MPs want to better regulate furnished tourist accommodation

Julien Bayou (EELV, Paris), Christophe Plassard (Horizons, Charente-Maritime) and Iñaki Echaniz (PS, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) detailed seven proposals to limit the impact of these rentals on the availability of accommodation in tourist areas.

"The prices are maddening, we come to situations where locals cannot live on their territory", justified Iñaki Echaniz, for whom this crisis threatens employment by preventing seasonal workers or nursing staff from finding accommodation.

"We really agree on these subjects, and when we have swept the proposals, the convergence is quite easy", underlined Christophe Plassard. "It's transpartisan but it's trans-territorial too," he added.

"The Basque Country, the island of Oléron and Paris III have little in common, except for the deleterious impact of furnished tourist accommodation", supported Julien Bayou.

Among their proposals, the reduction, from 120 to 90, of the number of nights authorized for tourist rentals, and the extension of this obligation to secondary residences.

They also want to reform the taxation of second homes, to allow local elected officials to tax them more without harming residents year-round.

MEPs also want to extend the ban on renting thermal colanders, which will gradually hit the most energy-intensive properties, to furnished tourist accommodation (with the exception of mountain areas). The Minister Delegate for the City and Housing, Olivier Klein, had already promised this extension in October, but the announcement has so far not been followed up.

MEPs also called for more checks on fraudulent landlord practices, such as misguided "mobility leases" (concluded with a tenant considered to be a temporary occupant), or abusive sales leave, aimed at getting rid of a tenant in high season. . A bill is being drawn up, with the aim of having it examined in June, assured Iñaki Echaniz.

But the three elected officials called on the government to integrate these measures into a bill, allowing them to be taken up more comprehensively.

"We will fire from all woods," promised Julien Bayou.

A majority bill, tabled on April 28, contains one of the measures recommended by the deputies: the reform of the tax niche on furnished tourist accommodation.

Requested by AFP, the Ministry of Housing recalled the measures being developed to alleviate the phenomenon, including the extension, scheduled for January 1, 2024, of the number of municipalities authorized to increase the housing tax on second homes.

An interministerial working group dedicated to furnished tourist accommodation must submit its conclusions by the summer of 2023, we remind the ministry.