StCirq; Do you honestly think that I, one person can stop gentrification when it is happening throughout the world. Millions upon tens of millions of people are renting short term apartments in cities where gentrification is happening.

Paris has taken its first step and companies like AirBNB , Vbro and Home Away are paying the city tax. I wonder if the city of Paris likes the new collection of the city tax?

Anyways, it's now up to the city to make sure that these companies advertise apartments that owners have complied with the regulations, not me.

Is that in the works? I don't know. It is not just wealthy people buying these building and renting apartments, ME THINKS it is also Parisians who want the extra income.

Am I wrong?

P.S. I have always appreciated Christina's comments, because she is direct and doesn't answer people who throw insults. I don't believe mine was an insult.

But let me be clear, I rented our Paris apartment for last year 2 years ago and I will not be made to feel guilty.

Iris, this isn't "gentrification," it's abuse and evasion of the short-term rental LAWS in Paris, and no one is out to make you feel guilty, and obviously no one is asking you to stop anything. AirBnB has practically been shut down in NYC, and elsewhere, as it will be eventually be in Paris.

As for "It is not just wealthy people buying these building and renting apartments..." Really? Who else can afford them? If you think they're affordable, buy one...then you're set for an apartment if you live there 8 months out of the year.

What janis said....

You're right about the fact that your apartment rental is probably safe from all this, but it just might not be. Your risk.

<i>But let me be clear, I rented our Paris apartment for last year 2 years ago and I will not be made to feel guilty.</i>

That part about being clear needs more work.

At about 8000 €/m2 minimum no young couple in Paris can afford to buy an apartment let alone a SECOND one for renting.

If they are Parisians and rent their apartment it is most certainly legal.

These Parisians could benefit more if tourists rented legal apts that paid taxes to the city. No ?
Sorry Iris, but only the wealthy benefit from the actual situation. The wealthy thieves actually, because they break the laws and evade taxes, with the complicity of Airbnb.

So you want to stay in an apartment in Paris : great ! do it legally. But probably you'll have to pay more because the wealthy who owned it before will want to keep the same return on investment and will raise the price to cover for the works needed to make it commercically oriented and to cover for the loss in revenue due to paying taxes.

I could then make it sound like some : if you as a tourist cannot afford to pay more for a legal apartment, then sorry mate, stay home, that is the law of the market. The less tourists who illegally come in apartments the more apartments will be made available for long term renting or for sale.

But it seems SOOOO complicated to understand, so obviously I have a hidden agenda. Which I would like to know but nobody has been able to tell me what it was...

I would just say, much has to do with gentrification. Wealthy people buying apartment building being sold by Parisians and them using then for short term rentals.

So, is it Parisians selling these building to the wealthy helping to cause displacement of their own people?

Why hasn't Paris done more for rent control over the years to help Parisians?

Did they wait too long and then realized they needed new laws to control short term rentals?

I don't know the answers.

I would say that people who have owned and lived in these buildings for many years might also be people who now need short term rentals to survive.

That's what I was attempting to say, it's not just the wealthy.

Why hasn't Paris built more affordable housing for their people?

Boston is going thru the same problems, extremely high rents, but the Mayor just announced a program to build 30,000 new affordable apartments.

And StCirq; You can't imagine the morality issue constantly used attempting to make Fodorites feel guilty.

Hey,. as yogi says, it is what it is.

P.S. As Pariswat knows, I invited him to have a glass of wine on our next trip to Paris--he wants 'red'. Of course, 'red.'

Over and OUT!!

I recently sold my apartment. The person who purchased it was a Parisian heiress who was able to pay 1.5 Million EU. I saw 107 visitors in 6 weeks - all but 5 were Parisians. The Parisians could not afford to pay more than 750,000 to 850,000 EU for a 1000 sq ft apartment in excellent condition in the Marais. The combined take home pay for a professional working couple with 2 children is approximately 80,000 EU/year. The 5 foreigners came from New York, Russia, Japan, Italy and Dallas. All had no problem with the price, but wanted much more space and parking.

Back in the day - well before the apartment explosion of 2009 - absolutely nobody minded if the old widow lady down the hall rented out her apartment to make ends meet while she went to her second home in Normandy for a week or two. Did she declare income and pay taxes? Maybe, maybe not. In any case, she did not ask for the high rents demanded by individuals and agencies at the present time.

Time passes, it's now 2009 and the old widow lady dies. Her children live in the suburbs and don't want to be bothered with an apartment that needs work and has no parking. They contact a real estate agency who sells to anyone who meets their asking price - which has skyrocketed since the old lady and her husband purchased it in 1964.

Or, perhaps the widow lady had a child who married well and was able to keep and renovate the apartment. So he puts an ad on the internet and hopes for the best. Does he declare revenue and pay taxes? Maybe a little more than his mother did, maybe not.

Due to the worldwide financial crisis at this time, there are wealthy foreigners looking for ways to move lots of money around. They purchase the old lady's apartment, individually or as a corporation - and several apartments like it - invest a small fortune in renovation and decoration, and put them on the short-term rental market for a much higher rent than the old widow lady would have made in her lifetime. Corporations like this are experts at diverting funds and not leaving behind a paper trail. They are difficult to locate and prosecute. Do they declare revenue and pay taxes? Not likely, especially if a portion or all of the rental fees are collected in cash.

A relatively small number of foreign individuals did invest in apartments, with the idea that they would rent them out until they could retire and hopefully move to Paris. Some rent through agencies in their countries of origin, which accept payment there and may or may not declare revenue and pay taxes in Paris. Individuals may or may not do the same.

Real estate agents did not include the information that short-term rentals are illegal in Paris. There were rumblings that the law would soon be enforced, due to the staggering number of short-term rentals and complaints from residents to the Mayor's Office. The first investigations into the vacation rental situation began in 2010.

People who bought when prices were low, some 15 or 20 years before they were able to retire, are now caught in a trap. Do they continue to rent illegally until they are caught and fined, do they take advantage of the positive real estate market, sell their apartment, and give up their dream of living in Paris? Most rent their property through agencies, who will tell them that everything is fine. The wheels of justice turn very slowly in Paris.

But when their apartments are investigated, it will be the property owner who will face fines and now a possible jail term.

The moral superiority of some of the posters on this thread is nauseating. If their noses get any higher, they're gonna get a nosebleed.

Before they lived in Paris, they were perfectly happy to illegally rent out their apartments, or rent a vacation apartment in Paris when they were there. Now that they live in France, how easy they've found it to point their nose in the air and preach their sermons.

Hypocrites.

I'm sorry, but I doubt one of the "bad" hotel experiences is going to be that the place turned out to have rented out rooms illegally.

Oh Happy.
So nice to read you.
You haven't changed though. Always happy with the world and coming here to help and drop a nice comment.

Happy, it's obvious that you are referring to me and what you presume to be my experience.

How wrong you are - but of course, since you don't know anything about me, and are relying on heresay from your buddies at TA...

Let me set the record straight, for the umpteenth time:

I rented my apartment legally, as I owned it, lived there 10 to 11 months of the year and was entitled to do so by the co-propriete. I declared revenue and paid the appropriate taxes in Paris.

I did rent a few apartments, but that was before I bought mine in 2008. The law was not even being discussed, then.

I still live in Paris, and have no intention of leaving.

Better start wiping your own uppity nose...

By the way, the new law is being discussed before the Senate Commission today, 29 June 2016.

Some of you might find this interesting:
http://vivrelemarais.typepad.fr/blog...et-de-loi.html

Someone posted on TripAdvisor that her apartment had been cancelled, even though the person she rented from owns 6 apartments in the building. It seems that he holds a "license" from the city, but was forced to stop renting by the co-propriete, or would face "heavy financial penalties". (This means he was threatened with a lawsuit.)

Someone else had 2 apartments yanked by AirBnB - not the person who listed them, the agency itself. She had rented them 4 months ago and was offered 85$ from AirBnb to use towards another rental, which didn't make her happy.

Happy - You rented apartments, too, and so did lots of your friends - and you all "chose to ignore (the law), even if it existed."

Hypocrites.

Before you get hurt throwing stones at people you have never met, I invite you to go crawl back under the rock from whence you came.

I'm certainly thrilled to have you for such a rabid fan, though - maybe I should send you a T-shirt, or something...

No Happy we don't know what that means. Or maybe that you are enclined to believe anything some harpies might say just because it makes you happy.
Are you already so far on the dark side that you can only feel good when you hear people darkening others ?

Sigh.

Si j'avais le temps je vous plaindrais.

Hearsay not heresay

Fuzzy doesn't cater much to argument.

. . . .And often takes refuge in invective and ad hominem attacks

ad mulierem in this case. Let us be politically correct.

<<well, when one knows where to look, personal histories are right there for the world to see. Seems your personal history isn't such a secret after all. Know what I mean???>>

Can you say "stalking?"

Both Happygoin and Envierges are long time Fodorites now hiding behind new screen names. They both have 'histories' too

janisj

Huh??? I'd like to know how you came to that conclusion. Post the history, please, so that everyone, including myself, can read it and be enlightened.

I have never found it necessary to "hide" behind much of anything let alone a changed screen name on a travel forum where so little is at stake. What would there be to hide on a travel forum of all places?