Katharine C: taxes on second homes in Paris

Taxes on Paris’s Second Homeowners Could Increase Five Fold

Paris City Council hopes to reduce the number of empty homes

Second homeowners may have to pay the same rate of property tax as primary ones

Second homeowners in Paris could soon be stung with a five-fold increase in property taxes.

If new measures agreed to by Paris City Council get the green light from France’s parliament, second homeowners, who currently pay an extra 20% on top of their regular property taxes, could soon see that jump to 100%, according to The Atlantic’s CityLab.

The council wants to reduce the number of vacation homes in Paris and the hope is that these measures would entice more well off homeowners to either rent their properties to permanent tenants, or sell them.

Paris has an estimated 92,000 second homes and a large majority of these are empty for around “three-quarters of the year,” according to Paris Housing Commissioner Ian Brossat, shrinking the pool of available rentals for permanent residents in the city.
“Up until now, this tax was felt to be bearable, but under new proposals —and added to the wealth tax—this presents an additional punitive cost,” said Laurent Lakatos, a director at Databiens, a Paris-based real estate data firm.

“Instead of forcing rents down as the government intended, it seems likely that more homes will simply be put up for sale and at reduced prices. Another likely outcome could be a deterioration in some of France’s most historic properties, as landlords on low (rental) incomes struggle to maintain their properties.”