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How to Rent in France - Renting Explained by a French Native

French Lifestyle by Johnny Benoit

27,927 views

Renting in France in 2025 or 2026? Here’s the full step-by-step guide to finding a place, understanding French leases, building a rental “dossier”, and avoiding nasty surprises like capped agency fees, DPE rules, and notice periods.
In this video, I explain French rental vocabulary (loyer, charges, état des lieux, dépôt de garantie/caution), where to search (Le Bon Coin, SeLoger, PAP + expat sites), the 3 main lease types (location vide, location meublée, bail mobilité), how much you pay upfront, how rent increases work (IRL), and why DPE now matters more than ever.

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Enquiries: johnny.benoit@hotmail.com

#RentingInFrance #MovingToFrance #France2025

20 Comments

@french_lifestyle_johnny_benoit Creator 9 months ago (edited) Pinned

If my videos help you feel more confident about moving to France, you can support my work here:

PATREON: https://patreon.com/c/JohnnyBenoit
BUY ME A COFFEE: https://buymeacoffee.com/johnny_benoit
SUBSTACK: https://shorturl.at/FvC6c
BECOME A CHANNEL MEMBER : https://shorturl.at/7Ic5A
MERCH: https://johnny-benoit-shop.fourthwall.com/
MY FRENCH BOOKS (I'm a writer):
On Amazon US: https://shorturl.at/4AZXm
On Amazon UK: https://shorturl.at/iM31J
On Amazon France: https://shorturl.at/bpHem
On Amazon Spain: https://shorturl.at/n8uii
On Amazon Germany: https://shorturl.at/yyaQl
on Amazon Canada: https://tinyurl.com/52bke5zx
For your CURRENCY EXCHANGE needs: https://shorturl.at/KbLxs

Enquiries: johnny.benoit@hotmail.com

@LNS322 9 months ago

This is absolutely PACKED with useful information. I've been studying the rental process off and on for over a year, and I still learned things from this video. This is school -- but a lot more fun. :-) With cows!

@alexwiththeglasses 9 months ago

Wow - you have made the best video about renting in France that I’ve ever seen!
And it’s not even close.

@Twospoones 9 months ago

Johnny you are so thorough, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking to rent. It is a veritable gold-mine of information. I’m also loving the live location filming. Keep it up! ❤

@michaelwienholt5381 9 months ago

I have progressed only 14 minutes into this video and I say: BRILLIANT!

@seamusp5991 9 months ago

Wow. One of those vids I’ll be watching a second time, it’s so useful. Merci! 😊

@joyfulmindstudio 9 months ago (edited)

Speaking as someone who rents in the most expensive city in the land of unrestrained techno feudalism, the rules, the fees, and the expectations all sound quite sane and humane. Knowing that there is relative order, transparency, and predictability to the French rental market makes the whole prospect of moving to France suddenly *much* less a cause for anxiety and delay and instead more a reason to feel confident and take well-prepared action.

@LucyAuburn 9 months ago

Thank you for giving us the means to confront any landlords who try to pull the wool over our eyes with shady questions and requests. Will definitely have to file this for future reference. Congrats on reaching 5k before Christmas. Next goal.... 100k followers. I believe you can do it.

@Bopnigel 9 months ago

You’ve passed your 5,000 subscribers, well done!

@robread-jones3698 9 months ago

I like the idea that French cats would be totally cool with a cucumber suddenly appearing...as long as it had the correct paperwork.

@jskohut 9 months ago

Oh wow! So helpful, thank you! I've been looking into rentals for 2 years and I've never had all of this information. We all appreciate you very much.

@Taldanmus 9 months ago (edited)

Yep, this is the best guide out there, thanks! Coffee coming up.

@The_best_days_are_yesterdays 9 months ago

My god this is funny!
You had me laughing beginning with "...bread rolls lying about their credentials" and that was only :22 seconds in.

"...renting is not a conversation, it is a performance art piece"

"...guessing is for tourists."

"Chaos goblin"

"Paris because you have all seen Moulin Rouge" with a bonus performance thrown in.

"For Paris and the wider blob of humanity surrounding it ..."

"...I live here now. I have bought a plant."

"You are avoiding a winter where your heating budget becomes an interactive art installation called 'Where did my money go?'"

Finally, thank you so much for speaking slowly and clearly in both French and English, it's much appreciated!

@taipontape 9 months ago

Great breakdown — the “dossier” part is honestly the trickiest for most expats.

@elizzy8754 9 months ago

This is so thorough. I need to watch it again and take full notes. Thank you for this very helpful run through on the rental process.

@SH-gs4ie 9 months ago

Again, another fantastic, highly informative, and actually useful video, from you, Johnny! Merci!!!
🙏🙏🙏
You've given me hope now that the French renting system actually makes sense, isn't dissimilar from our own bureaucratic soup, but is in fact, far more fair than ours. Bonus upon bonus!
Thank you for helping so many of us, and for also providing proof some French people are actually hilarious too! 😊
And I quite like your MooTuber stars also. À la prochaine. 😊🐮🐮🐮

@user-qq4pp3wm9t 9 months ago

Love the dance to Moulin Rouge! Encore! 😂❤

@sheilapowleyspecialeducation 9 months ago

Such great information, regarding the dossier facile
Thank you!

@HeidiATX 9 months ago

What a thorough, information-packed video! We just moved into our long-term rental a week ago and we learned a few things from your video we were not aware of. We did have our dossier well prepared, so that part we did very well. And the agent was fantastic, we were very fortunate. Thanks for all the wonderful videos!