Agreement between the Senate and the Assembly on a text to regulate the market for furnished tourist accommodation

"This is a victory on a subject that we have been carrying for a long time," Iñaki Echaniz (PS) said to the press on Monday evening, alongside his colleague Annaïg Le Meur (Renaissance). The Senate should adopt the text on November 5 and the Assembly on the 7th.

This CMP, composed of seven senators and seven deputies, worked to reconcile the copy of the Senate and that of the Assembly. It was composed on Monday of seven parliamentarians from the government majority and seven from the opposition.

On one of the main sticking points, taxation, currently more favourable to short-term tourist rentals than to long-term unfurnished rentals, the deputies achieved only partial success.

The tax reduction benefiting owners of classified furnished tourist accommodation and guest rooms should drop from 71% to 50%, with a ceiling lowered to 77.700 euros. For unclassified furnished tourist accommodation, the reduction should drop from 50% to 30% - as for unfurnished rentals - with a ceiling of 15.000 euros.

"This is already a great step forward," stressed Ms. Le Meur, even if her goal is to achieve an alignment of rates. "The whole goal now is to raise the rate to a higher level, i.e. 50% as was adopted in the National Assembly" last week as part of the budget review, "i.e. 40%," as the senators committed to.

The senators agreed to allow municipalities to limit, if they wish, to 90 days per year the maximum period during which a main residence can be rented to passing tourists.

Another point of disagreement between the Senate and the Assembly: the question of the obligation of the energy performance diagnosis. New furnished tourist accommodation will be subject to the ordinary calendar, the "stock" obtaining a period of ten years, instead of five to reach the energy label D, that is to say the version of the Senate. "There was a lobby of the mountains and the sea extremely present on the whole text", observed Mr. Echaniz.

The CMP text confirms other more consensual developments between deputies and senators, aimed at granting greater regulatory power to mayors, as well as to co-ownerships.

Questioned by the AFP, LFI MP Aurélie Trouvé regretted that the Assembly had made most of the efforts and that the compromise proposed by the MPs for the reduction of classified furnished accommodation, at 40%, had been rejected by the Senate.