Lannion – To slow down Airbnb or Booking, can Trégor imitate Saint-Malo?

Saint-Malo is now regularly cited when it comes to regulating short-term rentals (Booking, Airbnb, Abritel, etc.) Remind us of what the city has done…

First, in 2019, a registration number for rentals, especially those of short duration (LCD). Then the obligation to request authorization for a change of use: for example, for people with a second home that they transform into an LCD. The third step, in 2021, is the establishment of quotas which determine, district by district, the share of housing that can be allocated to this type of rental.

What is the impact of these measures?

The platforms began by no longer allowing registration if users did not have a registration number. It’s a first filter even if they don’t check if the numbers are true. This has thus recently enabled an association to rent out the town hall of Anglet (in the Basque Country, editor’s note)! We have gone from 2,600/3,000 LCDs to 1,600 today. The 1,000 income homes have three destinations: they continue their activity in the gray economy (undeclared, editor’s note); they become second homes; they are put up for sale for owners, some of whom will rent them out for the year. In the end, this relaxes the real estate offer a little. For a price drop, on the other hand, it still takes some time. It will definitely have an effect.

Is your collective satisfied with these results?

We are happy to have worked. It should be noted that the mayor kept his promise. Whatever the reasons, he acted. We would have liked the establishment of the principle of compensation in addition to the quotas. With this choice, which was that of the Basque Country, if you have an LCD, you must put another accommodation in classic rental. We would have liked a greater drop in the number of LCDs. The question that remains is that of control. The town hall has just recruited a person to do it. From now on, we must also look at vacant housing.

You are going to testify in Trégor, is it to undertake similar rules?

There is above all a similar observation in municipalities with a tourist vocation: the housing crisis has long been approached from the angle of the difficulty of housing for the most precarious and the working classes. The answer has traditionally been social housing. LCDs are the straw that broke the camel’s back because the crisis is now affecting the middle class, which is having difficulty accessing property or housing year-round. The subject is now non-partisan and town halls, left and right, are taking it up.

There will therefore no longer be a need for a collective like yours…

There is still the possibility, within the meetings of co-owners, to vote on the change of use of a dwelling. If a majority opposes, it blocks. Hence the importance of citizens coming together. This is how our collective was born with the action of Véronique Deschamps in her own home. If, then, the town halls get started, it reinforces.

The Breton Democratic Union, which welcomes you on Saturday in Lannion, pleads for the status of resident. An opinion on the issue ?

This raises at least the question of the overrepresentation of second homes in the municipalities. Where there are people who have no roof, some have two or three. Our fight is not against LCDs or second homes but against multi-owners. There should be a more united distribution of housing and habitat.

Practice

Public meeting at Espace Sainte-Anne, in Lannion, Saturday March 26, 2022, at 10:30 a.m. Free.