The administrative court of Pau on Friday lifted the suspension of the compensation measure intended to fight against the expansion of furnished tourist accommodation in the Basque Country, and of which the Airbnb platform is the symbol.
The judges of the administrative jurisdiction put "an end to the suspension of the execution of the deliberation of the Community Council of the Basque Country Agglomeration Community of March 5, 2022", in their order issued on September 16.
On June 3, this same court, seized of an interim suspension, had found in favor of a group of 50 claimants owners and concierge companies, who had raised a "serious doubt" as to the legality of this measure voted at the beginning of the March.
At the beginning of July, the elected officials of the Basque Country had finally reviewed their regulations, in the light of the observations made by the judges in chambers, proposing an "adjusted" version.
An obligation to offer a property year-round
The compensation measure, the suspension of which was therefore lifted on Friday, obliges owners to produce, in the same city and with an equivalent surface, a property on the rental market for the year to compensate for accommodation transformed into furnished tourist accommodation.
This measure should apply to 24 municipalities in the Basque Country in a so-called “tense” zone.
The rules had been clarified, to introduce “better proportionality”, in the face of the “scarcity or even non-existence of premises eligible for compensation”, underlined by the judges.
The new regulation notably allows owners to buy "commercial rights" from others to recover premises and also concedes that ground floor premises, hitherto excluded from the framework, can be converted as long as their showcase does not overlook the public domain.
A hearing scheduled for the next few months
After the lifting of this suspension, the modified version of the compensation rule can now apply from March 1, 2023. However, the legal fight between the Basque agglomeration and the applicants is not over.
Indeed, a hearing on the merits, on the very content of the measure and on its legality, will take place in the coming months, this summary suspension being an emergency means based on the form of the deliberation.
In the 24 municipalities of the Basque Country concerned, more than 16,000 tourist accommodations have been identified, an increase of 130% between 2016 and 2020, according to the Atlantic and Pyrenees Urban Planning Agency (Audap).
Last November, a demonstration for the right to housing brought together between 6,500 and 8,000 people in the streets of Bayonne.