The administrative court, seized in early May of a summary suspension formed by a collective of more than 50 applicants, owners and concierge companies, considered in its order that there was a "serious doubt" on the legality of this deliberation, adopted in March and in force since Wednesday.
He judges that the compensation measure, which obliges the owners to produce, in the same city and with an equivalent surface, a property on the rental market for the year to compensate for a dwelling transformed into furnished tourist accommodation, "is likely to ignore the principle of proportionality".
In the 24 Basque municipalities classified as tight areas, "the scarcity or even the non-existence of premises eligible for compensation", do not allow the obligation imposed to be satisfied, write the judges in summary proceedings.
The elements produced by the Basque Country Agglomeration "do not make it possible to establish that the alleged shortage would be of such magnitude that it would prevent many people from being able to find accommodation", also considered the judges.
“It is a huge relief for them because they had withdrawn their ads from the platforms since Wednesday and there was a risk of economic layoffs”, reacted Me Victor Steinberg, lawyer for the applicant collective.
More than 16.000 tourist accommodations are listed in the 24 municipalities concerned, an increase of 130% between 2016 and 2020 according to the Atlantic and Pyrenees Urban Planning Agency (Audap).
In November, a demonstration for the right to housing brought together between 6.500 and 8.000 people in the streets of Bayonne.
After this summary-suspension, an emergency plea based on the form of the deliberation, a hearing on the merits, on the very content of the measure and on its legality, will take place in the coming months.
For his part, the president of the Basque Country Agglomeration Community and mayor of Bayonne Jean-René Etchegaray reacted strongly during a press conference, judging this "cataclysmic decision" in favor of "these poor civil real estate companies which have exploded in the last two years for purely profit".
"Our community does not understand the appreciation of the judges to consider that these companies are taken by surprise", abounded Daniel Olçomendy, vice-president of the Basque intermunicipality.
"The collective interest has lost in the face of the private interest, the over-yield gained in the face of the right to housing in the Basque Country", he lamented.
The elected officials of the agglomeration announced that they were going to "appeal before the Council of State", pointing to a "very negative message sent to the population".
And to provide "reactions to the height of this judgment".