Heat Wave: Heat Is Becoming a Key Factor in the Real Estate Market

Two studies published this week—one by leboncoin and the other by Jinka—reach the same conclusion: heat waves are profoundly changing the way the French choose their homes. Gardens are in high demand, top-floor units are shunned, and energy-inefficient homes are being ruled out: summer comfort has become a key factor in home searches. And the Energy Performance Certificate (DPE), designed with winter in mind, is showing its limitations.
 

For decades, the choice of where to live in France has been driven by employment and cost. A new variable is now entering the equation: the climate. As another heat wave sweeps across France, two studies published just days apart provide data supporting the emergence of what leboncoin calls a “climate reflex” in residential development projects.
 

Eight out of ten French people feel too hot at home
The starting point is striking: according to the leboncoin study, 81% of French people report feeling discomfort due to extreme heat in their homes. Heat is no longer perceived as an exceptional event but as an everyday reality, particularly for households living in one of the 3.9 million homes classified as energy-inefficient (DPE F and G), or nearly one in eight homes.
 

Consequence: 25% of French people would consider buying a second home in a cooler region if heat waves became more frequent. The regions most exposed to extreme heat are those where people express the strongest desire to move away, while the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Massif Central could benefit from this search for cooler climates and gradually become climate refuges.
“The French aren’t moving yet because of the climate, but they’re starting to choose where,” summarizes Nicolas Garcia Benitez, director of real estate at leboncoin. With one important caveat: “ 

"The most interesting finding of the 2026 study is not the desire to leave, but the difficulty in doing so." In fact, 39% of French people cite financial constraints as one of the main barriers to leaving, a proportion that has risen since 2025. “The risk isn’t a massive climate-driven exodus but a new housing divide”—between those who can “choose their climate” and everyone else.
 

In search trends, the shift is immediate
The Jinka study provides behavioral evidence. The real estate listing platform compared more than 26,000 home-buying searches in Paris before (June 1–10) and during (June 15–24, peaking at 41 °C) the latest heat wave. The shift is clear: nationwide, the “garden” filter jumped by 8% and the “balcony” filter by 2%, while the “top floor” filter—synonymous with overheating—plummeted by 19% and energy-inefficient properties (DPE G) declined by 12%.
 

In Paris, where concrete amplifies everything, the desire for green space is twice as high as the national average: a 13% increase for gardens and a 4% increase for balconies. More surprisingly, ground-floor apartments—which are up 2% elsewhere in France—have seen a 15% drop in demand in the capital: it’s impossible to safely open the windows at night, which negates their only advantage—staying cool.
 

Is the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) a Winter Indicator?
The most formative lesson concerns the Energy Performance Certificate, which has become the benchmark for comfort among buyers. The problem is that the EPC primarily assesses a home’s winter performance (insulation, heating) and does not account for thermal inertia. As a result, an old, poorly insulated stone house rated “E” can remain much cooler in the summer than a new, well-insulated home rated “A” or “B.”
 

“The DPE is simply not designed to assess summer comfort. Yet solutions do exist: incorporating an overheating indicator into the DPE rating—as the RE2020 already does for new construction—or directing renovation incentives toward thermal mass, ventilation, and solar shading. In an era of global warming, we cannot continue to rely on a tool that ignores heat,” argues Marc Lebel, CEO of Jinka.
 

A summer impulse or a long-term trend? For the executive, the answer is clear: “The June heat wave seems to have served as a collective wake-up call regarding global warming, bringing the concept of thermal comfort to the forefront of homebuyers’ concerns. What may seem like a summer impulse is undoubtedly a sign of a long-term trend. ” Is a temperate climate on its way to becoming the new criterion in real estate? Sellers of attic units have been warned.