Last reviewed: 27 July 2026. France rewrote its national framework in November 2024 and the new national registration portal has been postponed. This article explains where that actually leaves you.
The short version
- In Paris, letting your principal residence is capped at 90 nights a year, not the 120 that applies in most of France. Paris used the power the loi Le Meur gave communes to lower it.
- A registration number is mandatory and must appear on every listing on every platform.
- The promised single national portal has slipped. It was due by 20 May 2026 and has been pushed to the last quarter of 2026, with no confirmed date.
- Keep declaring at the mairie in the meantime. Paris has its own téléservice and you must use it.
- Your existing number will not automatically transfer. Expect to re-register when the national portal opens.
- Letting a second home short-term requires change of use authorisation, and in Paris that means compensation. This is the expensive part.
- Your building can now vote to ban you by a two-thirds majority, upheld by the Conseil constitutionnel in March 2026.
- Energy performance now matters. A poor DPE can get your registration refused.
- Fines run from €10,000 to €100,000 depending on the breach.
The two situations
French law treats these completely differently and mixing them up is the single most common error.
Your principal residence. The home where you actually live. You may let it short-term for a limited number of nights per year, with registration but without change of use authorisation. In Paris: 90 nights.
Anything else (a second home or investment property). Letting it as a meublé de tourisme requires change of use authorisation (changement d'usage) from the city, and in Paris that comes with a compensation requirement. There is no night allowance route.
If you are reading this because you own a Paris flat you do not live in and want to put it on Airbnb, the change of use section below is the one that matters, and the answer is expensive rather than simple.
At a glance
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Principal residence night cap in Paris | 90 per calendar year |
| National default cap | 120, which communes may lower |
| Registration number required? | Yes, on every listing |
| Where do I register right now? | Paris's own téléservice, via the mairie |
| Is there a national portal? | Coming, delayed to Q4 2026 |
| Will my current number carry over? | No, expect to re-register |
| Second home without change of use? | Not lawful |
| Can my building ban it? | Yes, by two-thirds vote |
| Is a SIRET needed? | Yes, within 15 days of first letting |
| Does energy rating matter? | Yes, and it is a common refusal reason |
The loi Le Meur, and what changed
The governing statute is Law No. 2024-1039 of 19 November 2024, universally called the loi Le Meur. Its purpose is to rebalance housing supply by curbing the growth of tourist lets.
Four changes matter most:
1. Communes can cut the cap to 90 nights. The national limit for letting a principal residence had been 120 nights a year. The loi Le Meur lets communes lower it to 90 by deliberation. Paris has done so.
2. A single national registration service. The law provides for the patchwork of municipal procedures to be replaced by one national téléservice operated by a public body, with registration mandatory everywhere rather than only in large cities.
3. Copropriété prohibition by two-thirds vote. See below.
4. Energy performance requirements. Tourist lets previously escaped the DPE regime entirely. That has ended.
Source: Law No. 2024-1039 of 19 November 2024, available on Légifrance. See also the service-public.fr page "Déclarer un meublé de tourisme en mairie."
Registration: where things actually stand
This is the part most guides get wrong right now, so read it carefully.
The plan. From 20 May 2026 at the latest, everyone offering a meublé de tourisme was to file a declaration on a single national téléservice, provide supporting documents, and receive a national registration number to display on all listings, with the number issued automatically where the file is complete.
The reality. The launch has been postponed to the last quarter of 2026, with no official date communicated.
What that means for you today:
- Declarations continue at the mairie, or through your commune's own téléservice. Paris has one and you must use it.
- Your Paris declaration produces a 13-digit registration number which must appear on every listing on every platform.
- You will probably need to re-register on the national portal when it opens. Reporting is consistent that existing municipal numbers will not port automatically, with the modalities to be set by decree.
- Elsewhere in France, communes without their own téléservice have used the Cerfa no. 14004 form.
Treat the national portal as a forthcoming administrative task rather than a current requirement, and watch for official announcements.
Change of use, for anything that is not your home
If the property is not your principal residence, you need change of use authorisation.
Paris is a zone très tendue, and in the most pressured areas authorisation comes with a compensation requirement: broadly, you must convert commercial floorspace elsewhere into housing to offset the housing you are removing. In practice this makes change of use prohibitively expensive for most individual owners, which is precisely the intent.
Other cities operating change of use with compensation include Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Annecy and the Pays Basque.
Penalty for letting a second home short-term without change of use: up to €100,000.
Your building can vote to stop you
Since the loi Le Meur, a copropriété general assembly can prohibit tourist letting of lots that are not principal residences by a two-thirds majority. The Conseil constitutionnel upheld that mechanism in March 2026.
Separately, copropriété regulations drawn up after the law must state explicitly whether tourist letting is permitted or prohibited.
Practical consequence: the syndic conversation is now a live risk rather than a formality. Before you invest, obtain the règlement de copropriété and a statement from the syndic confirming that short-term letting is not prohibited. Registration processes increasingly expect that document.
Energy performance (DPE)
This is new and it is catching people out.
Until the loi Le Meur, meublés de tourisme were entirely outside the DPE opposable regime. An owner could let a class G property on a platform with no consequence, because the Climate and Resilience Law's ban on class G applied only to conventional furnished lettings.
That has changed. Supporting energy documentation can now be required with your registration, and the number can be refused where the DPE is insufficient in a tense zone. Reporting from 2026 indicates a minimum class of E, and describes an inadequate DPE as the leading reason for registration refusal.
If your Paris flat is poorly rated, resolve that before you plan anything else.
Tax and business registration
SIRET. Any meublé de tourisme operator must declare the activity on the business formalities portal within 15 days of the first letting, obtaining a SIRET number. This applies even to occasional letting, because the law treats it as a commercial activity.
Micro-BIC was cut. The flat-rate allowance for unclassified tourist lets was reduced substantially, and reporting indicates the régime réel now applies once annual receipts exceed roughly €15,000 for an unclassified meublé de tourisme, on income from 2025 taxed in 2026. Classified properties retain more favourable treatment, which is why formal classification has become worth considering.
Moving to régime réel is not automatically bad, since it allows deduction of actual costs, but it is a different accounting burden.
Taxe de séjour. Paris levies tourist tax per person per night, generally collected by platforms for bookings made through them and by you for direct bookings.
French property taxation is intricate and depends on residency and structure. Engage a French expert-comptable.
Fines, collected
| Breach | Reported penalty |
|---|---|
| Failure to register | up to €10,000 |
| False declaration or use of a false number | up to €20,000 |
| Exceeding the night cap | up to €15,000 |
| Letting a second home without change of use | up to €100,000 |
Communes can also have registration numbers withdrawn in cases of fraud, at which point platforms are obliged to remove the corresponding listings.
Amounts are as reported in 2026 and are set across several instruments. Confirm with the mairie or a French lawyer.
A practical checklist
- Establish clearly whether the property is your principal residence
- If it is not, price the change of use and compensation before anything else
- Obtain the règlement de copropriété and a syndic statement on tourist letting
- Check your DPE and remediate if it is below class E
- Declare at the mairie through Paris's téléservice and obtain your 13-digit number
- Display the number on every listing on every platform
- Obtain a SIRET within 15 days of first letting
- Track nights against the 90-night Paris cap, combined across platforms
- Confirm the taxe de séjour position for direct bookings
- Watch for the national portal opening and plan to re-register
- Take advice on micro-BIC versus régime réel and on whether classification helps
Official sources
A note on links. For this article we were unable to verify stable permalinks for the relevant French government pages to the standard we apply elsewhere in this series. Rather than publish URLs we have not confirmed, we are naming the authority and the page precisely. Please verify these links before publishing.
- Légifrance (legifrance.gouv.fr): Law No. 2024-1039 of 19 November 2024, the loi Le Meur
- service-public.fr: "Déclarer un meublé de tourisme en mairie" and "Location meublée de tourisme"
- paris.fr: the City of Paris pages on meublés de tourisme, registration and changement d'usage, and the city's own téléservice
- formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr: the business formalities portal, for SIRET registration
- Conseil constitutionnel: the March 2026 decision on the copropriété prohibition mechanism
- Cerfa no. 14004: the declaration form used by communes without their own téléservice
- Your syndic, for the règlement de copropriété and any general assembly resolutions
Important disclaimer
This article is not legal, tax or financial advice. It is general information written for a non-specialist reader, by a key management company rather than a law firm.
France's framework is mid-transition. The national registration portal promised by the loi Le Meur has been postponed with no confirmed date, the modalities for migrating existing municipal numbers are still to be set by decree, and the DPE requirements are being applied to tourist lets for the first time. Paris applies a lower night cap than most of France and its change of use rules are among the strictest. Your copropriété can prohibit the activity by two-thirds vote. Penalty amounts are drawn from reporting rather than a single consolidated schedule.
Verify with the Mairie de Paris, service-public.fr and Légifrance before acting. For a second home, a purchase, or anything involving change of use, engage a French lawyer and an expert-comptable before committing.
If you spot an error, an omission, or something that needs updating, please tell us and we will fix it.
