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France: Marseille City Hall has announced that it will limit short-term rentals at primary residences in the city to 90 nights a year, dropping from the current 120 nights that are permitted.
The move had been expected after the city’s left-wing mayor, Benoît Payan, said in October that Marseille would impose “the strictest and strongest regulations in France” to combat perceived overtourism and increase available housing supply.
The reduction in rental nights was laid out as an option in the so-called ‘Anti-Airbnb law’ that was passed in November by France’s parliament [the Assemblée Nationale] as a means to address the country’s affordable housing shortage.
As of 1 January 2025, mayors across mainland France have been granted a number of new powers, including:
- Being able to request a valid DPE [official energy performance diagnosis] from an owner at any time and the owner will have two months to comply or face an administrative penalty of €100 per day
- Set quotas for how many tourist rentals will be authorised and determine how many properties used as main residences can be constructed
- Set limits of up to 90 days per calendar year for which any main residence can be rented out to tourists, and those who exceed the maximum number of days could be given a civil fine of up to €15,000 for non-compliance
- Issue fines of up to €10,000 if a tourist rental is not registered with the national online service in France and a maximum of €20,000 for those who falsely declare that they are registered and / or use a fake registration number on their property listing
- Require all co-owners of tourist rentals in France to declare their position with the mayor / municipality
Speaking back in October, Payan said that the new regulations would prevent holiday rental owners from “emptying the neighbourhoods” in a city where local citizens are increasingly struggling to secure long-term tenancies.
Marseille’s city council estimated that more than 12,000 properties in the city were being rented out on short-term rental booking platforms like Airbnb. Payan accused some hosts of trying to “make money off the back of the people of Marseille”, and claimed that up to 75 per cent of property developers operating in the city were “not from Marseille”.
Among his plans for the city, the mayor also wants to establish a so-called ‘Airbnb brigade’ to identify illegal listings and remove “illegal” key lock boxes, as well as refusing more property change of use requests for those who want to rent out their properties as tourist accommodation.
The local government of Marseille has accused Airbnb and similar platforms of increasing tension in the rental market and causing property prices to soar. Patrick Amico, the city’s deputy of housing, also called for a stop to “the haemorrhage” of homes being “lost” to the short-term rental market each year.
Despite this, short-term rentals represent a financial windfall for the city. A recent 50 per cent increase in Marseille’s tourist tax brought in €4.2 million, of which €3 million was allocated to the city’s tourist office budget.
In response to the introduction of strengthened regulations in the city in Southern France, Airbnb said that it “regretted the purely political dimension of this diversionary measure and limiting the frequency with which Marseille residents can rent out their main residence will not resolve the housing tension”. It added that the move only “penalises families who rely on this income to improve their purchasing power, and local businesses for which tourism is essential”.
Marseille’s housing supply has suffered from a slowdown in the rate of social housing construction since Payan was elected as mayor five years ago.
The city is still mourning the collapse of two residential buildings in 2018 and another building collapse in April 2023, due to a suspected gas explosion. In addition, some 40,000 homes still require renovation, the shortage of social housing remains, and prices in popular tourist districts such as Le Panier, Le Vieux-Port and Les Catalans have risen by more than 30 per cent over the last five years.
