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France: The mayor of Marseille has announced plans to force landlords and hosts who rent out their properties on short-term rental platforms like Airbnb to “buy back” another property and list it on the long-term rental market, in order to combat perceived overtourism and increase available housing supply.
Speaking to regional radio station FranceInfo, Benoît Payan said that the strategic move 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 estimates that more than 12,000 properties in the city are 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 particularly those who rent out units in poor conditions or break strict occupancy laws.
The mayor claimed that up to 75 per cent of property developers operating in the city were “not from Marseille”.
Hosts and property owners in the southern port city are currently required to secure authorisation for a property change of use from the town hall if they want to rent out a second home on third-party booking sites.
Payan wants to enforce “the strictest and strongest regulations in France”, including refusing a lot more property change of use requests and establishing a so-called ‘Airbnb brigade’ to identify illegal listings.
Marseille’s housing supply has suffered from a slowdown in the rate of social housing construction since Payan was elected as mayor four years ago. In addition, the city is still mourning the collapse of two residential buildings in 2018 and another building collapse in April last year, due to a suspected gas explosion.
Payan’s legislative approach in Marseille mirrors that in other French cities such as Bordeaux, where short-term rental owners can be required to buy a property of equal or greater size to be placed on the traditional rental market if they decide to list their second home on Airbnb et al.
Meanwhile, in Paris, owners are allowed to rent out their entire primary home listings for a maximum of 120 nights per calendar year.
