The Panier district in Marseille – Caro / Muhs / SIPA
- This Friday, during the city council, the city of Marseille votes a deliberation aimed at strengthening its regulations in terms of tourist accommodation.
- Concretely, it will now be possible to have only one secondary residence per person.
- If a landlord wants to rent more property, he will have to compensate for the loss that his activity represents in terms of available housing.
It was, according to Deputy Mayor Patrick Amico, one of the “last cities” not to tackle the subject. At the dawn of the summer season, the city of Marseille has decided, after Lyon and Paris, to tackle Airbnbs and other furnished tourist rentals available on online platforms.
A deliberation proposed by the left-wing majority and voted on this Friday at the city council aims to strengthen the regulation of tourist accommodation, in order to limit the number. Until now, in the second largest city in France, it was possible for an owner to rent five second homes in addition to his main residence.
“A real business”
“This activity has become a real business, piloted by a small number of wealthy people,” said the deputy mayor in charge of housing Patrick Amico. For the time being, no precise statistics exist to estimate the extent of the phenomenon in the Marseille city. “When we contact the platforms, we estimate the number of furnished tourist accommodation in Marseille at 9,000,” he says.
A phenomenon which, in addition to neighborhood problems, according to Patrick Amico, also raises questions in a city affected by a housing crisis, especially in its city center. “A studio in a small port near the Corniche sold for 12,000 euros per m²”, chokes Patrick Amico. And to get annoyed: “A lot of smart kids work in leisure furniture, but not just for that. Some sleep merchants have rushed into this system. “
“A certain harmony”
“The tourist attraction of Marseille should not be blocked but be made consistent and in a certain harmony with the functioning of the city,” says Patrick Amico. Concretely, according to the terms of the deliberation, from two secondary residences, the owner will have to make a request which could be refused or subjected to a compensation mechanism (compensate in family housing in the same sector and on the same surface), in order to that furnished tourist accommodation stop cutting back on family housing.
Another novelty: the authorization period will be reduced from six to four years, and will no longer be automatically renewable. Private renters who currently have more than one furnished tourist accommodation will be subject to this regulation as soon as their authorization expires. A deliberation which will come into force only after having been adopted by the next council of territory. As a reminder, last summer, more than three and a half million tourists made a stopover in Marseille, an increase in attendance of 60%.