Renewal rental value (valeur locative de renouvellement)

The renewal rental value is the rent the judge would fix for a renewed bail commercial (French commercial lease) if the statutory cap did not apply. It resembles the market rental value but is not the same thing: the French Commercial Code requires account to be taken of the contractual permitted use of the premises and of the respective obligations of the parties, so that two identical units, let on different terms, do not have the same renewal rental value. A charge transferred to the tenant without anything in return lowers it; an “all trades” permitted use raises it compared with a restricted use.

It is used on renewal, on the three-yearly review, for the occupation indemnity and, by comparison with the rent paid, to calculate the droit au bail (leasehold right).

Where the rule comes from

Article L. 145-33 of the French Commercial Code provides that the rent of renewed or reviewed leases must correspond to the rental value, determined from five factors: the characteristics of the premises concerned, the permitted use, the respective obligations of the parties, local commercial factors, and the prices commonly charged in the neighbourhood. Articles R. 145-3 to R. 145-8 specify their content.

The Charte de l’expertise en évaluation immobilière (the French property valuation charter, Title III, § 1.6) stresses that the rental value defined in the Commercial Code differs from the market’s because of these criteria, which require account to be taken of the contractual permitted use and of the charges and conditions of the lease, factors that lower or raise it. The Cour de cassation (French supreme court for civil and commercial matters) held on 29 January 2026 (appeal no. 24-17.227) that property tax charged to the tenant without anything in return is a factor that lowers the rental value.

In a valuation report

I measure and weight the floor area according to the practice of the Charte (Title III, chapter 6): the shop-window zone counts in full, the areas in depth, on upper floors or in the basement count for a fraction. I gather rent references for comparable premises, preferably renewal rents or new leases, specifying for each the allocation of charges and the permitted use. I determine a price per weighted m², then adjust for the particular obligations of the lease: property tax, major works, restricted use, indexation clause. The report presents the capped rent alongside, to show what is at stake.

Example

A town-centre shop in LORIENT has 110 m² on the ground floor, of which 60 m² in the first zone and 50 m² in depth, plus 40 m² of storage in the basement. The weighted floor area comes to 60 + 25 + 6, that is 91 m². Renewal rent references in the area, with comparable charges, give €320 per weighted m², that is €29,120. The lease charges the property tax (€2,400) to the tenant without anything in return: I deduct it. Renewal rental value: €26,700 rounded.

Not to be confused with

The market rental value, defined by the Charte (Title III, § 1.4) and the EVS, which corresponds to the rent of a new lease on the usual market terms, without the particular features of the current lease; and the cadastral rental value, a tax base with no link to the market.