:
France: The community council of the Chamonix-Mont Blanc valley in France’s Haute-Savoie region has unanimously voted on a resolution to introduce limits on short-term holiday rentals from 1 May 2025.
The restrictions, which will cover the communes of Chamonix, Les Houches, Servoz and Vallorcine, are the result of increased angst among residents who blame short-term rentals for contributing to soaring prices and an affordable housing shortage in the area due to the influx of tourists.
A registration system requires property owners in the valley to obtain a registration number and permit from the town hall. From May next year, property owners in Chamonix and Les Houches will only be able to rent out one property on a short-term rental basis, while owners in Servoz will be permitted to rent out a maximum of two properties.
In Vallorcine, however, there will be no limit on the number of properties that can be rented out, although the authorities want to enforce a rule whereby each property can only be rented out once a year before a registration is renewed.
It will mirror the registration system already in place in Paris and other cities across France, which have partnered with online booking platforms such as Airbnb to obtain rental data. Properties which flout the rules will be removed from the platforms.
The four ski resorts in the Chamonix-Mont Blanc valley have been designated as “tense zones” since August last year due to ricing real estate prices, with Chamonix mayor Éric Fournier calling for the need to find a “social balance at local level”.
The new regulations will initially apply only to individual property owners, rather than multi-property owners, agencies and concierge services. Fournier says that the measure will mark a first step towards wider regulations that will “eventually affect everyone” and will be part of a “global effort to maintain permanent housing in the valley”.
As the share of secondary housing rices to an estimated 70 per cent of existing properties in Chamonix, Fournier added that the valley had become “the first mountain area in France to limit the number of tourist rentals to promote year-round housing” in line with the new property restrictions.
