The city of Annecy voted on Thursday evening to set up quotas for furnished tourist accommodation to “take back control of the situation” in the face of the explosion in recent years of short-term rentals on Airbnb-type platforms.
We note that the number of furnished accommodation declared in the town of Annecy is now four times higher than five years ago, underlined the mayor environmentalist Franois Astorg during a community council.
Quotas will apply from June 1 in the town, which has been divided into three zones, the most restrictive being the old town, the tourist heart of Annecy. In total, the number of second homes in tourist accommodation will be limited to 2,200 throughout the city, compared to more than 2,800 currently, or 3% of the housing stock.
We are trying to bring housing back to its primary function, which is year-round housing, explains AFP Sophie Garcia, municipal councilor responsible for affordable housing and social diversity. The city thus hopes to bring a few hundred housing units back on the market within three years.
The objective of the municipality is now to find a balance between visitors and people who live and work in Annecy. We have almost entire buildings dedicated to (tourist rental, editor’s note), to the detriment of neighborhood life, the serenity of residents and the heritage of Annecy, points out the elected official.
This quota measure is accompanied by a tightening of the regulations on changes of use of residential premises in tourist accommodation with, in particular, the limitation of authorizations to a single property per owner or the obligation of renewal. every five years.
The new rules are contested by the Syndicat Annecy Meubls, representing the interests of lessors, which qualifies this policy as discriminatory and disproportionate.
It does not solve the problem of housing and Annecy nuisances and will affect the profitability of the property of the owners, estimates its president Marc Stakic, joined by AFP. The union plans to take legal action against these deliberations.
The city of Annecy is one of the first in France to apply quotas in an attempt to regulate the development of short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb, Booking, Abritel, etc.
We also hope to challenge the legislator so that the State takes a position on this phenomenon which we could not have foreseen to increase in scale, indicates municipal councilor Sophie Garcia.