The government announced, this Tuesday, July 18, a series of measures aimed at promoting housing in tourist areas, to the detriment of second homes and furnished tourist accommodation such as Airbnb, while the platform currently offers 500,000 furnished rentals in France. .
The number of municipalities classified as a “tight zone” and able to apply a surcharge on vacant housing and second homes will triple to around 3,700, the executive announced. The ministries of Olivia Grégoire (Tourism), Dominique Faure (Communities) and Olivier Klein (Housing) made these announcements at the end of a working group on “the attrition of permanent housing in tourist areas”.
Some of these municipalities, classified as tourist areas and mostly located on the coast or in the mountains, will now be able to further regulate furnished tourist accommodation. In particular by imposing on the owners an authorization procedure and a registration number for their property. Throughout the country, furnished tourist accommodation may be subject to the same energy performance rules as long-term rental apartments, and therefore to the gradual ban on renting the most energy-intensive.
Loc’Avantages: the government’s tax incentive
But the application of this rule will remain at the discretion of the municipalities, free to apply it or not and which will be responsible for monitoring compliance. Before that, several cities had tried to regulate furnished tourist accommodation, which vampirizes housing space and makes it difficult for locals to find year-round accommodation.
The city of Annecy had notably announced, after a vote by the municipality, to set up a quota of furnished tourist accommodation to “bring housing back to its primary function, which is year-round housing”, and to “find a balance” between visitors and people who live and work in Annecy, argued the municipality during the vote. But the administrative court of Grenoble, seized by the Annecy furnished union and the union of conciergeries of Haute-Savoie, indicated Thursday that it had pronounced the suspension of these deliberations.
The Ministry of Housing is also studying a tax reform aimed at making tourist rentals less economically attractive. The Loc’Avantages system, which allows individuals to rent accommodation at social rates in exchange for tax benefits, will see its rent ceilings increased on January 1, 2024. Landlords will therefore be able to rent at higher rates. , “which will make the device more suitable and more incentive, thus allowing it to be massive”, according to the executive.