While many municipalities have begun a real tug-of-war with the Airbnb platform, which offers short-term rentals, a new player is entering the arena. A national citizen collective appeared to the press on Wednesday and hopes to lead to a regulation of the market for these tourist rentals which, according to him, accelerates the housing crisis.

Created in April, this coordination brings together about twenty local collectives throughout the territory and intends to become a privileged interlocutor of the government to regulate furnished tourist accommodation. "Everyone must be able to live wherever they want in housing that meets their needs and is accessible to their means (...) A territory is not a commodity," said Franck Rolland, co-president of the collective and representative of "Saint-Malo J'y vile... I'm staying there! ».

The deleterious effects of "overtourism"

Exodus of inhabitants, closure of small shops, school classes, lack of manpower, dead cities out of season... The members of the collective listed the different effects of "overtourism" in the areas that concentrate the most furnished tourist accommodation. "On my street, it can be estimated that half of the buildings are occupied by Airbnbs, and in the old city, 23 buildings have been declared at risk because they have not been maintained. It is not an Airbnb owner who redoes the roof," said Brigitte Cottet, a member of the Annecy Old Town Residents' Association.

"Over time, everyone realized that beyond the nuisances they experienced in their place of life, their neighborhood, their street changed, their son could not find student housing, people found themselves alone in buildings and (...) that the housing crisis now concerned the middle class," added Franck Rolland, who denounced a "speculative bubble" of LCDs.

Municipalities classified as tense areas

The creation of this collective comes a week after the announcement of the postponement of a transpartisan bill to regulate tourist rentals. "The more Airbnb, the more people there are, the more jobs it creates. There is this ideological fabric there, "commented Franck Rolland, for whom the ball is now "in the court of the government".

Among the demands, the coordination calls for the extension of the number of municipalities classified as tense areas to allow regulatory measures such as quotas or compensation at the intermunicipal level. It also calls for "reverse taxation in favor of people who rent year-round". The collective also intends to demonstrate that the answer to the housing crisis lies not only in construction but also in increasing the share of principal residences in the housing stock of municipalities.

  • Society
  • Airbnb
  • Rental
  • Housing