Furnished rentals in France now cost about 10% more than empty apartments on average, and in some tense markets the premium rises above 15%, underscoring how a fast-growing segment of the private rental market is adding pressure to already stretched housing costs.
France furnished rentals cost more than empty apartments
That gap matters because furnished lets have moved from a temporary stopgap into a structural feature of the housing market. France now has about 1 million furnished homes, roughly twice as many as 20 years ago, according to the national housing agency Anil, which says the trend is likely to continue. In a country already facing too little social housing, weak supply for first-time buyers and a tight rental market, the expansion of furnished stock is no longer just a landlord preference — it is shaping who can afford to live where.
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The economic impact is clearest in the cities and regions where demand is strongest. Anil found the rent differential can reach 15% in tight areas including Paris, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Lyon, and it can be even steeper in some overseas departments such as La Réunion. On average, listed furnished units were advertised at 15.6 euros per square metre versus 11.2 euros for unfurnished homes, a gap of nearly 40% in listing prices. For a Paris studio, Anil estimates the annual difference at about 1,000 euros.
For investors, the message is two-sided. On one hand, furnished rentals offer landlords shorter leases, the ability to charge higher rents and a tax regime that is still relatively favourable, all of which help explain the segment’s growth. On the other, the same features deepen affordability stress for tenants, especially students and younger workers with limited budgets. That raises political risk as housing is expected to be a major issue in France’s 2027 presidential election, and it keeps pressure on policymakers to consider whether current rules are encouraging a shift away from standard long-term rental supply.
Housing
The broader narrative is one of a private rental market being reshaped by incentives. What began as a flexible solution for mobile tenants has become a higher-yield product in constrained cities, and that makes furnished housing both a beneficiary of scarcity and a contributor to it. Unless new supply improves or regulation changes, the premium over empty accommodation is likely to remain part of France’s housing inflation story.
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