High-demand areas, notice periods and rents: what really applies in the gulf

The key fact: Sainte-Maxime is not in a designated high-demand area

Let us start with the answer. Sainte-Maxime does not appear in the schedule to the decree in force. Fréjus and Saint-Raphaël do, and so does Draguignan. The boundary therefore runs east of the gulf, between the massif des Maures and the lower Argens valley.

For the Var, the schedule also lists Puget-sur-Argens, Le Muy and Les Arcs. It does not list Saint-Tropez, Cogolin, Grimaud or Gassin. Nor does it list Ramatuelle, La Croix-Valmer, Le Plan-de-la-Tour, Roquebrune-sur-Argens or Vidauban. The table below covers the twelve towns our applicants usually look at.

One point of reading matters for this table. It describes the schedule as it stands on 12 September 2026, that is for a tenancy signed, extended or renewed from 24 December 2025 onwards.

The official checker on service-public.gouv.fr does indeed distinguish three regimes by the date of the tenancy: from 24 December 2025 onwards, between 27 August 2023 and 24 December 2025, and before 27 August 2023. For an older contract, you therefore have to run the checker with the exact date of the tenancy.

What a designated high-demand area actually covers

The designated high-demand area has a precise definition. It is a continuously built-up area of more than 50,000 inhabitants where supply and demand for housing are markedly out of balance, causing serious difficulty in finding a home. That definition refers back to Article 232 of the General Tax Code. The population threshold is measured across the urban unit, not across the town.

That mechanism explains the result in the gulf. The urban unit of Sainte-Maxime, as INSEE defines it, is made up of two towns only, Grimaud and Sainte-Maxime. The one around Saint-Tropez has three, Gassin, Ramatuelle and Saint-Tropez. Cogolin and Roquebrune-sur-Argens each form their own urban unit, while La Croix-Valmer belongs to the one around Cavalaire-sur-Mer.

To the east, the scale changes. The urban unit of Fréjus brings together Fréjus, Puget-sur-Argens and Saint-Raphaël. The one around Draguignan had 73,702 inhabitants at the 2023 census, well above the 50,000 threshold. The difference in treatment between the two shores of the gulf therefore comes down to the size of the built-up area, not to property prices.

The boundary of the designated high-demand area does not follow the price per square metre: it follows the size of the built-up area.

The two headings in the schedule, and what each one governs

A common misconception says there are two decrees, one for tenancies and one for tax. That is wrong. There is a single decree, the one of 10 May 2013, and its schedule has two headings. The decree of 25 August 2023 amended that schedule, and the decree of 22 December 2025 updated it again.

Heading 1 covers towns belonging to an urban unit of more than 50,000 inhabitants that is out of balance. It is these towns, and these alone, that trigger the control of rent increases on re-letting. They are also the ones that give the tenant the reduced notice period of one month. So this is the heading that counts for a tenancy.

Heading 2 covers towns described as high-demand and touristic.

It was created by the act of 30 December 2022 and written into the schedule by the decree of 25 August 2023. ANIL is explicit: "these new areas are not covered by the control of rent increases". They govern tax alone, that is the tax on vacant homes and the town's power to increase council tax on second homes.

One nuance is worth flagging. The decree of 25 August 2023 did not only create the tax heading. It also changed the scope of Heading 1, by bringing in new urban units and by altering the boundaries of units already listed. That is why the official checker asks for the date of the tenancy before answering.

The tenant's notice period, unfurnished and furnished

The notice period is the most visible consequence of the listing. On an unfurnished tenancy, the tenant's notice period is three months as a general rule, that is outside a designated high-demand area. It drops to one month in a designated high-demand area, provided the tenant states in their notice the ground drawn from the home being in such an area. That statement is no formality, it is what earns the shorter period.

On a furnished tenancy, the rule is the same everywhere. The tenant's notice period is one month across France, without exception, whether or not the home is in a designated high-demand area. A furnished home in Sainte-Maxime and a furnished home in Fréjus therefore follow the same rule. The area only makes a difference on unfurnished tenancies.

For an unfurnished home in Sainte-Maxime, the tenant's notice period is therefore three months as a general rule, as at 12 September 2026. It can still come down to one month in several personal situations, whatever the area. Those cases appear in the next section. They apply everywhere in France.

Where notice drops to one month outside a designated high-demand area

The law provides seven situations in which a tenant of an unfurnished home can leave on one month's notice, whatever the town. The first is being allocated social housing. The second is receiving the revenu de solidarité active or the allowance for disabled adults. The third is a state of health that justifies a change of home.

The other four turn on personal or working circumstances. A tenant who is a victim of domestic violence gets the shorter period. The same goes for landing a first job, then for a job transfer or a change of workplace, for employees and public servants alike. Losing a job or reaching the end of an employment contract opens the same right.

These cases are set out in the notice.

The tenant must state the ground and be able to prove it. A notice that gives no ground is still valid, but it then runs for three months. It is a point we mention every time, because it saves a needless month of rent.

The form of the notice and how the period is counted

The form is the same inside and outside a designated high-demand area. The tenant's notice goes by recorded delivery letter with acknowledgement of receipt, by service through a judicial officer, or by hand against receipt or signature. An electronic recorded delivery letter is valid if the recipient accepts that method. A plain email is therefore not enough.

Counting the period follows a simple rule. The notice period runs from the date of receipt and ends on the matching day of the closing month. A notice received on 5 September therefore ends at midnight on 5 October. The tenant owes rent and service charges throughout the notice period, unless a new tenant moves in before it ends.

The rent cap on re-letting in a designated high-demand area

The second effect of the listing concerns the rent. The text in force is Decree no. 2026-644 of 20 July 2026, which amends Decree no. 2017-1198 of 27 July 2017. It applies from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027. This scheme is renewed each year by a new decree, but nothing today allows us to say it will be renewed beyond that date.

The rule on re-letting is clear. In the towns concerned, the new rent cannot exceed the previous tenant's rent. There are two exceptions: a rent clearly below those of neighbouring homes, or improvement works carried out in the home. In the first case, the increase cannot exceed 50% of the difference between the market rent and the previous rent.

For works, the increase is capped at 15% of the cost including tax. The official guidance also mentions a condition on the amount, the works having to represent at least the last year's rent. That wording would need confirming before being applied to a real case. On renewal of the tenancy, the rent moves in principle with the rent reference index, subject to the same exceptions.

Three cases escape the cap. They are the first letting of the home, a home vacant for at least eighteen months, and recent works less than six months old. Take care with the vacant home, though: the rent is free to set only if the home is rated A to E. If it is rated F or G, the rent cannot exceed the previous tenant's rent.

That last point meets a national rule. Homes rated F and G cannot take any rent increase at all since 24 August 2022, across the whole country. That freeze comes from the Climate and Resilience Act of 22 August 2021, so it applies in Sainte-Maxime as everywhere else. Outside a designated high-demand area, it is in fact the main legal limit on how a rent moves between two tenants.

Rent level control, a different scheme again

There is a third scheme, and it should not be confused with the other two. Rent level control is a pilot introduced by the ELAN Act of 23 November 2018. It sets a median reference rent, a reference rent increased by 20% and a reference rent reduced by 30%. These reference figures vary with the type of letting, the number of rooms and the period of construction.

The list of areas concerned is closed and published. It covers Paris, Est Ensemble, Plaine Commune, Bordeaux, Lille with Hellemmes and Lomme, Lyon and Villeurbanne, Montpellier, Grenoble-Alpes Métropole and the Pays Basque. No town in the Var appears on it. Rent level control therefore does not apply in Sainte-Maxime, and that point is certain.

Tax: vacant homes and second homes

Lastly, the listing has tax effects. Towns entered in the schedule can be subject to the tax on vacant homes, and such a town can increase council tax on second homes. These effects follow from being entered in the schedule to the decree. A town that does not appear there therefore falls outside this framework under that text.

This distinction matters for an owner in the gulf. The fact that a town has a high share of second homes is not enough to put it in the schedule. Only the text counts, and it is read town by town. For a specific tax question, the ADIL du Var will usefully point you to the right contact.

How to check a given town on a given date

The surest method fits in one address. The Ministry provides an official checker on service-public.gouv.fr, called "Savoir si un logement est situé en zone tendue". You enter the town, then give the date of the tenancy among the three regimes offered. The answer you get is official and up to date.

Here is what that gives in practice with us. Our homes are in Sainte-Maxime, outside any designated high-demand area as at 12 September 2026. A tenant's notice period in an unfurnished home is therefore three months, unless a personal situation opens the right to the shorter period. On a furnished tenancy it is one month, as everywhere in France.

One last remark, in all honesty. A town's listing can change from one decree to the next, and the next update may well change this table.

So we always date the law as it stands, here on 12 September 2026. For a personal case, service-public.gouv.fr, ANIL and the ADIL du Var answer free of charge, and this article is no substitute for their answer.