A study carried out by Hello Watt also shows that the towns in the region are among those with the lowest number of rental homes classified in category G.
From this 1is January 2025, accommodation located in mainland France whose energy performance diagnosis (DPE) corresponds to the letter G, can no longer be offered for rental. This ban on the most energy-intensive properties on the rental market will concern housing classified F from 2028 and housing classified E from 2034.
Created in 2006, the DPE is a measurement tool which is used to provide information on the energy performance of a home or building, by evaluating its energy consumption and its impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. “This document raises awareness among owners and tenants of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by their housing, particularly with a view to renovation work”we specify at Bercy.
“In France, 2 million homes are classified G”
“In France, 2 million homes are classified G”notes Hello Watt, specialist in the energy transition of housing, who has just carried out a study on housing considered to be thermal sieves (classified G). The company has drawn up an inventory of G housing in France, based on the Ademe database and the analysis of 534,000 G DPEs, carried out between July 2021 and December 2024.
A measure precipitated by the fall of the Barnier government
“The fall of the Barnier government buried the proposed law aimed at granting exemptions to certain landlords of housing with an energy performance diagnosis G”, we remind you at Hello Watt. Indeed, a proposed law was to grant exemptions to half of the 600,000 DPE G thermal strainers currently available for rental in France. “While 45% of housing in France is apartments, 53% of G-rated thermal strainers fall into this category”we add again at Hello Watt. And “the proportion of G dwellings heated with oil is very high, reaching 19%, compared to 5% for the average dwelling”. As a reminder: G-rated accommodation a “the worst energy performance according to the DPE, the tool used to assess the energy consumption and environmental impact of real estate”. This type of accommodation, as well as those classified F, are “characterized by insufficient thermal insulation” and heating devices “ineffective”which “leads to a loss significant heat”. Housing G and F “generally use a lot of energy, are expensive to heat and have a larger carbon footprint”.
We thus learn that “G accommodations are located mainly in Île-de-France, Lozère, Cantal, Creuse and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence”. Lozère is even, according to this study, the leading department in France in terms of the proportion of housing classified G: at the end of 2024, 20.6% of housing in the department is classified in category G. On par with the neighboring department of Cantal.
The good scores of the Mediterranean facade
On the other hand, according to the study carried out by Hello Watt, it is in the Aude department that the proportion of G housing is the lowest in France: 1.3%. The region is even very well placed, since Hérault and Gard appear in second and third positions, with, respectively, 1.6% and 1.9%. A little further away, we find, in seventh position, the Pyrénées-Orientales, with a proportion of 2.6% of G housing.
To produce its ranking of the departments where housing is the least energy-intensive, Hello Watt selected, in each of them, towns with more than 90,000 inhabitants. In fact, the entire Mediterranean coast is well ranked since all its departments appear in the top 10 of the ranking. Bouches-du-Rhône is thus 4th, Var 5th and Alpes-Maritimes 9th.
Perpignan, city with the fewest G housing
We also find these good energy performances in housing located in the main cities of the region. Three of them appear in the Top 10 cities with the fewest G housing. With, at the very top of this ranking, in first place, Perpignan, which has only 1.2% of G housing, just ahead Montpellier, in second position, with 1.7%. Nîmes, ranked 6th city, has a rate of 1.9% of housing classified G.
Composite portrait of a dwelling G
Hello Watt produced the sketch of a G-rated accommodation during the DPE. We thus learn that 53% of these dwellings are apartments, which have an average surface area of 62 m² and that the date of their construction is 1953. More than half (56%) use electricity for energy for heating, ahead of fuel oil (19%), gas (18%) and wood (6%). “The proportion of G housing heated with oil is very high, reaching 19%, compared to 5% for the average housing.note Hello Watt.
“Mediterranean cities where the climate is milder are strongly represented in this ranking because the need for heating assessed by the DPE is less important”take care to note the authors of the Hello Watt study.
“In southern cities, there is less collectivization of heating”
Former regional president of Fnaim, Christophe Jay, boss of the Montpellier agency Jay Immobilier, also holds the role of condominium trustee. He has a good knowledge of the rental market and uneconomical housing in terms of energy consumption. “In 2023 and early 2024, we had DPEs that were not goodhe explains. We had a lot of housing, particularly small areas, classified as F and G.” From mid-2024, new regulations have been applied, concerning the calculation of diagnostics. “The modification of the calculation criteria, from last July, allowed the dwellings concerned to gain one or two letters. In other words, G dwellings moved to E, for example.” Which, he continues, “has made it possible to push back the deadlines for compliance and work”. He believes that with these new procedures, “the government was willing to hear that the DPEs were going to deprive the market of a lot of housing, especially in a year of shortage.” A year “difficult in particular for young people looking for accommodation”. Government decisions have thus “permitted to put a lot of space back on the rental market”.
As for the conclusions of Hello Watt's study on the low proportion of energy non-compliant housing in large cities in France, and particularly in the region, Christophe Jay sees this as the result of a housing market structure. “Our region has the particularity of having, unlike other regions, a lower collectivization of heating.” The local housing stock was built “with a greater use of electricity, when in other regions we are often on fuel oil”. Without forgetting that the regional park is very often made up of small groups. “We do not have many large real estate complexes, such as the Petit Bard in Montpellier; which means that the owners have always ensured regular maintenance of the accommodation they rent out”. Which, on arrival, gives a rather favorable panorama of energy-intensive housing.
