Works contracts against design appointments
Works contracts
Works contracts have as their object the construction of buildings or civil engineering works. Above the European threshold of 5,538,000 € excluding VAT they follow a formal procedure, open tender or negotiated procedure. Below it they are let under the adapted procedure.
Design appointments
Appointments of architects, engineers, economists and coordinators are intellectual service contracts with their own rules. Below the thresholds the procedure is generally negotiated. For significant public buildings above 200,000 € of works, an architectural competition is in principle mandatory.
ℹ The architectural competition: a conditional obligation For any public building project above 200,000 € of works, an architectural competition is in principle mandatory, subject to the exemptions provided for. The competition gives rise to an honorarium paid to the participating teams not selected.
Contracts by payment regime
| Global fixed price | The price covers all the work defined. Any change requires a variation. The most common route in building. |
|---|---|
| Unit rates | The price is broken into unit rates applied to the quantities actually carried out. Suited to work whose quantities are unknown in advance: earthworks, external works. |
| Mixed | Combines fixed prices for some work with unit rates for the rest. |
| Call-off | For recurrent work whose quantity or frequency cannot be defined in advance, framed by a minimum and a maximum value. |
Framework agreements
A framework agreement is a contract concluded between a public buyer and one or more operators establishing the terms governing the subsequent contracts. It allows pre-selected providers to be called on quickly for recurrent needs without relaunching a full procedure.
In construction, framework agreements are used by authorities for building maintenance, recurrent road works and technical studies.
Global contracts
Design and build
This route entrusts both design and construction to a consortium of contractor and design team. On public contracts its use is strictly framed: it is permitted only where technical or financial reasons, such as optimising the whole-life cost, justify it.
Public-private partnership
This entrusts a private operator with financing, construction, maintenance and sometimes operation of a public facility, in exchange for a charge paid by the public body over the life of the contract, 20 to 30 years. Its complexity reserves it for large-scale projects.
Refurbishment contracts
Refurbishment contracts have important particularities: quantities are hard to foresee, discoveries during the works can significantly change the extent of the work, and the presence of occupants complicates the organisation of the site.
Those particularities often justify unit-rate or mixed contracts, with larger contingencies than on new build: 10 to 15 % against 3 to 8 %.
Related articles: How a construction tender works · Writing the specification and the conditions of contract · Construction procurement and tendering
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The provisions mentioned come from the French public procurement code in force in 2026. Always check the texts in force before launching a procedure.
The nature of the figures quoted
The percentages and amounts quoted on this page are orders of magnitude for framing, not measurements. They illustrate mechanisms and proportions, and they substitute neither for a tender exercise nor for an estimate prepared on drawings.
Sources: the BT construction cost indices published monthly by INSEE on its 2010 base, used to update the figures · construction cost statistics from SDES, the statistical service of the ministry responsible for construction · regulatory texts published in the Journal officiel and consolidated on Légifrance for the requirements cited.