To Let Someone Use Your Property? Or Rent? What is the Difference?

The Promenade de Paillon in NiceMonday evening I left the sunny south after two weeks of ‘beaching’ it on the Riviera and the northern coast of the French island of Corsica to find a gray, cool and drizzly Paris. It’s no wonder the city virtually empties out this time of year — it simply doesn’t make for summery kind of memories.

This doesn’t mean I love Paris any less, however. Paris will always be Paris and there isn’t a city in the world that compares to it for all it’s charm and attributes, in spite of the weather! Still, as I have said in the past, we in France can have many “lovers,” including our love for other places, without guilt or feeling as if we’ve “cheated” by loving another as much.

The NY Times video on NiceMy other love is Nice and the Riviera, where life is very different and a lot less gray. The New York Times just posted a video about Nice which is more a promotion for tourism than a journalistic report, but that’s okay — they’ve done a good job of giving us a taste of what the Côte d’Azur city offers. If you haven’t already seen it, then take an armchair ride through life on the Mediterranean Sea.

From the outside looking in, it appears the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, is largely responsible for Nice’s big face-lift and lift in lifestyle. He reminds me of Rudy Giuliani of New York who managed to turn New York around in a New York minute. Estrosi is as dynamic as a leader with strong right wing political beliefs, perhaps thanks to his background as a sportsman and businessman, unlike most other French politicians.

Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi – photo by AFPA few months ago, as a member of the UMP (Sarkozy’s party), Estrosi formally declared his plans to run for president in 2017. In an article in Le Monde this past June, his politics are described as aligned closely with Gaullism — “a French political ideology based on the thought and action of Resistance leader then President Charles de Gaulle.” (wikipedia.org/wiki) In an interview he said, “I want to put a stop to this decay of our nation at the hand of Socialist powers.”

The reason for addressing this in today’s FPI, is due to the ongoing conflict in Paris by the current Socialist administration to reduce the housing shortage by making short-term living in the City of Light illegal. The current laws make leases of less than one year (or nine months for students) illegal. This means that should you want to reside in the city less than that — say for up to three months for a work project, educational séjour, sabbatical or vacation, you are not entitled to housing! The laws affect the approximate 30,000 properties offered for rent and the many more thousands of renters who want and need these accommodations.

In a recent article by Bloomberg.com, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is accused of having “a 20-person team making unannounced visits to apartments whose owners are suspected of, or turned in by nosy neighbors for, unlawfully renting to visitors.” By comparison, the City Hall of Paris only has ONE person devoted to tourism — for a city that received more than 30 million visitors last year and who will be greatly affected if accommodations are scarce!

As a result of what is happening in Paris, there have been rumors it will be adopted in Nice as well. One of our readers was notified by their Niçois Notaire, while in the process of making a purchase in Nice, that “There is a new law since March 24th 2014 regarding the rental for short periods (holiday apartments with furniture) to different tenants. It is not a matter of ‘copropriété,’ but with the city hall. If you want to make such rentals, you will have to ask the city hall to obtain an agreement to change the use of the apartment.”

The Loi ALURThe Notaire was referring to the “ALUR” laws that are under tremendous controversy. (See our recent article in FPI on this matter)

It is true that the laws apply to cities of more than 200,000 residents, but as far as we know, Nice has NOT yet adopted them — the city has the right to choose. I can’t imagine Mayor Estrosi wanting to upset his campaign to increase tourism in Nice, as well as the enormous foreign investment the city has enjoyed for decades — the British, Italians, Russians, etc. who flock to the city and their second homes.

Meanwhile, we are all hoping there will be more reasonable solutions found to ease the Paris housing shortage without turning 30,000 homeowners into criminals for earning income on their own property investments! Without question, anyone has the right to ‘let’ anyone else stay in their property. So, the only difference with ‘letting’ someone stay and ‘renting’ is that money changes hands in the process. In essence, the laws which prevent the exchange of money for a ‘letting,’ only forces a black market and benefits no one, nor the cause to improve the shortage of housing.

I don’t believe the City Hall has a very ‘global’ view of the issues or has approached the problem with realistic solutions…but no one as yet has been successful in opening their eyes.

Perhaps Christian Estrosi will?

A bientôt,

Adrian Leeds

Editor, French Property Insider & The Adrian Leeds Group, Inc

(in Nice)

Email: [email protected]

 
P.S. I will be talking about these issues and much more at the upcoming Living and Investing in France Mini Conference — Nice and the Côte d’Azur on Tuesday, September 16, 2014 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. You’ll learn how to own a “pied-à-terre” of your own on the Riviera, in Paris or a home in the countryside that you can enjoy when you want…or just make a smart investment, plus ask me all of your questions about owning property in France. Register now and join us in Nice!

P.P.S If you dream of life in the French countryside, purchase your own share of “Le Muguet.” This two-bedroom, two-bath medieval fractional ownership property is located in a quaint village in the heart of Provence. Le Muguet has only two shares on the market, priced at 49,900€ each. Visit Le Muguet for more information, or virtually visit the Provençal home in a video.