Owner of Paris studio fined €110,000 for illegal rentals

The owner of a studio flat in Paris has been fined €110,000 for illegally letting the property as a short-term rental, in a landmark case. 

The 33m² flat was rented out for 864 nights between 2021 and 2025, using sites such as Airbnb and Booking.com.

This total far exceeds the 120-day per year limit for tourist lets for main residences in Paris, which was in place for most of the time the property was being rented out. That limit dropped to 90 days in 2025.

The property had also failed to be correctly declared as a short-term rental, meaning it should not have been listed on the sites at all.

The studio was located in the capital’s 8th arrondissement, home to several of the city’s best-known landmarks, including the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées. 

While the city's dedicated tourist rental team has gone after several owners, this case is significant because it represents the highest-ever fine doled out to the owner of a single property.

Even so, the €110,000 fine is nowhere near the estimated €271,296 the owner earned from renting out the property. 

Authorities in Paris have long aimed to crack down on illegal tourist rentals that flout rules in the capital, particularly those listed on platforms for longer than the legal limit.

Crackdown on illegal rentals 

The owner was found liable for “unlawful change of use without prior authorisation,” said Paris deputy mayor Jacques Baudrier, quoted by media outlet AFP.

He had split management of the property into two separate companies, one holding the ownership of the property and another managing the subletting. Both entities were penalised in the proceedings. 

Legal action is often brought against owners of multiple properties in the capital, including those who own entire buildings converted into short-term rentals. 

In a separate case, a company that owned a block of flats in the 9th arrondissement, which was illegally converted to become short-term rentals received a record €585,000 fine in April.

Airbnb rules

A further crackdown on illegal tourist lets was a major campaign pledge of new mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, and the city estimates that there are around 25,000 illegal short-term rentals within the city.

“We have dozens of cases pending. We believe we can quickly reclaim housing units thanks to these fines, the pace of which is set to accelerate,” said the deputy mayor. 

In Paris, a main residence can be let to tourists for up to 90 nights a year, as long as it has been registered online.

Letting it out for longer – or letting out a property that is not a main residence – counts as a 'change of use' (changement d'usage), which requires prior authorisation from the city.

In practice, this is very hard to obtain because it comes with a compensation requirement: the owner must convert an equivalent area of commercial space into housing. In much of central Paris, including the 8th arrondissement, the ratio is three to one.

Throughout France it is now mandatory to declare it to the local commune if you have a property you want to host on Airbnb or other short-term rental sites. 

Since May this year anyone looking to list a property for short-term rental must register it with their mairie, receiving a registration number for their listing. This system is expected to be replaced by a national online service later this year. 

This process is separate from obtaining a ‘classification’ or rating for the property (which remains optional) as well as getting a SIRET business number for the rental.

More information can be found here.