Many of you want to invest in a short term rental and ask us for information about the “Airbnb regulations” or the “regulations for furnished accommodation”.
Here is a short article that will help you to understand the situation.
Definition of a furnished tourist accommodation
Article 145 of the ELAN law n°2018-1021 defines furnished accommodation as “furnished villas, apartments or studios, for the exclusive use of the tenant, offered for rent to a visiting clientele who do not elect domicile there and who make a stay characterized by a daily, weekly or monthly rental”.
Bed and breakfast or private rooms are not therefore considered as “furnished tourist accommodation”.
Therefore, any person can rent a room in his or her main residence without any time limit, for example 365 days a year.
There are several rules surrounding furnished rentals, depending on the type of residence (primary or secondary) and the size of the city in which the property is located.
Renting your main residence as a furnished tourist home
Furnished tourist accommodation constitutes the owner’s principal residence when the owner resides there for more than 8 months per year (LOI ALUR n°2014-366).
- Renting your main residence as a furnished tourist accommodation in cities with less than 200 000 inhabitants,
In cities of less than 200,000 inhabitants any person may rent his or her principal residence to a visiting clientele for short-term rental, up to a limit of 120 days per year.
- Renting out one’s main residence as a furnished tourist accommodation in cities with a population of more than 200,000 inhabitants
In cities with a population of more than 200,000 inhabitants, any person may rent out his or her principal residence, within a double limit:
– No more than 120 days per year
– Provided that you obtain a registration number provided automatically by the city hall through a form available online.
Renting a second home as a furnished tourist accommodation
The furnished tourist home constitutes the owner’s secondary residence when the owner resides there less than 4 months per year (ALUR law n°2014-366).
2 rules are then required :
– the declaration in town hall,
– obtaining a change of use regardless of the number of inhabitants of the town.
Once the change of use is obtained, you will no longer have a limit of 120 days per year and will be able to rent your furnished accommodation all year round.
How to obtain a change of use?
- Obtaining a change of use in cities with less than 200,000 inhabitants
The change of use is very easy to obtain in small and medium-sized cities and is done upon request to the city hall after filling out a cerfa form.
- Obtaining the change of use in cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants
The process of change of use depends on the urban planning rules defined by the city hall.
The tighter the real estate market, the more complex the rules will be.
In general the rules are as follows:
– The owner must be a natural person and will only be allowed to change the use of one property for a limited period of time (9 years in Lyon for example),
– The property must be less than a certain size (60m2 in Lyon).
Does this mean that it is impossible to change the use of a property permanently, or for a legal entity, or for a natural person when the property exceeds the authorized size?
No, it is always possible to change the use of a residential property to be able to rent it out on a full-time basis, but this requires meeting increasingly strict town planning criteria, which is the “compensation” rule.
Definition of the compensation
The compensation consists in transforming into housing premises not devoted to housing.
It allows to reconstitute the “loss” of a dwelling by the creation of another dwelling, in order to preserve the balance between housing and economic activities.
It is mandatory:
- for natural persons who wish to change the use of a dwelling into a furnished tourist accommodation:
– when the size of the premises exceeds the size authorized by the town hall for a temporary authorization.
– when natural persons wish to change the use of their premises permanently.
- for all legal entities wishing to change the use of a residential property into a furnished tourist accommodation, whatever the size of the property.
The authorizations of change of use obtained after compensation have a real character, they are definitive and are no longer attached to the owner but to the premises itself.
How do you find compensation?
The applicant for a real change of use can either :
– offer as compensation premises other than residential use that he owns and that he will transform into housing.
– buy a compensation title (or commerciality) from a third party, owner of premises assigned to another use than housing (offices, shops…) that he will transform into housing.
As tedious as these steps are, at NOCNOC we make it our duty to respect them. To find out which ones apply specifically to the city in which you wish to invest, contact your city hall’s urban planning department directly.
