She has made it her hobbyhorse and does not intend to let go, even in a period of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Paris city hall wants to take advantage of the lull in the furnished tourist rental market to expand its anti-Airbnb arsenal.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen a shift in the supply of housing rented on these Airbnb-type platforms towards traditional furnished rentals,” assures Ian Brossat, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of housing.
We must perpetuate this situation and strengthen our fight against these actors ”.
No question for the mayor of Paris to see the activities of Airbnb and sisters start again after the crisis.
It is for this purpose that the mayor of Paris has launched a citizens' conference in charge of considering the means of regulating these rentals.
Carried out in January and February, it brought together 26 citizens drawn by lot and representative of the Parisian population.
Their findings, published in a notice released Wednesday evening, list possible new restrictions.
Three of them are strongly pushed by the City of Paris.
A vote in the Paris Council scheduled for next Tuesday should validate the principle.
Quotas in tight areas
Paris would see itself following in Barcelona's footsteps and "experimenting with a system of quotas or prohibitions by street or by district for furnished rentals," says Ian Brossat.
This quota would target certain tense areas of the capital: in the 1st arrondissement, the Marais and certain parts of Montmartre ”.
In its opinion, the citizens' conference provides that “these quotas would not apply to individuals for their main residence but to professionals and multi-renters
(Editor's note: companies and individuals who rent out several homes).
They would also be updated according to the evolution of the tension in the district.
The only obstacle, but a major one: the establishment of such a numerus clausus does not fall within the competence of the city, "only the legislator can do it but a window of fire exists with the future 4D law (
Editor's note: Differentiation, Decentralization, Deconcentration and Decomplexification)
which must be debated in June in the Senate, remarks the elected Communist.
This is an opportunity to have an amendment adopted so that the communities that so wish can implement such quotas ”.
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For Airbnb, the establishment by Paris of such quotas would be “illegal and would represent a major violation of property rights, it would deprive many families of additional income, particularly important resources in this period of crisis”.
And to emphasize that "in France, the new hosts
(Editor's note: registered since the start of the pandemic)
have won nearly 125 million euros since March 2020".
Tighten compensation rules
The other recommendation made by Paris concerns the rules of change of use with compensation
(Editor's note: any square meter of housing transformed into furnished tourist accommodation must be compensated by the transformation of 1 square meter of commerce into housing at the expense of the lessor).
Too often circumvented, these rules must be toughened according to the 26 citizens.
"This requires reworking the regulations in force and a vote in the Council of Paris, but this is the sole responsibility of the Town Hall", assures Ian Brossat, certain that new constraints, such as doubling the number of square meters to compensate, could see the day "by the end of the year".
Better controlled recording
Finally, the City would like to better regulate the allocation and display of registration numbers.
This obligation imposed on any landlord who wishes to submit an online seasonal rental advertisement is not always respected and very little controlled.
The idea would be to leave the current declarative system to force the lessor to present supporting documents (identity, address, tax number, etc.) for which only authentication would allow him to obtain a registration number.
"This change in the terms of granting falls within the competence of the legislator," concludes the housing assistant.
There too, an amendment to the 4D bill could quite provide for it and we will encourage it ”.