Paris risks losing local f lavour, says official

PARIS risks turning into a Venice-style city devoid of real inhabitants unless it clamps down on property owners who illegally rent out their flats to tourists instead of Parisians, the city’s deputy mayor has warned.

Sky-high demand for small rooms in the City of Light has led to a booming short-term rental market, with the Paris town hall estimating that about 30 000 such flats are illegally rented out to foreign tourists at above-market rates.

“Paris is the most-visited city in the world and we are very happy about that,” said Jean-Yves Mano, deputy mayor in charge of housing.

“But we don’t want to become like Venice, a city devoid of inhabitants due to tourism,” he told Le Parisien.

According to Mano, shortterm property rentals are fuelling real estate speculation and automatically lead to rising rental rates, as many owners take their properties off the traditional market.

It is legal for Parisians to rent out their main residence while on holiday as long as they declare the rent to the tax authorities. However, second-home rentals require special town hall authorisation and paying into a costly financial compensation system.

Many property owners use online agencies that bypass this compensation system. Agents say such rentals of flats are vital in a city reaching saturation rate in terms of hotel capacity.

“Despite the spread of tourist flats, the occupancy rate of hotels in Paris was over the 80% mark last year,” one told Le Parisien. “That proves the needs are huge.”

But the Socialist-run town hall does not agree.

With the viewpoint t hat “every flat rented to a tourist is a flat less for a Parisian”, it has created a unit of inspectors to crack down on illegal rentals. It has also called on the socialist government to further tighten the rules, obliging flat owners to ask for permission from everyone in a block of flats before renting out to tourists. — © The Daily Telegraph, London