Leere Häuser: Paris hat es auf die Geldbörsen der Eigentümer abgesehen und folgt dem Beispiel von Brüssel und New York
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/04/27/empty-homes-paris-targets-owners-wallets-following-brussels-and-new-york-s-lead_6752868_7.html
Von LeMonde_en
19 Kommentare
„Now is the time to sell vacant homes, because the penalties are going to hit hard.“ With this warning, the newly elected Socialist mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, launched his housing initiative. In a city where the price per square meter is approaching €10,000 and a shortage of rental properties blocks residential mobility, the new mayor has made tackling vacancies his top priority.
In Paris, one out of every five homes is unoccupied (a total of 274,000 homes), whether they are vacant (137,000) or used as second homes and occasional residences, empty for most of the year (also 137,000), according to the latest data from INSEE, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, from 2022. And vacancy continues to rise: its share has increased from 7% to 10% of Parisian housing stock in just over a decade.
To halt this trend and return homes to the market, the city has opted to use a provision in the 2026 budget law, which will allow cities in high-demand areas to nearly double the tax on vacant homes in 2027. Specifically, this reform authorizes municipalities, when housing demand far exceeds supply, to raise the annual tax from 17% to 30% of the cadastral rental value after one year of vacancy. After two years, the rate can climb from 34% to 60%.
What will this mean for Parisian property owners? The city has made a rough initial estimate. „For an average apartment, the tax would go from €2,000 to €4,000 per year after two years of vacancy,“ estimated Jacques Baudrier, deputy mayor (French Communist Party) in charge of housing. „We lack precision because, until now, the municipality did not receive the proceeds from the vacant home tax.“ It was the state that collected it. The ongoing reform provides that this tax will now be directly allocated to municipal budgets.
**Read the full article here:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/04/27/empty-homes-paris-targets-owners-wallets-following-brussels-and-new-york-s-lead_6752868_7.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/04/27/empty-homes-paris-targets-owners-wallets-following-brussels-and-new-york-s-lead_6752868_7.html)
Why not build more houses, instead of forcing people to sell them?
That is such a small increase it’s almost laughable, but I guess a step in the right direction. If someone can afford to let an apartment sit vacant for an entire year or have a second home that generates no rental income they can certainly afford an additional €2000.
I’d create an Empty Houses Association that allowed owners to rent other members‘ properties. 🙂
Even considering taxes, it could be easier to keep a house safe if you’ve built it for your children’s future or something like that.
Unless the fees are proportional to the person’s wealth, it won’t matter.
Our city has such a tax.
Needless to say a penalty of 2k per year is not a deterrent when they’ll make 150k in profit after 3 years of just sitting on an empty property.
I always forget how much of a hard on this sub has for government intervention in the economy
Absolutely based. Let’s hope other European capitals follow too.
Why not make it mandatory that a house has to have medium/long term person physical living in the home?
If the issue is empty house the obvious solution is to make mandatory to have people physical live there 180 days or more. This reads like you can buy a permission and not solve the root issue.
Similar to how Denmark and Norwich has a residence duty/(bopælspligt)
(I can not find an English sources describe the exact rules.)
https://www.bolius.dk/regler-om-bopaelspligt-18467
https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bop%C3%A6lspligt
vous allez juste mettre en place un marché pour des sociétés dont le boulot va etre de mettre en place des concierges pour occuper les biens. on ne fait pas boire un ane qui n a pas soif.
About time. These speculations kills markets and make housing prices rise.
Paywalled.
When house/flat prices are so high and rising, it’s still better to keep them vacant for investors. It also allows a quicker sell if needed.
Doubling the tax won’t change this.
Portugal When?
Do socialists ever not want to increase taxes?
Pointless political posturing. The way to lower housing costs and increase people’s access is to build more housing.
I went house hunting and when I visited one on the 7th floor (which has a toilet separated far away from the home) the landlord told me that 3 floors below are empty and is owned by several overseas landlords. Hopefully this will change.
This is a measure that will be difficult to apply in practice. Mainly because the word „vacant“ is quite relative. Let’s take the following example – you have several houses and you live in some of them for a few weeks throughout the year. Technically speaking these houses are not „vacant“ per say because you do live there from time to time.
I’ve been saying for years that major cities should do this but on a much larger scale
Any residential property you own that isn’t your primary residence should carry an annual property tax equal to 100% the value of the property, together with a legally mandated moratorium on rent increases. Now you don’t make enough renting out those places? Great sell it for pennies and at least you won’t owe a ton in taxes each year, and suddenly homes are filled and more families actually own their homes
I’m not an economist or realtor so I assume there’s some flawed logic in there somewhere, but so many people needing and wanting to own homes but it’s too cost prohibitive is insane to me
I’d actually love btw if someone who knows more about this than I do could weigh in on why this wouldn’t work or how this type of plan could be adjusted to make it work (not just “because the rich people don’t want it to happen so it won’t happen” type argument, I get that bit already)
Should be that after 2 years vacant they give you one year to sell it at market price or the government put it on the action house