Saint-Malo fights against the proliferation of short-term tourist rentals
To keep its inhabitants and businesses, the city of Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) is trying, like many other cities in France, to contain the proliferation of short-term tourist rentals. Especially in its center, behind the ramparts. To this end, it has introduced one of the most restrictive regulations in France, in force since 1st July.
“Saint-Malo has, in fact, become in spite of itself, in 2019, the French champion of short-term rentals with, according to statements made on the three main platforms – Airbnb, Expedia and Booking – , 639 nights reserved for 100 inhabitants, far ahead of Bordeaux (239) or Aix-en-Provence (199)”, explains Jean-Virgile Crance, first deputy mayor.
The number of ads on the Airbnb site alone had thus doubled between April 2016 and the end of 2018 , “with super-hosts who concentrate two-thirds of the nights booked”, notes Mr. Crance. Nearly a third of intramural housing (27%) has been the subject of such an announcement. “At this level, the balance is broken between inhabitants and tourists, because there is nothing left to buy or rent except at prices beyond the reach of the Malouins, continues Mr. Crance. However, we do not want to become the Breton Venice, deserted by those who make it live. »
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Rising real estate prices
Notaries attest, for their part, that the intense tourist rental activity is causing, here as elsewhere, real estate prices to rise: according to their statistics, the price per square meter in the municipality of Saint-Malo has increased by 14.5% in 2020 alone – and by 39% for five years –, partly on the promise of double profitability when renting in short duration.
The previous municipality had already, in 2019, required rental companies to register and obtain a number to verify that those who offer their main residence do not exceed one hundred and twenty rental days per year and that the owners of secondary residences and investors have indeed obtained the change of use to “commercial activity”.
This change of use obligation is, in principle, reserved for cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. But Saint-Malo, which has 46,000, has, in view of the tension of its real estate market, obtained an exemption from the prefect. However, not all owners followed suit: only 2,000 homes were registered, far from the 3,000 ads listed on the platforms.
The new municipality has therefore tightened this system by limiting the authorization for a change of use to one dwelling per natural person, excluding any holding through a company, including a real estate company, and for three years only (compared, for example, with five accommodations and six years, in Marseilles; two accommodations and nine years, in Strasbourg; two accommodations for two years, in Toulouse; one accommodation for six years, in Nice; Bordeaux and Paris having, they , chosen to subject the change of use to compensation in square meters of housing).
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