Renting out in Nice: lease, deposit, notice, what actually applies

Furnished or unfurnished: this choice governs everything else

An unfurnished lease runs for a minimum of three years when the landlord is an individual, six years when it is a company. That is article 10 of the law of 6 July 1989, and it cannot be negotiated downwards. A furnished lease drops to one year, and to nine months when the tenant is a student.

That duration decides the rest. It sets how often the property returns to the market, and with it the risk of vacancy. Each return brings a round of refurbishment and a search for a new tenant. A furnished flat often commands a higher monthly rent, but it is re-let far more often.

Notice follows the same divide. A tenant leaving an unfurnished flat gives three months' notice, a tenant in a furnished flat one month. In the other direction, a landlord wanting the property back gives notice six months before the term for an unfurnished lease, three months for a furnished one, and only at the end of the lease, on a ground the law restricts.

The mobility lease is a third case, reserved for tenants in training, on assignment or relocating. It runs from one to ten months, cannot be renewed beyond ten months, and permits no deposit at all.

Furnished letting also has its constraints. The decree of 31 July 2015 sets out the list of furniture a home must contain to count as furnished in law. An incomplete flat does not become one because the owner calls it that: the lease can be reclassified as unfurnished, with the three years that come with it.

The deposit, and the figure that costs on the way out

One month's rent excluding charges for an unfurnished home, two months for a furnished one. Excluding charges means what it says: the calculation is based on the bare rent, not on the sum billed each month. The mobility lease allows none at all.

The deposit must be returned within one month where the outgoing inventory matches the incoming one, and within two months where it does not. The clock starts when the keys are handed back, not when the lease ends. That distinction has lost more than one case for owners counting from the wrong date.

Lateness carries a price. Every month of delay started adds 10 % of the monthly rent excluding charges, and a single day beyond the deadline is enough to trigger the whole month. The increase applies without any formal demand or proceedings.

What Nice changes, because it is a tight housing zone

Nice appears in the schedule to decree no. 2013-392 of 10 May 2013, under the Nice urban area. For a landlord, this classification alters two rules of the lease.

The first concerns the tenant's departure. In a tight zone, notice falls from three months to one, and the tenant need not justify the decision. An owner in Nice therefore plans on one month of visibility and arranges viewings accordingly.

The second concerns the rent. The decree of 27 July 2017, extended by that of 20 July 2026, caps how the rent may change on a new letting or a lease renewal in those same municipalities, from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027. The rent asked of the next tenant cannot exceed the previous one, uprated at most by the rent reference index.

The cap allows two narrow exceptions. Improvement works or bringing the home up to the decency standard allow it to be exceeded, as does a rent that is manifestly below market. In both cases the landlord bears the burden of proof, with documents to back it.

The energy rating, now a condition for letting

The Climate and Resilience Act of 22 August 2021 brought energy performance into the definition of a decent home. Since 1 January 2025, a home rated G no longer meets the required threshold. 1 January 2028 will exclude class F, and 1 January 2034 class E.

The timetable applies to new contracts, but also to renewals and tacit extensions. A lease already running is therefore not sheltered: it changes at its next term, and relying on automatic renewal buys no extra time.

Before the ban comes the freeze. Since 24 August 2022, the rent on a home rated F or G can no longer rise, neither at the annual review, nor on a re-letting, nor at renewal. On a seafront where older buildings dominate, the question is settled before the property is advertised, not after.

What changes when the property is managed

None of these rules is complicated on its own. What costs money is their timing: one month's notice landing in August, a deposit to return within thirty days of the keys coming back, a lease term that triggers the decency threshold, an indexation that an F rating forbids.

A management mandate exists to hold those dates, which cannot be recovered. It also requests documents at the right moment and checks that a listing complies before it goes out. Promenades Services manages property in Nice and along the nearby coast, from 107 Promenade des Anglais.