Paris cracks down on Airbnbs with €100,000 fines and London-style limit on nights per year

30.11.2024 - 03:03 / euronews.com / Jennifer Marsden

Paris never fails to capture the hearts of tourists, and many now choose to stay in a home-away-from-home holiday rental. 

But renters may soon be disappointed: the city is cracking down on Airbnbs and other rental companies. 

The French government passed a law in May 2024 making it harder to rent out properties on Airbnb for short-term lets. The ruling received cross-party support and Paris is the first municipality to roll it out. 

Right now, there are 95,461 Airbnb listings in the city, of which 89.3 per cent are entire properties, compared to just 9.5 per cent private rooms and 0.4 per cent shared rooms, Inside Airbnb data reveals.  

Paris has a system for leasing apartments commercially.  But 20 per cent of lets don’t have licences, making them illegal - and it’s these that Paris hopes to crack down on.

Rental agencies dominate the short-let booking platform, as 31.7 per cent of Airbnb hosts in Paris have multiple listings.

The top two hosts, in fact, are international property companies: Blueground has 781 entire home/apartment listings, and Veeve has 533. Meanwhile, the third largest host in Paris is Pierre De WeHost, a concierge service.  

From 1 January 2025, Paris will be handing out fines to unlicensed hosts.

If properties have an illegal change of use, owners could be fined up to €100,000 outright. Likewise, any concierge services - often used by homeowners to manage bookings - could be fined €100,000 for ‘being complicit in fraud’.

Properties not registered as tourism rentals could face a €10,000 fine - or €20,000 if owners have made a false declaration or used a false registration number.

The city further plans to set a legal limit on the number of nights a short-term tourist rental can have guests - from 120 to 90 nights each year, as is the rule in London and San Francisco. 

Anyone who is found to be renting out their property for more than 90 nights could be charged €15,000.

Once the new laws come into play, hosts who do not remove illegal adverts from short-term rental platforms could be fined €50,000.

With fewer accommodation options, boutique and independently-run hotels will likely be deemed the next best thing and benefit from the crackdown.

Due to the shortage of affordable housing and complaints of rowdy Airbnb neighbours, Parisians will likely welcome this law. 

Likewise, property managers who manage residential buildings support the law but worry about its practical implications. 

“It's not that easy to prove a tourist rental,” one Parisian property manager told Le Parisien. “You have to bring in a bailiff several times to prove the activity. And that has a cost.”

Several associations that represent holiday rental owners have already raised concerns.

The European Holiday Home Association says