Thermal strainers: Lozère, the leading department in France for the proportion of G-rated housing

Un grand nombre de logements classés G sont situés dans les grands centres historiques des villes. MAXPPP – Nicolas VALLAURI

A study by Hello Watt also shows that the region's cities are among those with the lowest number of rental properties classified in category G.

As of January 1, 2025, rental properties located in metropolitan France whose energy performance diagnosis (DPE) corresponds to the letter G, will no longer be able to be offered for rental. This ban on the most energy-intensive properties on the rental market will concern F-rated housing from 2028 and E-rated housing from 2034.

Created in 2006, the DPE is a measuring tool 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 about the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by their homes, particularly with a view to renovation work”, Bercy specifies.

“In France, 2 million homes are classified G”

“In France, 2 million homes are classified G”, notes Hello Watt, a specialist in the energy transition of homes, who has just carried out a study on homes 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 DPE G, carried out between July 2021 and December 2024.

A measure precipitated by the fall of the Barnier government

“The fall of the Barnier government has buried the bill aimed at granting exemptions to certain landlords of housing with an energy performance diagnosis G”, , as Hello Watt recalls. Indeed, a bill was to grant exemptions to half of the 600,000 thermal sieves with the DPE G currently available for rental in France. “While 45% of housing in France is apartments, 53% of G-classified thermal strainers fall into this category”, Hello Watt adds. And “the proportion of G-class housing heated by fuel oil is very high, reaching 19%, compared to 5% for the average housing”.As a reminder: a G  rated home has "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 housing, as well as those classified as F, are “characterized by insufficient thermal insulation" and "inefficient" heating devices, which "leads to significant heat loss" . G and F housing “generally consume a lot of energy, are expensive to heat and have a larger carbon footprint”.

We thus learn that “G housing is located mainly in Île-de-France, Lozère, Cantal, Creuse and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence”. Lozère is even, according to this study, the first department in France by the proportion of G-classified housing: at the end of 2024, 20.6% of the housing in the department is classified in the G category. Equal with the neighboring department of Cantal.

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The good scores of the Mediterranean coast

On the other hand, according to the study carried out by Hello Watt, it is in the department of Aude that the proportion of G housing is the lowest in France: 1.3%. The region is even very well placed, since Hérault and Gard are 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, the cities with more than 90,000 inhabitants. In fact, it is the entire Mediterranean coast that is well ranked since all its departments appear in the top 10 of the ranking. Bouches-du-Rhône are thus 4th, Var 5th and Alpes-Maritimes 9th.

Perpignan, city with the least housing G

These good energy performances are also found in housing located in the main cities of the region. Three of them are in the Top 10 cities with the fewest G housing. With, at the top of this ranking, in first place, Perpignan, which has only 1.2% of G housing, just ahead of Montpellier, in second position, with 1.7%. Nîmes, ranked 6th city, has a rate of 1.9% of G-classified housing.

Robot portrait of a G housing

Hello Watt has produced a robot portrait of a G-classified housing during the DPE. We learn that 53% of these dwellings are apartments, which have an average surface area of ​​62 m² and that their construction date 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 by fuel oil is very high, reaching 19%, compared to 5% for the average housing", notes Hello Watt.

“Mediterranean cities where the climate is milder are strongly represented in this ranking because the heating requirement assessed by the DPE is less significant”, the authors of the Hello Watt study are careful to note.

“In southern cities, there is less collectivization of heating”

Former regional president of Fnaim, Christophe Jay, head of the Montpellier agency Jay Immobilier, also combines the role of condominium trustee. He has a good knowledge of the rental market and of housing that is not very economical in terms of energy consumption. “In 2023 and early 2024, we had DPEs that were not good,” he explains. We had a lot of housing, especially small ones, classified as F and G”. &As of mid-2024, new regulations were applied, concerning the calculation of diagnostics. &Aquot;The modification of the calculation criteria, from last July, allowed the housing concerned to gain one or two letters. In other words, G housing went to E, for example”. Which, he continues, “has made it possible to postpone the deadlines for compliance and work”. He believes that with these new procedures, “the government has been willing to hear that the DPEs will deprive the market of a lot of housing, especially in a year of shortage”. A year “difficult, particularly for young people looking for housing”. Government decisions have thus “made it possible to put a lot of space back on the rental market”.

As for the conclusions of the Hello Watt study on the low proportion of energy-inefficient housing in major French cities, 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 has been built “with a greater use of electricity, when in other regions we are often on fuel oil”. Not forgetting that the regional park is very often composed of small complexes. “We do not have many large real estate complexes, such as the Petit Bard in Montpellier, for example; which means that the owners have always ensured regular maintenance of the housing they put in rental". Which, upon arrival, gives a rather favorable panorama of energy-consuming housing.

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