Airbnb: taxation, number of nights… these measures debated in the Senate this Tuesday on the regulation of furnished tourist accommodation

The Senate debates on Tuesday May 21 several measures to regulate the market for furnished tourist accommodation such as Airbnb. A transpartisan initiative to restore power to mayors, tackle a criticized tax loophole and partially respond to the housing crisis.

After a chaotic parliamentary journey in the National Assembly, the bill proposed by deputies Annaïg Le Meur (Renaissance) and Iñaki Echaniz (Socialist Party) arrives on the desk of the upper house in a more peaceful climate.

The text indeed seems to garner very broad support, even in the ranks of the right, the majority in the Senate. However, the Republicans (LR) of the National Assembly were very largely opposed to it alongside the National Rally, invoking in particular the defense of "small owners&quot ;.

But there is a consensus emerging in the "territory chamber" for "give local elected officials the means to regulate the proliferation of furnished tourist accommodations", insists to the AFP the senator of Haute-Savoie Sylviane Noël (LR), rapporteur on this text.

"Speculative excitement"

The most emblematic measure is fiscal: the text proposes to reduce the rate of reduction on income from rentals of furnished tourist accommodation to 30%, compared to 71% or 50% currently.

Many elected officials, particularly by the sea or in large cities, are indeed alarmed by the shortage of housing in their territories and are targeting the explosion in the number of housing units. #39;Airbnb, favored by very advantageous taxation.

More reluctant, the Senate slightly toned down the measure in committee at the initiative of the right, maintaining a 50% reduction for only classified furnished accommodation, for "maintain an incentive nature for the ranking" of these tourist accommodations.

But senators from all sides will try in public session to go further through various amendments. "In a period of serious housing crisis, there is no justification for keeping this tax niche", insists the communist Ian Brossat, ex-deputy for Housing at Paris town hall.

At the other end of the hemicycle, LR Max Brisson agrees. "This tax loophole is shocking", believes the senator who denounces "a totally uncontrollable speculative boom& ;quot;.

In the tense areas of its department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, particularly concerned, a system has already come into force in 2023 to oblige each owner to produce long-term accommodation for each accommodation transformed into furnished tourist accommodation.

And the effects are clear, according to the Basque Country Agglomeration: it has only counted two definitive authorizations of "change of use" issued to furnished tourist accommodation since the system came into force.

This is not the first time that the "Airbnb niche" has been fought in the Senate: when From the examination of the 2024 budget to the fall, the reduction had already been reduced to 30% in tense areas against the advice of the government… Who then had failed to remove the amendment via its use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution.

The debates will also make it possible to clarify the position of the executive on this sensitive point, which still remains quite vague.

"Lonely residents"

For its part, Airbnb will closely follow the vote:"We call on senators to better target these measures to specifically tackle speculation", declared Clément Eulry, Director of Airbnb France.

He regrets certain measures such as the possibility for elected officials to lower from 120 to 90 days per year the maximum period during which a main residence can be rented, which "will penalize the purchasing power of many French people", according to him.

The bill also generalizes the registration number of any rental of furnished tourist accommodation, useful for ensuring better monitoring and better control of these accommodations on a territory.

It also regulates the proliferation of second homes in the cities most affected by this phenomenon, by giving local elected officials the possibility of reserving new construction in certain neighborhoods for primary residences only.

This text "will not solve the entire housing crisis, but it could already bring certain housing back onto the long-term rental market"< /em>, greets the ecologist Daniel Salmon, alarmed by the situation of certain towns in his department of Ille-et-Vilaine such as Saint-Malo, "where the inhabitants gradually find themselves alone in a city which has lost its soul.