Four parliamentarians have launched a cross-partisan initiative to better regulate the rental of short-term tourist accommodation in large cities or tourist areas, accessible via digital platforms such as Airbnb in particular.
“It’s getting really unbearable, it’s causing a powerful housing crisis” denounced Thursday, May 4 on franceinfo Max Brisson, senator from Pyrénées-Atlantiques who wishes, with four other parliamentarians from all sides, to better regulate tourist rentals. The parliamentarians propose seven measures to fight against soaring prices, including the removal of the tax niche for seasonal rentals. Max Brisson wants to see it disappear or “which she favors” instead “yearly rental”. Lessors buy goods for “rent them and buy them by integrating the report of the seasonal rental, result the prices soar”he explained.
franceinfo: Why do you want to regulate short-term rentals?
Max Brisson: Today, when you do seasonal rental, you have a tax reduction of up to 71%. You only pay tax on the 72nd euro earned. I would prefer that this tax loophole disappears, even if there must be a tax loophole, that it promotes year-round rentals.
“On the Basque coast, in the summer, you have people who have furnished apartments in the winter to whom the owners say: ‘You have to leave so that I can do seasonal rentals because it pays a lot more and because it there are tax allowances.’ The first request that we all make together, in a cross-partisan way, is to reduce, or even eliminate, this tax niche.
Max Brisson, senator for Pyrénées-Atlantiquesat franceinfo
You also want to extend the ban on renting thermal colanders to tourist rentals. Do you find this unfair?
When you rent for the year, today you have to rent a decent place that is not a thermal sieve. If you rent as a seasonal rental, including winter, you are free of everything. We are asking the government to introduce some fairness. In addition, seasonal rentals are multiplying because of the platforms. As a result, so many year-round homes are disappearing. On the Basque coast, 600 year-round rental units are disappearing and being replaced by seasonal rentals. As a result, rents are rising, young workers or young students can no longer find accommodation. People are staying further and further away from the coast and it’s becoming really unbearable and it’s causing a powerful housing crisis.
The National Union for the Promotion of Holiday Rentals, which defends platforms in particular, says that your measures are a threat to the purchasing power of the French, to the tax resources of the municipalities and to the tourism industry. What do you answer?
Hoteliers who pay their taxes and must respect the standards, also have unfair competition. It’s a competition for those who rent year-round. Tourist accommodation has been around for a very long time, but today the market is totally unbalanced by the platforms. They created a speculative system. People are buying second homes to rent out and buying them into the vacation rental report. As a result, prices are skyrocketing. Those who do not respect the people who live in tourist resorts are the digital platforms because they have totally unbalanced the seasonal rental market which is an old market, which worked very well before they arrived.