France: Schools are closing at a rapid pace in central Paris as soaring property prices drive families out of the French capital, according to France 24.
The publication reports on a school in Vaugirard, in which only 51 students were enrolled this year, and many parents and teachers attribute the sharp drop to the rise of the Airbnb home-sharing service.
Talk to France Media Agency (AFP), Jean-Jacques Renard, vice-president of the parents’ association FCPE, said: “The center of Paris is essentially becoming a vast Airbnb hotel, and there are fewer and fewer inhabitants. “
As property prices in Paris and many other European capitals have soared in recent years, the ripple effect has seen middle-class couples struggle to find appropriately sized family apartments in the city, which faces a growing affordable housing crisis.
Historically low interest rates have also led to housing shortages, and Airbnb has come under increasing criticism for its role in the trend. The popularity of the rental platform has driven thousands of Paris landlords to turn their apartments or commercial spaces into short-term rentals that yield more revenue and profit than traditional leases.
A report by the Paris Institute of Urbanism concluded last year that the number of dwellings in the city that are not permanently occupied as primary residences increased by almost 30,000 between 2012 and 2017, an increase “probably due to the development of short-term rentals”. said.
With rental and real estate prices rising across the city, more and more parents are heading to the cheaper suburbs or other cities.
It has been shown that the decline in the number of children living in Paris is intrinsically proportional to Airbnb’s own increase in growth over the past six years.
With 65,000 homes for a population of over two million in the city’s 20 arrondissements, Paris is Airbnb’s largest market.
The Paris Institute of Urban Planning also reported that almost 90% of listings in Paris represent an entire house.
City officials accused Airbnb of effectively removing thousands of apartments from the available housing market.
Maxime Cochard, adviser to the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of housing, said France 24“We don’t have a problem with vacation rentals, but we do when we lose an apartment that is turned into an Airbnb rental.”
By law, apartments held as second homes cannot be offered for short-term rental in Paris. City officials themselves said they had sued the owners to rent almost entire buildings on Airbnb, as well as filed a lawsuit against the rental service.
Cochard said Airbnb flouted a law that requires all listings to have a registration number proving the apartment is a primary residence.
Laws that offer a high level of protection to tenants have long deterred many wealthy Parisians from renting their accommodation in Paris for fear of being stuck with a non-paying tenant.
Airbnb says it automatically limits listings in Paris to the legal limit of 120 nights per year, which covers all French cities in general.
According to National Statistical Office Inseeproperty prices in the city have risen by almost 25% since 2015. This would make Paris the second most expensive European capital to buy an apartment, with only London ahead of it.
On average, Parisian apartments usually cost 9,700 euros per square meter, causing an exodus of families to cheaper suburbs and regional provinces.
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