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Paris in new crackdown on illegal Airbnb flats

Paris authorities have raided apartments across the capital in an effort to get tough on Airbnb hosts who aren't playing by the rules.

Published: 13 January 2016 13:18 CET
Paris in new crackdown on illegal Airbnb flats
Airbnb's huge growth in France has not been without controversy. Photo: Martin Bureau/AFP
Paris officials have been carrying out “raids” on apartments in the 1st and 6th arrondissements on Tuesday and Wednesday – both hugely popular areas for tourists. The raids follow a similar crackdown in the Marais six months ago. 
 
The aim has been to catch out landlords who are trying to get rich by offering their flat for more than the legally designated 120 days a year.
 
The Town Hall’s housing chief Ian Brossat stressed that the aim wasn't to pick on “owners who rent their apartment one or two weeks a year when they go on vacation”.
 
“This is targeting professionals who illegally rent their homes all year round, and who often buy an apartment solely with the intention of transforming it into a tourist spot,” he told Liberation newspaper.
 
And there are many landlords who play by their own rules. A recent survey found that across France, 44 percent of the homes advertised on Airbnb are permanently available for rental.
 
 
Posh Paris island locals rake in cash on Airbnb
 
But perhaps not for long. Those who offer more than their share of nights face fines of up to €25,000, but officials are looking into hiking this fourfold to €100,000.
 
Parisians are expressing a growing frustration with the never-ending stream of Airbnb tenants carting luggage up the stairs of their apartment buildings.
 
“We are getting more and more complaints from residents,” Jean-François Legaret, the mayor of the 1st arrondissement, told France Bleu. 
 
City officials are also well aware that the ever-profitable properties are making life tough for Parisians who want to find their own lodgings so they can live in the city. 
 
These housing problems add to the already expensive Paris property market, which is notoriously difficult to crack – especially for renters. 
 
Airbnb, which was launched in 2008 and now has some 40 million users worldwide, has also raised the hackles of traditional hotel chains who see it as a rival that flouts tax laws.
   
The company recently agreed to pay a tourist tax to Paris from each of its bookings in the city.
 
A study in November found that Paris is the world's second biggest Airbnb market, with 3.9 million travellers using the service to visit in the past year. The director of Airbnb for France claimed this contributed €2.4 billion to the French economy. 
 
 
In Numbers: How Airbnb has conquered Paris

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RENTING

Local authorities in France get power to crack down on Airbnb rentals

Authorities in Paris and other French towns will be able to regulate local businesses who wish to rent property on Airbnb, according to a decree published by the French government. 

Published: 17 June 2021 13:01 CEST
Local authorities in France get power to crack down on Airbnb rentals
This illustration picture taken on July 24, 2019 in Paris shows the logo of the US online booking homes application Airbnb on the screen of a tablet. (Photo by Martin BUREAU / AFP)

The news was welcomed by authorities in Paris, who have long battled to keep a check on Airbnb and its impact on the rental market. 

On Sunday, the French government published a decree that allows the City of Paris to subject the renting of local businesses to prior authorisation. 

This decree applies to all types of offices, stores or medical offices who may be turned in holiday rentals. 

It aims to allow towns to limit the growth of rentals on Airbnb, “protect the urban environment and preserve the balance between employment, housing, businesses and services on their territory,” says the decree. 

The news was welcomed by authorities in Paris, which has been witnessing “the multiplication of ground floor business premises being transformed into holiday rentals,” said deputy mayor Ian Brossat, who is in charge of housing, in a press release. 

This decree which comes into effect on July 1st, “will prevent local businesses from being turned into holiday rentals,” Brossat added on Twitter.

The conditions businesses will have to meet in order to get an authorisation still have to be defined said Brossat, according to Le Figaro. But Paris aims to draft these regulations and get them voted by the end of 2021, so they can come into force at the beginning of 2022. 

Other towns allowed to apply the decree are those who have put into effect “the procedure of a registration number for furnished holiday apartments, owners and, subject to contractual stipulations, tenants of local businesses who wish to rent them as furnished holiday apartments.” 

In recent years, Paris city authorities have made tax registration obligatory for apartment owners and have restricted those renting out their primary residence to a maximum of 120 days a year.

Now if owners want to rent a furnished property for less than a year to holidaymakers, they must apply to local authorities for permission to change the registered use of the space.

They are then required to buy a commercial property of an equivalent or bigger size and convert it into housing as compensation. 

Until then, these onerous and time-consuming tasks did not apply to local businesses who only had to fill out a declaration.  

In February, France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that regulations introduced to counter the effects of Airbnb and other short-term rental sites on the local property market were “proportionate” and in line with European law.

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