According to the French Senate, Parliament definitively adopted on Tuesday 21 July 2026 the bill aimed at modernising the management of the State's real estate portfolio. The law creates a foncière de l'État (a State Property Company), a public body with an industrial and commercial character, tasked with managing property assets transferred to it. On Thursday 23 July 2026, the Constitutional Council informed the Senate that it had been seized on the text by more than sixty members of the National Assembly, a step that must be resolved before the law can be promulgated.
The reform targets a portfolio described by the Senate as considerable: the State owns 96 million square metres of real estate, including 23 million square metres of office space. For the bill's author, the need to cut public spending and accelerate the environmental transition made reform of this portfolio's management unavoidable.
The reform follows findings by the Court of Auditors, which in a December 2023 report on State property policy identified chronic underinvestment in maintenance and upkeep of the portfolio. According to the Senate, this has produced significant delays in bringing buildings up to standard, whether on energy transition, accessibility or asbestos removal. More broadly, the Court of Auditors found that the current model gives administrations no incentive to optimise how they occupy their premises.
Under the new framework, the State Property Company will be responsible for managing, maintaining and renovating the properties transferred to it, with State assets handed over free of charge under a list to be fixed by decree. The company is also expected to charge rent to occupants, including ministries, to make the real cost of occupying buildings visible and to encourage administrations to rationalise their use of space.