Coming to France I discovered something similar: France has very strong tenant laws. Afaiu they cannot evict a tenant that doesn't want to leave. As a result, renting a place here is a nightmare. Landlords require a ton of stuff to reassure themselves that they get the rent. Basically if you don't have a well-paying full-time job you have to buy insurance. A bunch of startups now act as credit-check companies and insure the landlord. They take 3.5-4.5% of rent.
You say that, but when I rented a place in France, the landlord turned up in the middle of my 1 year tenancy, about a week before Christmas, and told me I have 2 weeks notice because he had sold the flat to a new owner. He hadn't mentioned anything about it until he turned up at the door with this news.
I was just about to travel for Christmas (outside France), so I had to urgently find somewhere else to live in a few days, then move all my stuff, just before I went away. That was difficult.
I was lucky some lovely Mormon friends stopped by, and when I asked if they could help me move my stuff, they obtained the church van, ignored that they weren't insured to carry me or my things, and did a brilliant job of helping me move quickly.
Well, that was illegal. They have to give you at least a month notice, and it has to be via registered letter. And I'm not positive, but selling the house might not even be a legit reason to kick you out before the lease contract (that's what I heard from my agent).
in France it is a legit reason if the new owner bought the place to move in. Illegal if it bought the place with the purpose to rent it.
Same without purchase in fact. The owner can tell you to leave if it plans to move in.
I am however not sure if law is specific enough to avoid being exploited with loopholes like "owner move in legally for 1 month (while not actually living there and doing renovation), then start renting again to someone else"
