Owners of apartments in Paris fined 1.3 million euros for renting them to tourists
According to the official, these fines were issued by the Paris City Hall "for the period from January 1 to August 15, 2018." As Brossat emphasized, 1.38 million euros is already more than the total amount of such fines for the entire 2017, which amounted to 1.3 million euros.
The official clarified that since the beginning of this year, 111 apartments have been identified whose owners rented them out without permission from the city authorities – mainly through the Airbnb online platform. The average fine was 12,000 euros. Brossat stated that the authorities have so far fined only those owners who own "more than one apartment."
As RFI recalls, in July 2017, the Paris City Council decided to introduce mandatory registration numbers for anyone wishing to rent out housing through Airbnb and other similar platforms. At the same time, the authorities may refuse to issue such a number.
In June 2018, the National Assembly voted to strengthen control over short-term tourist rental websites, including increasing fines for apartment owners and platforms. After that, representatives of the hotel industry issued a communiqué with congratulations, stating that they "had been waiting for these measures for two years."
For Airbnb, an online platform for short-term private housing rentals, Paris is one of the largest markets in the world. Today, approximately 65,000 Parisian apartments are registered on the site. Hotels in Paris offer a total of 80,000 rooms.
Hotel rooms are usually significantly smaller than apartments and more expensive. The average price of a room in a Paris hotel at the end of 2017 was 136 euros.