Airbnb: regulation is tightening everywhere. Why long-term letting is once again the safest strategy.

For years, the reasoning seemed unanswerable: a night lets for more than a thirtieth of a monthly rent, so short-term letting pays more. This calculation remains true on paper. What has changed is everything around it: regulation, taxation, operating costs and the risk of seeing the rules move along the way.

The law of 19 November 2024, known as the Le Meur Act (loi Le Meur), has given municipalities much broader tools to regulate furnished tourist accommodation (meublés de tourisme), and its implementation timetable is reaching its final deadlines. For an investor, the question is no longer whether the framework will tighten, but how fast it will tighten in the city in question.

What has changed, and already applies

• Generalised registration: all furnished tourist accommodation must be declared via a national online service and display its number on listings, failing which a fine of up to €10,000 may be imposed.
• Tighter taxation: under the micro-BIC regime (the flat-rate regime for furnished letting income), unclassified furnished tourist accommodation now benefits from an allowance of only 30%, with a receipts ceiling of €15,000, against 50% for classified accommodation (meublé classé, officially star-rated).
• Cap on nights: letting out a main residence remains limited to 120 days a year, and the option for municipalities to lower this cap to 90 days is extended to the whole country.
• Change of use (changement d'usage): any municipality can now make authorisation compulsory by simple resolution, and the fine for an offence has been raised to €100,000.
• Energy performance: furnished tourist accommodation is gradually coming under the requirements of the DPE (diagnostic de performance énergétique, the French energy performance certificate), like the rest of the rental stock.

Paris, Lille, Montpellier: three markets, three approaches

In Paris, regulation is long-standing and among the strictest in France: registration in place for many years, active checks, compensation rules for turning a home into a furnished tourist let. In Lille and Montpellier, student demand and rental pressure are pushing local authorities to protect residential housing, with measures that are being progressively strengthened. In all three cities, demand for year-round housing is strong, constant and documented: this is precisely what makes long-term letting sound.

We do not advise ruling out short-term letting on principle. We advise never building a financing plan on a yield that the next municipal resolution can cut in half.

What long-term letting brings in practice

• Much lighter operating costs: no cleaning between stays, no laundry, no consumables, no platform commissions. A concierge service commonly charges 15 to 25% of the income collected, whereas conventional property management is well below that.
• Readable income: a monthly rent, an annual review capped by the rent reference index (indice de référence des loyers, IRL), no seasonality and no gaps in the calendar to fill.
• Almost no regulatory risk: unfurnished or furnished letting on a year-round basis is not subject to quotas, change-of-use authorisations or caps on nights.
• Financing viewed more favourably: banks appreciate a signed lease and a contractual rent, which are easier to incorporate into a financing plan than a forecast of nights.
• Real social value: every home returned to the year-round market, in a high-demand city, means a household housed rather than a night sold.

Four questions to ask before buying to let by the night

1. 1Does the municipality require a change-of-use authorisation, compensation or a quota in this specific neighbourhood?
2. 2Do the co-ownership regulations (règlement de copropriété) authorise furnished tourist letting, and could the general meeting restrict it tomorrow?
3. 3Does the transaction remain viable if the cap on nights is lowered or if the tax allowance changes again?
4. 4Is the advertised yield net of actual operating costs, including the concierge service and seasonal vacancy?

If any of these answers is uncertain, long-term letting deserves to be studied first. It requires less energy, absorbs changes in the rules better, and lets you sleep soundly. In a market where regulation moves every year, that is a return in itself.

General information up to date as at August 2026, liable to change. It constitutes neither legal advice nor tax advice: the applicable rules depend on your municipality and your situation, to be checked with your town hall and your accountant.