same conditions keep applying: actual, continuous letting, the rent and income caps, and a tenant outside your tax household.

The 2026 caps#

The caps are checked when the lease is signed: the rent when the lease is signed or renewed, the tenant's income on the date the lease is signed (BOFiP, § 250). A lease signed in 2026 (or, for the rent, renewed in 2026) follows the 2026 caps published in the BOFiP; a running lease is not re-tested every year.

Maximum monthly rent, excluding service charges, mainland France#

Zone	2026 cap per m²
A bis	€19.71
A	€14.64
B1	€11.80
B2 and C	€10.26

The cap per m² is adjusted by a multiplier equal to 0.7 + 19 / S, where S is the surface taken into account, rounded to two decimals and capped at 1.2 (BOFiP, § 120). S is the living area plus half the area of the annexes kept for the tenant (cellar, balcony, loggia…), that half being limited to 8 m²; a parking space or garage is not part of it (BOFiP, guidance on the earlier Scellier scheme, § 320 to 360, to which the Pinel guidance refers). If a parking space is let under the same lease as the home, the whole rent, parking included, is compared with the cap (§ 440). The regional prefect can also lower the cap locally.

Example: a 50 m² flat with no annexes in zone B1, lease signed in 2026.

• Multiplier: 0.7 + 19 / 50 = 1.08.
• Cap per m²: €11.80 × 1.08 = €12.74.
• Maximum rent: €12.74 × 50 m² = €637 a month, excluding charges.

Maximum annual income of the tenant, mainland France#

For a lease signed in 2026, service-public.gouv.fr uses the tenant household's 2024 reference tax income (revenu fiscal de référence, printed on their tax notice). The 2025 one may be used if it is lower, provided the tenant produces the matching tax notice when the lease is signed (BOFiP, guidance on the earlier Scellier scheme, § 320 and 330, to which the Pinel guidance refers).

Household	A bis	A	B1	B2 and C
Single person	€44,344	€44,344	€36,144	€32,530
Couple	€66,276	€66,276	€48,268	€43,439
1 dependant	€86,878	€79,666	€58,043	€52,239
2 dependants	€103,727	€95,427	€70,073	€63,066
3 dependants	€123,415	€112,968	€82,432	€74,189
4 dependants	€138,874	€127,122	€92,900	€83,611
Each extra dependant	€15,471	€14,164	€10,364	€9,325

For the income cap, the zone is the town's zone on the date the lease is signed (BOFiP, § 160). For the rent cap, our reading of the BOFiP: the zone that counts is, as a rule, the one in force when you invested; if the town's zoning has changed since, it is the one in force when the lease is signed or renewed (BOFiP, § 23 and 29). Have your tax adviser confirm this point.

What makes you lose the reduction#

Situation	What the texts provide
First letting too late	The lease must take effect within 12 months of completion or purchase.
Rent or income above the caps	The caps are a condition of the reduction, checked at each new lease.
Tenant in your tax household	Excluded, including if they join it during the lease.
Vacancy too long	The property must be relet within 12 months of receiving the tenant's notice.
Selling during the commitment	Breaks the letting commitment.
Splitting ownership	Separating usufruct and bare ownership (démembrement) triggers a clawback, unless it results from the death of either member of a couple taxed jointly; the surviving spouse who holds the usufruct can then take over the commitment.
Furnished, or used by you	The letting must stay unfurnished, as the tenant's main home.

Letting to a relative#

For an investment made from 1 January 2015, the tenant may be a parent or a child, as long as they are not part of your tax household (BOFiP). A child still attached to your tax household therefore cannot be your Pinel tenant. For an investment made between September and December 2014, parents and children are excluded.

Vacancy between two tenants#

It is tolerated if you can show you looked for a tenant (listings, an agency) on terms that are not off-putting. If 12 months pass after you received the notice without a new letting, the reduction is called into question (BOFiP, guidance on the earlier Scellier scheme, § 40 and 50, to which the Pinel guidance refers). A vacancy that starts less than 12 months before the commitment ends is accepted if the property stays fit to let, is not used by you or lent, and is not sold before the end date.

What a breach costs#

If the commitment is broken along the way, your income tax for the year of the event is increased by the total reduction obtained until then (BOFiP). If the initial conditions were never met, the tax for each year in which you used the reduction is increased instead. Either way, the extra tax carries late-payment interest and the surcharge set by articles 1727 and 1758 A of the CGI. Disability (2nd or 3rd category), dismissal or death of the taxpayer or of either member of a couple taxed jointly only prevents the clawback when the commitment is broken by not letting, letting late, too long a vacancy or a sale. Dismissal does not count if a full-rate pension is available when the employment contract ends. There is no exception if you live in the property, let it to someone who does not meet the conditions, or charge more than the rent cap (BOFiP, guidance on the earlier Scellier scheme, § 10 and 20).

During an extension, a breach only claws back the additional reduction for the extended period: the reduction for the initial period stays yours (BOFiP, § 180 and 390). The reverse does not hold: a clawback for the initial period also cancels the extensions' additional reductions (§ 380).

At the end of the commitment#

The law only continues the reduction if you extend the commitment. Without an extension, no further reduction is granted. The clawback cases above concern events that happen during the commitment: once it has run its course, they no longer apply.

Sources#

• Article 199 novovicies of the French tax code (Légifrance)
• BOFiP: 2026 Pinel rent and income caps (BOI-BAREME-000017)
• BOFiP: extending the letting commitment (BOI-IR-RICI-360-60)
• BOFiP: clawback of the reduction (BOI-IR-RICI-360-40)
• BOFiP: surface, parking and vacancy, Scellier guidance (BOI-IR-RICI-230-20-20)
• BOFiP: tenant income, Scellier guidance (BOI-IR-RICI-230-40-10)
• BOFiP: exceptions to the clawback, Scellier guidance (BOI-IR-RICI-230-60)
• Pinel and Duflot tax reductions (service-public.gouv.fr, in French)

Last checked on 7 November 2026