After a chaotic parliamentary journey in the National Assembly, the bill proposed by MPs Annaïg Le Meur (Renaissance) and Iñaki Echaniz (Socialist Party) reaches the table of the upper house in a calmer atmosphere.
It seems that the text is indeed gaining very broad support, even in the ranks of the right-wing majority in the Senate. However, the Republicans (LR) of the National Assembly were largely against it along with the National Assembly, calling specifically for the defense of “small owners”.
But there is a consensus emerging in the “Chamber of Territories” to “give local elected officials the means to regulate the proliferation of furnished tourist accommodation,” Haute-Savoie senator Sylviane Noël (LR), rapporteur for this text, insists to AFP.
The desire to reduce the “tax niche”
The most significant measure is a fiscal one: the text proposes to reduce the rate of reduction of income from the rental of equipped tourist accommodation to 30%, compared to the current 71% or 50%.
Many elected officials, especially by the sea or in big cities, are really worried about the lack of housing in their territories and aim for an explosion in the number of Airbnbs, which benefit from very favorable taxation.
More reluctantly, the Senate slightly softened the measure in committee at the initiative of the right, keeping the 50% discount only for classified furnished accommodation, in order to “maintain the incentive to classify” these tourist accommodation.
Against the backdrop of the housing crisis
But senators from all sides will try to push through various amendments in a public session. “In a period of serious housing crisis, there is no justification for maintaining this tax niche,” insists Communist Ian Brossat, former deputy for housing at Paris City Hall.
On the other side of the semi-circle, LR Max Brisson agrees. “This tax loophole is shocking,” said the senator, who denounced the “totally uncontrolled speculative boom.”
In the tense areas of his Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of particular concern, the system has already entered into force in 2023 to oblige each owner to produce long-term accommodation for each accommodation converted into furnished tourist accommodation.
And the effects are clear, according to the Basque Country: they counted just two final “change of use” approvals issued to furnished tourist accommodation since the system came into effect.
This is not the first time that the battle over the “Airbnb niche” has been fought in the Senate: during the autumn consideration of the 2024 budget, the reduction has already been reduced to 30% in areas that are tense against the government’s opinion. Who then failed to delete the amendment referring to Article 49.3 of the Constitution.
For its part, Airbnb will closely monitor the vote: “We call on the senators to better direct these measures to specifically attack speculation,” said Clément Eulry, director of Airbnb France.
identification number
The former Google executive laments certain measures such as the possibility of elected officials reducing the maximum period during which a principal residence can be rented from 120 to 90 days per year. Which will “punish the purchasing power of many French people”, according to him.
The draft law also generalizes the registration number for each rental of equipped tourist accommodation, which is useful for ensuring better monitoring and control of these accommodation capacities in the territory. It also regulates the expansion of vacation homes in cities most affected by the phenomenon, giving local elected officials the ability to reserve new construction in certain neighborhoods for primary residences only.
This text “will not solve the entire housing crisis, but it could already return certain housing to the long-term rental market”, welcomes the environmentalist Daniel Salmon, alarmed by the situation in certain cities in his department of Ille-et-Vilaine such as Saint-Malo, “where residents find themselves little by little isolated in a city that has lost its soul”.