Paris Plans Protest for Property Rights

SAN FRANCISCO STRUGGLING WITH THE SAME HOUSING SHORTAGE DILEMMA AS PARIS, BUT OWNERS ARE WINNING AGAINST PROPOSITION F

San Francisco – Photo by Ian AllenAccording to Wired.com Proposition F has failed — a ballot measure to restrict short-term rentals, 55% to 45%. It’s the same dilemma for Paris where the cities are struggling to seek more long-term residences, but the residents themselves are saying that renting their property helps them make ends meet.

There’s a big difference, though, between San Francisco’s initiative and Paris’. “If Proposition F had passed, it would have limited the number of nights a unit could be rented each year to 75 nights maximum; require short-term rental platforms and hosts to submit quarterly reports to the San Francisco Planning Department; and allow neighbors to report on each other and even sue when violations occurred. That’s considerably stricter than current law, which caps the time hosts can rent a space out to 90 days if they are not present in their homes but allows them to rent out a room or a portion of a home for an unlimited amount of time if they’re present during a visitor’s stay.”

For Parisians, this is a joke. The Paris rental laws restrict rentals of secondary properties to no less than one year, and primary residences to no more than four months! This means that anyone wishing to live in Paris in their own home, not a hotel, for less than one year, they are not entitled to housing!

Therefore, property owners and tenants are uniting to have a voice.

TAKE A STAND: SIGN THE PETITION TO MAKE THE RENTAL LAWS FAIR FOR ALL

A day doesn’t go by that we in Paris don’t discuss the rental laws, which are only being enforced in the City of Light. “We,” being all of us in the ‘industry,’ the owners of apartments they worked so hard to acquire and just about everyone who either lives here some or all of the year or visits here.

The rental laws, which make the rental of furnished secondary properties less than one year illegal, affect the owners’ ability to recuperate their investment and the guests who wish to stay or live in an apartment less than one year…as opposed to a hotel — for as little as one night or as much as 365 nights!

The problem all started with the press, believe it or not. While the laws had been ‘on the books’ since 1948 (!), the city wasn’t compelled to follow through on them until the press exposed them first in 2009 and the public became aware of them. When that happened, neighbors began to denounce neighbors and the city had no choice, but to follow through on the denouncements. That was under the ‘reign’ of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë. Once Madame le Mayor Anne Hidalgo took office, the battle to find more affordable housing for Parisians became her “raison d’être” and all hell broke loose — that’s when she put together a staff of 20 people inside the City Hall who do nothing but investigate offenders…by surfing the Internet to find rental apartments and going so far as to following tourists to their destinations to interrogate them.

It is important to note that the responsibility lies with the owner — not the guest, nor the agency or Web site that represents the apartment. Once the city discovers the rental, a letter is issued that gives the owner time in which to respond and prove that they are no longer renting their property, before heavy fines are imposed. (In France, one is guilty until proven innocent.)

For a long time, the industry didn’t want the news to spread further, so that we could ‘quietly’ go about our business as if it wasn’t happening. It’s so hard to believe that the city doesn’t see how unfair the laws are. In other major cities where this debate is taking place, the minimum stay is normally one month, not one year!

In this scenario, it means that if you wish to have accommodations in the city less than one year, you are not ENTITLED to housing! I doubt the city really means to take away this right, but they don’t seem to care — as long as these properties are put back in the hands of those who wish to occupy them 100% of the time. We understand the need, but we don’t understand the method to the solution.

It is working! Of course it is. I’m an owners who had to sell two rental properties, one of which was meant as my retirement home. Many owners cannot afford to have their investment without revenues and renting it long-term means no personal usage…plus there is the inability to cover expenses based on the high costs of owning and maintaining the property compared to the regulated rental rates (new rent control legislation) with which to contend. So, owners, particularly foreign owners such as ours, are ‘damned if they do and damned if they don’t.’

Owners are renting ‘underground’ so as not to be discovered costing the city tax revenues. Some properties are for sale at bargain prices as a result. Foreign investors are choosing to invest in other highly rentable cities…such as Nice, where the city is not enforcing the regulations. Paris, Parisians and visitors are losing out as there is no ‘middle ground’ that is fair for all.

Because the press started off the problem by exposing it, it seems the only way to get the City of Paris to wake up and realize there is a better way to solve their housing problem than by punishing some to appease others, is via the press. The message needs to be heard far and wide so that a stand can be taken and what is ‘right’ can become ‘might.’

Help us in our cause to have a voice. Sign our petition called: “Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris France: Amend the Paris short-term rental laws and make them fair for all.”

This issue is very important to all of us who wish to have a home-away-from-home in Paris. We need as many signatures as we can get and we can use your help. Pass it on to as many people as you can and send it to your friends in the press.

Read more about it and please sign the petition!

PARIS PROPERTY OWNERS UNITE — JOIN THE DEMONSTRATION!

Renters and property owners, don’t miss participating in the demonstration sponsored by the UNPI (Union Nationale de La Propriété Immobilière) on Tuesday, November 17th in response to recent over-regulation and over-taxation on property.

Starting off from the Esplanade des Invalides just in front of the Agence Air France (2 rue Robert Esnault Pelterie) at 1:30 p.m., bring as many of your colleagues and friends to show our determination!

For more information and to register, visit UNPI’s Web site.

A bientôt,

Adrian Leeds
Editor, French Property Insider

Email: [email protected]

 
 

P.S. There will be no FPI on Thursday, November 26th, for Thanksgiving…as usual!

P.P.S. Own property in Paris for less by investing in a fractional ownership. We are currently representing three properties with re-sale shares available. Learn more about them on our French Property Franctional page and contact me with any questions at [email protected]