a few months before the Olympics, owners favor short-term rental contracts

Finding long-term accommodation in Paris is a challenge in December. In anticipation of the Olympics next summer, owners prefer to rely on the mobility lease, a short-term rental contract, to recover their accommodation on time and offer it for tourist rental.

The rental market in Paris is getting even tighter as the Olympic Games approach. More and more owners are currently favoring short-term rental contracts. The goal is to be able to part with the tenant just before the Olympics period, and then rent the property at a high price during the competition this summer.

This practice, which has been expanding rapidly in recent months, restricts access to housing for many tenants in the Ile-de-France region.

For a month and a half, Mia has been looking for a studio in Paris. She regularly scours the classified ads on specialized sites and despite a solid file, nothing works. She cannot find an apartment in which to settle permanently. “Most of the ads are sublets or it’s a lease of less than a year or very short term. I don’t understand what’s going on”she describes.

What is happening is that more and more Parisian owners are using a short-term rental contract: the mobility lease. “These are contracts of one to ten months which in practice currently allow you to rent for six or seven months to recover your accommodation in June, so that owners can, from July onwards, offer their accommodation for rent tourism for the Olympic Games”explains Corinne Jolly, president of the real estate advertisement site Particulier à Particulier.

“For those who want to both rent their home and pick it up in June, this is the only option.”

Corinne Jolly, president of PAP

at franceinfo

“All other rental contracts, whether empty, furnished or student, are longer than that”she specifies.

On the PAP website, the number of mobility lease contracts offered in the capital was multiplied by four in November compared to last year. This represents more than one ad in ten. The problem is that this mobility lease is only accessible to tenants on internships, training or on business trips. This therefore further strains the Parisian rental market.

This is not really the problem of Golda, owner of an apartment that she has rented for 40 years. Her 80 m² has just become available and for the first time, she will opt for a mobility lease: “Given the taxation and the burden of taxes, many owners are changing their tune a little so as to be able to earn a little money and breathe a little, oxygenate this taxation during the 15 days or three weeks of the Olympics and Paralympics”. And it doesn’t matter if with this mobility lease, Golda doesn’t find a buyer straight away since in three nights during the Olympics, she will earn 2,500 euros, or one month’s rent.