The types of public construction contract

Works contracts have as their object the construction of buildings or civil engineering works. Above the European threshold for works, 5,404,000 € excluding VAT since 1 January 2026, they follow a formal procedure, open tender or negotiated procedure. Below it they are let under the adapted procedure.

Appointments of architects, engineers, economists and coordinators are intellectual service contracts with their own rules. Below the thresholds the procedure is generally negotiated. For public clients subject to Book IV of Part Two of the public procurement code, a design appointment whose value reaches the formal-procedure threshold for services is negotiated with the winner or winners of a restricted competition (R2172-2). That threshold applies to the design appointment, not to the value of the works: 140,000 € excluding VAT for central government authorities, including the State, and 216,000 € excluding VAT for other contracting authorities, including local authorities, since 1 January 2026.

The architectural competition: a conditional obligation For public clients subject to Book IV, the competition is in principle mandatory once the design appointment reaches the formal-procedure threshold for services, assessed on that appointment and not on the value of the works (R2172-2). The competition is not mandatory in six cases: the reuse or refurbishment of existing structures and urban or landscape projects; research, testing or experimental structures; infrastructure works; contracts that entrust no design mission; the buildings of HLM bodies, of semi-public companies for their approved activity and of the CROUS; and, since 22 February 2026, the contracts of a local authority, a local public establishment or a grouping of local authorities, acting as a contracting authority, whose value is below 300,000 € excluding VAT (R2172-2, 1° to 6°; decree no. 2026-117, art. 7). The 1993 decree (no. 93-1268) is repealed: it now governs only design appointments tendered before 1 April 2019. Participants who have submitted work complying with the competition rules, the winner included, receive a premium equal to the estimated price of the studies to be carried out, less a reduction of at most 20 % (R2172-4); the remuneration of the holder of the design appointment takes account of the premium it received (R2172-6).

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.

This route entrusts both design and construction to a consortium of contractor and design team. On public contracts its use is strictly framed: a client subject to Book IV of the public procurement code may conclude a design and build contract, whatever its value, only where technical reasons or a contractual commitment to improve energy efficiency or to construct a new building exceeding the thermal regulations in force make it necessary to involve the contractor in the design studies of the works (L2171-2, as in force since 18 June 2025). Those conditions do not apply to state-aided rental housing built by HLM bodies, semi-public companies for the construction and management of social housing and the CROUS.

This entrusts an operator with a global mission covering the construction, transformation, renovation, dismantling or demolition of works and all or part of their financing, in exchange for a charge paid by the public body over the life of the contract, 20 to 30 years. The holder acts as client for the operation, and the mission may include design, upkeep, maintenance and operation (L1112-1). The code reserves its use to projects that justify it: the public buyer must show that this contract offers a more favourable balance, particularly in financial terms, than the other ways of carrying out the project, deferred payment alone not counting as an advantage (L2211-6), and the value of the contract must reach a minimum threshold of 2, 5 or 10 million € excluding VAT depending on its object, for example 5 million € excluding VAT for a building whose mission includes no upkeep, maintenance, operation or service management (R2211-1).

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

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.