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In Île-de-France, many apartments rented at excessive rates for the period of the Olympic Games have not yet found takers.
If there is one advantage that Ile-de-France residents are banking on with the organization of the Paris 2024 Games, it is the opportunity to rent their apartment at a high price to foreign visitors. Some predictions even promised them to be able to multiply the price of the night tenfold. Many people have transformed themselves into real estate agents over the course of a few weeks: registration on rental platforms, classified ads on social networks… But three months before the start of the competition, the fantasy of staggering gains is taking shape. move away little by little.
Chloé, 29, put her apartment up for rent last March for the period from July 27 to August 11. A two-room apartment, around forty square meters in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, for “300 euros per night.” That’s a little more than double the rate she rents it for on certain weekends of the year. But since posting her ad, she hasn’t received any bookings, not even an inquiry : “It didn’t take at all.”
“I’m not going to sell off my apartment”
So Chloe lowered the price : “We lowered it little by little: first by 50 euros, then by 100 euros… I think it is now 180 euros per night. So we are close to the price I usually charge but we still have no demand.” And the young woman will not go any lower: “I’m not going to sell off my apartment. I have a base price and I don’t want to lower it more than that.” Around her, the observation is the same: “I have lots of friends who are in this situation. I think we had to do it earlier, when there was still the craze for Paris 2024, so that people didn’t say to themselves that it was going to be the mess and poorly organized…”
A disappointment shared by Valérie and Vincent*, a couple of young retirees: “No request, no touch, nothing at all. It’s the great disillusionment.” Last October, they rented their apartment of around one hundred square meters in the 7th arrondissement, a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower. “It’s the ideal place and despite that, the demand is not there. We were being told that the goose laid the golden eggs, telling us that prices were going to soar and that it was an opportunity that would presented once every hundred years.”
To set the starting price, 3,000 euros per night, the couple consulted the prices charged for equivalent properties: “We saw that the neighbor in the building next door was offering a certain price so we matched this price which seemed, even at the time, crazy. And the crazy thing came true!” Since then, on the advice of a concierge, Valérie and Vincent have halved the price. “I think we’re going to stop there because after that it represents less interest from a financial point of view. There is the commission taken by the site, the costs of moving furniture and the taxes of course because all the amounts must be declared.” The couple sees this: “The price remains very high and there is no demand. Not for crazy prices!”
“Many false ideas”
Faced with a lack of demand, Charlotte* and her partner, owners of a 40 m apartment2 in the 11th arrondissement of the capital, finally gave up: “We were ready to rent it from the moment it was really interesting financially. If it’s not that interesting, given that it’s our cozy little nest, our main residence, we also want to rent it. preserve.” The couple acknowledges having set a starting price “quite high” by finding out in particular on the internet : “We aligned ourselves with the rates that were displayed, namely on average 500 euros per night. We put it a little lower: 400 euros for a four-bed apartment.”
“Way too expensive”Charlotte finally believes. “A few months ago, there was a lot of excitement about renting apartments during the Olympics. Many false ideas about this period which could allow Parisians to rent their properties excessively expensive.” In recent weeks, on rental platforms, the couple has noticed a decrease in prices “on average divided by two”, for equivalent offers.
“Hosts freely set their prices”, reminds Airbnb
This is also what Airbnb notes, which specifies, to franceinfo, that the increase in available supply regulates the market. The platform estimates “an increase in prices of 85% on average in Île-de-France” over the period of the Games. She recalls that “hosts freely set their prices” and emphasizes that a page has been created for hosts to help them in their efforts during the period. A report from the audit firm Deloitte estimates that rentals will generate on average 2,000 euros in additional revenue per host in the Paris region.
Airbnb also wants to reassure hosts: “There are more and more searches and reservations on the platform and should increase even more in the weeks and months to come.” Paris 2024 is “on track to become the biggest event in Airbnb history, adds the platform. With more travelers staying with local hosts than at any event before.”
*First names have been changed