The idea of renting out one’s primary residence is attracting more and more homeowners in France. With the rise of furnished rentals platforms, real estate inflation, and the search for additional income, the practice has become more widespread. In 2024, there are said to be more than 900,000 active listings for tourist furnished accommodations in France, according to AirDNA data. Yet renting out your primary residence isn’t something you can do on a whim: maximum duration, a 120-day cap, rules in high-demand areas… The legal framework is specific, sometimes strict, and penalties can reach several tens of thousands of euros in case of a mistake.
The conditions for renting out your primary residence
Before renting out a property, you need to clearly understand one essential thing: the law clearly distinguishes between a primary residence, a secondary residence, and a tourist furnished rental. This classification determines the rights, obligations, and risks.
The maximum permitted rental duration
A property is considered a primary residence when it is occupied for at least 8 months per year, except in cases of professional obligation, health reasons, or force majeure. This criterion is set by French law and forms the cornerstone of the framework.
In practical terms, this means you can rent out your primary residence only on a temporary basis. If you are away from your home for more than 4 months a year without a valid reason, it may lose its status as a primary residence. And that’s when complications begin: change of use, administrative authorization, different taxation.
This rule is not theoretical. In Paris, the city hall regularly carries out cross-checks between tax declarations and online listings. In 2023, the City of Paris imposed more than €1.3 million in fines on non-compliant owners. Renting out your primary residence therefore remains possible, but only if you continue to actually live in it.
The 120-day cap per year
The 120-day cap is the best-known rule. It applies when you rent out your primary residence as a tourist furnished rental, notably via platforms like Airbnb.
The law limits rentals to 120 days per calendar year, i.e., about 4 months. This cap is automatic in municipalities that have set up a registration system. Platforms now block listings beyond this duration in major French cities. In 2024, more than 200 municipalities applied this regulatory mechanism.
Be careful, however: this cap concerns only primary residences. If your property is reclassified as a secondary residence, the limit disappears… but the administrative obligations become much heavier, notably regarding change of use.
A often overlooked point: the 120 days are cumulative, even if you rent in split periods. Ten weekends and several summer weeks are included in the overall calculation. Exceeding the limit can result in a civil fine of up to €10,000.
Specific rules in high-demand areas
Not all municipalities are in the same situation. In so-called “high-demand” areas, regulations are strengthened. These areas correspond to territories where housing demand far exceeds supply, such as Paris, Lyon, or Bordeaux.
In 2024, more than 1,100 French municipalities were classified as high-demand areas. In these territories, short-term rentals are particularly monitored. Some cities require a mandatory registration number. Others impose, for secondary residences, a compensation mechanism: for each dwelling converted into a tourist furnished rental, a commercial space must be converted into housing.
Regulatory pressure increased even further with the law adopted at the end of 2023 aimed at regulating tourist furnished rentals. The stated objective here: to limit the housing shortage in large urban areas.
In practice, this means that renting out your primary residence remains permitted, but in a more constrained legal environment if you are located in a major metropolitan area. Before any rental listing, checking with your city hall is truly essential.
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Mandatory steps to rent out your primary residence
Renting out your primary residence is not limited to posting an online listing. Several formalities govern the practice, and failing to comply can be enough to trigger a penalty. Declaration to the town hall, informing the property manager, authorization from the landlord: these steps form an essential legal safety net, especially since stricter checks were introduced in 2023 and 2024.
Declaration to the town hall and the registration number
In many municipalities, particularly in high-demand areas, renting out your primary residence requires a prior declaration to the town hall. This formality is generally completed via a dedicated online service. Once the declaration is validated, a registration number is assigned.
This number must appear on all listings published on platforms such as Airbnb or Abritel. The absence of a number may result in an administrative fine of up to 5,000 euros. Platforms are now required to verify its presence and may suspend the listing in case of non-compliance.
In 2024, more than 230 French cities introduced a mandatory registration system. In Paris, monitoring is automated: once the 120-day threshold is reached, the listing is blocked. According to municipal data, this system reduced the number of active listings by nearly 20% between 2022 and 2024.
In practical terms, the declaration is free, but it provides official proof of primary-residence status. In the event of a tax or administrative inspection, this document can make all the difference.
Informing the property manager in a condominium
When the dwelling is part of a condominium, renting out your primary residence also requires respecting the building’s collective framework. Informing the property manager is not always a formal legal obligation, but it is strongly recommended.
Why? Because short-term rentals can cause disturbances: frequent turnover of occupants, intensive use of common areas, security issues. In the event of a dispute, the property manager can take legal action if the activity disrupts the building’s peace and quiet.
In 2023, several court decisions confirmed that condominiums could take action against owners whose activity, comparable to a commercial activity, disrupted the building’s “bourgeois” residential purpose. Judges then examine the frequency of rentals, their duration, and the impact on collective life.
In practice, notifying the property manager helps prevent tensions. This does not amount to requesting systematic authorization, unless the condominium bylaws explicitly require it.
Landlord authorization in the event of subletting
The situation changes radically if you are a tenant and you want to rent out your primary residence, even occasionally. In that case, subletting is strictly regulated.
Article 8 of the law of 6 July 1989 requires written authorization from the landlord. Without this agreement, subletting is illegal, even for a few nights. The owner must also approve the rent charged: it cannot exceed the main rent pro rata to the area sublet.
Courts are strict. In 2022 and 2023, several rulings ordered tenants to repay the full amounts received through unlawful subletting, sometimes for sums exceeding 15,000 euros. In some cases, termination of the lease was ordered.
In other words, renting out your primary residence when you are yourself a tenant requires complete transparency. The agreement must be written, specific, and kept in case of inspection.
Compliance with the condominium bylaws
Final essential point: the condominium bylaws. This document defines the building’s purpose. Some clauses prohibit commercial or quasi-hotel activities.
The difficulty lies in the legal classification. Renting out your primary residence as a furnished tourist accommodation can be considered a commercial activity if turnover is high and stays are very short. Several appellate court rulings issued in 2023 confirmed that bylaws stating “exclusively bourgeois residential use” could prohibit Airbnb-type rentals.
You must therefore analyze the clauses precisely. Wording such as “simple bourgeois residential use” generally leaves the possibility to rent, whereas “exclusive bourgeois residential use” severely restricts permitted uses.
This point is strategic: a co-owner may bring the matter before the judicial court to stop the activity, even if you otherwise comply with the 120-day limit. Renting out your primary residence therefore requires reconciling public law (town planning) and private law (condominium rules).
The tax implications of renting out your primary residence
The tax aspect is often underestimated when you decide to rent out your main residence. Yet the tax authorities consider the rents received as taxable income. Since 2023, platforms automatically transmit the amounts collected to the authorities, which significantly reduces the risk of forgetting… and increases the risk of reassessment in the event of an error.é
The tax regime for rents received
When you rent out your main residence as furnished accommodation, the income falls under the BIC (Industrial and Commercial Profits) regime, and not under property income. Two regimes are possible: the micro-BIC or the standard (actual) regime.
In 2024, the micro-BIC threshold for classified furnished tourist accommodation is set at €188,700 in annual receipts, with a flat-rate allowance of 71%. By contrast, for non-classified furnished rentals (which is the case for the majority of short-term rentals) the ceiling is €77,700, with an allowance of 50%. These amounts have recently been adjusted as part of the reform aimed at better regulating furnished tourist accommodation.
In practical terms, if you receive €10,000 in rent from an unclassified furnished rental, the authorities will retain €5,000 as the taxable base after the allowance. This amount is added to your other income and is subject to the progressive income tax scale, as well as social contributions of 17.2%.
Since the widespread introduction of automatic data transmission by platforms such as Airbnb, the authorities have a clear view of the income generated. In 2023, more than 120,000 tax audits concerned activities linked to the collaborative economy, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.
The standard (actual) regime, on the other hand, allows you to deduct actual expenses: depreciation of furniture, management fees, loan interest, works, insurance. It becomes relevant if expenses exceed 50% of receipts. However, it involves heavier accounting and, often, the use of a chartered accountant.
Renting out your main residence can therefore generate an attractive net income, but only if the tax framework is under control. A prior simulation remains essential.
Exemption thresholds and possible allowances
However, there are cases of partial or total exemption, often little known. The first concerns renting out part of your main residence to a tenant who makes it their home.
If you rent a room to a student or an employee on the move, the rents may be exempt from tax provided you comply with annual ceilings set per square meter. In 2024, these ceilings are around €206 per m² in Île-de-France and €152 per m² in other regions. They are revised each year by the tax authorities.
Another case: when the annual receipts from the occasional rental of your main residence do not exceed €760 per year. Below this threshold, the income is tax-exempt. This amount may seem low, but it applies for example to very occasional rentals, such as a weekend during a local event.
Be careful, however: these exemptions are strictly regulated. They do not apply if the activity becomes habitual or if the ceilings are exceeded, even slightly. In the event of an error, the authorities may carry out a reassessment over three years, or even longer in the case of deliberate non-compliance.
In practice, taxation often constitutes the tipping point between a profitable occasional rental and an activity akin to a genuine commercial operation. It is precisely this shift that local authorities monitor.
The legal limits of renting out your primary residence
Even if it seems simple on paper, it is often the legal classification of the activity that determines everything. Beyond a certain threshold of intensity, the authorities may consider that you are no longer operating on an occasional basis, but in an activity comparable to a professional tourist furnished rental. And the consequences are far from trivial.
The distinction between occasional renting and habitual activity
The line between occasional renting and habitual activity is not based solely on the 120-day cap. Judges and local authorities look at a set of indicators.
The frequency of stays, the repetition of listings, seasonal price optimization, or the presence of para-hotel services (systematic cleaning, provision of linens, personalized welcome) can weigh in the assessment. If the activity has the characteristics of a structured commercial operation, it may be reclassified.
In 2023, several decisions by judicial courts confirmed this approach. In Paris, owners renting almost continuously despite the 120-day rule were sanctioned, with judges finding that the primary residence was not actually occupied for 8 months a year. Inspections rely in particular on water and electricity consumption and tax declarations.
In practical terms, renting out your primary residence requires overall consistency: real occupancy, controlled duration, proportionate income. If the activity generates 25,000 or 30,000 euros per year on a repeated basis, the authorities may question whether it is truly “occasional.”
The risk of reclassification as a tourist furnished rental
When the primary residence loses that status, the dwelling may be treated as a tourist furnished rental requiring a change of use. And that is where the framework becomes much more restrictive, especially in tight housing markets.
In major cities such as Lyon or Bordeaux, converting a dwelling into a permanent tourist furnished rental requires prior authorization. In Paris, the compensation mechanism even requires converting commercial premises into housing to offset the loss of a residential unit. The cost of this compensation can reach several tens of thousands of euros depending on the district.
The strengthened law at the end of 2023 gave mayors more powers to monitor listings and cross-check tax data. Some local authorities have observed a 15% to 25% drop in active listings after inspections were intensified.
This risk of reclassification does not concern only investors. A private individual who is away for a long period each year and repeatedly rents out their property may also be affected. Renting out your primary residence therefore requires maintaining effective and verifiable occupancy.
Penalties in the event of exceeding the rules
Penalties can be heavy, and they sometimes combine several levels: administrative, civil, and tax.
Exceeding the 120-day cap can result in a fine of up to 10,000 euros. Failure to file a declaration or obtain a registration number can cost up to an additional 5,000 euros. In the event of an unauthorized change of use, the civil fine can reach 50,000 euros per dwelling, together with a daily penalty of 1,000 euros until it is brought into compliance.
Added to this is the tax aspect. If the income has not been properly declared, the authorities may apply surcharges of 10%, 40% or even 80% in cases of deliberate non-compliance, in addition to late-payment interest. In 2024, the rate of late-payment tax interest is set at 0.20% per month.
Condominium associations can also take legal action to put an end to the activity if it breaches the bylaws. Several decisions handed down in 2023 resulted in an outright ban on short-term rentals in certain buildings.
In reality, the sanctions mainly target repeated abuses. An individual who complies with the legal cap, declares their income, and completes the administrative formalities faces limited risk. But ignoring the rules can cost far more than the income generated.
What to remember
It is therefore perfectly legal in France to rent out your primary residence, provided you comply with a specific framework. Actual occupancy for at least 8 months per year, a 120-day cap, declaration at the town hall, compliance with the condominium rules and tax obligations: every step matters. Checks have intensified since 2023, data is cross-referenced automatically, and penalties can reach 50,000 euros in the event of a serious violation. However, when properly regulated and correctly declared, renting out your primary residence remains an attractive way to earn additional income. The key lies in planning ahead: check local regulations, estimate the tax impact, and keep all proof of actual occupancy. It is this rigor that makes it possible to reconcile profitability and legal certainty.
