JO: faced with the avalanche of offers, no jackpot in subletting

Victor Aussal, 28, and his girlfriend, owner of a 40 m2 apartment in Goutte d'Or, a working-class district in the north of Paris, wanted to take advantage of the Olympics to rent their two-room apartment for 280 euros per night and travel to Asia for a month .

But for six months "still no tenants, no demand. I think we will go back down to market prices or even below, as happened in London" in 2012, he tells AFP.

Despite numerous positive comments, Adriana Herani, 39, owner of a small T2 in Barbès (north of the capital), has not found any takers either. From 300 euros per night, it went to 250 but “still has no one”.

For his part, Nathaniel Bruneau, 40, intended to rent his 35m2 overlooking the most chic Saint-Martin canal (center-east) for 800 euros per night during the Olympics, instead of 200. Reduced to 600 euros, "I hope have last minute customers" but "you have triple the offers compared to last year, 130.000 instead of 50.000", notes this Airbnb regular.

“There are more requests than a normal year but there are also many more offers: the number of rental accommodations has almost doubled so the additional demand is very diluted,” confirms Quentin Brackers of Hugo, co-founder of the HostnFly concierge service which manages 2.500 accommodations in Paris and surrounding areas on platforms such as Airbnb, Booking or Abritel.

The average price of accommodation booked on its platform is around 360 euros per night, or 20% less than a month ago.

“With prices becoming more and more affordable”, the manager hopes for “last minute reservations”, especially since “the French have not yet booked many”. It is aiming for an occupancy rate “around 60/70%” compared to 30% today.

Back to reality

Fifteen million visitors are expected in Ile-de-France during the Games, according to the Paris tourist office.

At Airbnb, “nights booked in the first quarter for stays during the Games period were more than five times higher than they were in the Paris region at the same period the previous year”.

The platform, singled out for the astronomical prices set by certain owners during this period, emphasizes that it is the increase in supply which regulates prices.

The Olympics are "on track to become the biggest event in Airbnb history, with more travelers staying with local hosts on our platform than at any event before," the group said. 'AFP.

And “nearly half of new active listings received a reservation within the first seven days of their registration,” he assures.

“The European public and the French public are in a very wait-and-see position”, counting on a rebalancing “of supply and demand (…) to perhaps have better prices, if the goods do not leave”, analyzes for AFP Pierre-Louis Monteiro, project manager at Adil (Departmental Housing Information Agency) in Paris.

"No doubt there is a return to reality. Prices are falling, yes, but still remain quite high and it still remains much more, in quotes, interesting and lucrative than traditional rental", according to this manager contacted currently by Olympic volunteers who cannot afford to pay several hundred euros for accommodation.

According to the data analysis site AirDNA, the price of advertisements still available for the Games is gradually decreasing but remains high: 508 euros per night on average in Paris, 297 in the suburbs. But it is less for accommodation already reserved: 333 euros in Paris and 188 in the suburbs.

At HostnFly, some customers “prefer not to rent rather than lower prices, but this is quite marginal”.

At the same time, the concierge service recorded a peak in reservations on the Côte d'Azur and the Normandy coast, without yet knowing whether "it's Parisians who are leaving" or "foreigners who are taking advantage of it to extend their stay a little elsewhere than Paris ".

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.