Are we heading towards the end of privileges for tourist rentals? In any case, this is what Annaïg Le Meur (Renaissance) and Iñaki Echaniz (PS) want. Last April, the two deputies tabled a transpartisan bill “aimed at remedying the imbalances in the rental market in tense areas”.
“Without regulation, the growth of this type of offer can have the collateral effect of a scarcity of the supply of medium- or long-term rental housing and an increase in average rent costs,” argue the elected officials.
Expected in the hemicycle for next spring, the text must be examined this Tuesday, November 28 in the Economic Affairs Committee. With one slogan: eliminate one by one the advantages available to short-term rentals to the detriment of traditional properties. First and foremost, the tax advantages.
Reforming the taxation of furnished tourist accommodation
And for good reason, tourist or very short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, benefit from a tax reduction of 71%, compared to 50% for classic furnished rentals and only 30% for properties rented bare. A tax gap which encourages owners to convert their rental into tourist accommodation.
Faced with these “windfall effects”, Bruno Le Maire has already declared himself “open to a reform on Airbnb taxation” so “that it is equivalent to that of other accommodation”. And the Minister of the Economy confided that he did not “understand the very favorable taxation which applies today to Airbnb”.
Especially since the phenomenon tends to increase, which constitutes a real problem, at a time when more than 1,000 municipalities in France are labeled “tense zones”. Understand, whose demand for housing is much greater than the supply. As in Saint-Malo for example, where 30% of housing in the old city center was placed on the long-term tourist rental market in June 2021.
The proposed transpartisan law thus relies on an upgrade of taxation: 50% for all housing, without any distinction. Except for guest houses, rural lodges and accommodation in ski resorts, which could retain a tax advantage of up to 70%.
Energy diagnosis, soon mandatory?
In addition, MEPs are attacking what they call the “avoidance strategy” which consists of converting long-term rentals into short-term housing with the aim of avoiding thermal renovation.
The text thus plans to align Airbnb-type accommodation with the obligations of traditional rentals. However, exceptions are granted in the event of “particular local circumstances”. To do this, expanded powers in regulatory matters will be granted to elected officials who will now have control over the establishment of premises for tourist uses in their municipality.
On the sidelines of a trip to Dunkirk dedicated to housing in mid-November, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had already set the tone: “We must give communities new tools to regulate furnished tourist accommodation”.
“The vast majority” rent their primary residence according to Airbnb
Questioned by L’Express, the Airbnb partner warned of the risk of tougher regulations on short-term rentals, particularly on the purchasing power of “the vast majority of people who use Airbnb” to rent their primary residence.
“We must not fall for shortcuts […] Whatever the taxation or the new constraints that we impose on them, it will not free up more square meters for other French people because they already live there! The only impact will be less purchasing power for them. Last year, the median income of a host was 3,900 euros gross. And Airbnb paid 148 million euros in tourist tax to municipalities. It’s not neutral,” defends Emmanuel Marill.