Since April 2025, Marseille has capped short-term rentals of primary residences at 90 nights per year. Here's what changed, the penalties involved, and the legal strategies to keep renting year-round.
On 25 April 2025, Marseille's city council voted to reduce the maximum annual short-term rental period for primary residences from 120 to 90 nights. The decision was taken under France's Loi Le Meur of November 2024, also known as the anti-Airbnb law, which gives municipalities the authority to lower the national ceiling in order to protect housing availability for permanent residents. For property owners in Marseille, the rule has direct consequences on rental strategy. This is a complete breakdown of what changed, the penalties involved, and the legal strategies to keep generating income year-round.
Why Marseille tightened the rules
Marseille's decision was not taken in isolation. Between 2015 and 2024, the number of properties listed for short-term rental in the city multiplied by four, removing thousands of units from the permanent housing market in districts like Le Panier, the Vieux-Port area and Cours Julien. The result was a historic rental market tension in these sectors, with rents rising 25 to 40% over the decade according to the Marseille agglomeration rent observatory.
The Loi Le Meur gave municipalities the regulatory tools to respond. Marseille was one of the first major French cities to use them in full: the April 2025 vote lowered the cap to 90 nights, and an order dated 29 April 2025 suspended new temporary change-of-use authorisations for secondary residences. Additional measures, mandatory compensation for any new secondary residence listed as a tourist rental, made market entry significantly more restrictive for investors.
The 90-night rule: what it covers
The 90-night cap applies exclusively to primary residences, properties you occupy for at least 8 months per year. It covers all short-term rentals, defined as stays under 90 consecutive nights, on any platform: Airbnb, Booking.com, Abritel, Leboncoin or any direct booking channel. The 90 nights are counted across the calendar year, from 1 January to 31 December.
Mandatory administrative requirements before listing in Marseille:
- File a declaration at the town hall (CERFA form N°14004*03) : free, available on service-public.fr
- Obtain a 13-digit registration number, free of charge, at taxedesejour.marseille.fr
- Display the registration number on every listing, on every platform. This is compulsory
- Tourist tax: collected automatically by Airbnb and remitted to the City of Marseille (€0.50 to €4.20 per night depending on property category)
- Maintain a record of nights rented, available to municipal inspectors on request
Penalties to know
Exceeding the 90-night cap exposes you to a civil fine of up to €15,000. The absence of a registration number on a listing is subject to a €5,000 fine. Airbnb is legally required to share rental data with municipalities that request it, and Marseille has been actively exercising this right since 2024.
Secondary residences: far stricter since April 2025
If the property is not your primary residence, the rules are fundamentally different. A secondary residence is not subject to the 90-night cap, it can theoretically be rented as tourist accommodation throughout the year. But since 29 April 2025, Marseille no longer issues new temporary change-of-use permits for furnished tourist rentals. Any application for a secondary residence to be used for short-term letting now requires mandatory compensation: you must convert another space of equivalent floor area in the same arrondissement into residential housing, at your own expense.
This 'one for one' compensation obligation makes pure investment in short-term rental properties, buying a flat specifically to run as an Airbnb, economically unviable in most cases. It is precisely targeted at investors who remove housing from the permanent rental market.
The tax rules: what changed in January 2025
The Loi Le Meur also fundamentally reformed the taxation of short-term rentals. Since 1 January 2025, the micro-BIC threshold for unclassified furnished tourist accommodation has been reduced to €15,000 in annual gross revenue (down from €77,700), with a flat-rate deduction of only 30%. Most active Airbnb hosts now fall automatically into the real income tax regime, where they declare actual revenue and deductible expenses.
Obtaining an official tourism classification (1 to 5 stars, granted by an accredited body such as Gîtes de France) restores the former regime: a €77,700 threshold and a 50% deduction. For owners earning over €15,000 per year, achievable for any well-managed Marseille property. This classification has become a fiscal priority. The process is simple and typically costs between €150 and €200.
How to rent legally year-round in Marseille
The 90-night cap does not prevent you from generating rental income throughout the year. Several legal arrangements allow you to complement tourist lettings without breaching the quota, provided you follow the specific rules for each format. The right strategy depends on your personal situation, your property's profile and your capacity to manage or delegate.
The three most widely used legal strategies among Marseille owners:
- The bail mobilité (mobility lease, 1–10 months): does not count towards the 90-night quota, no deposit required, reserved for tenants in a qualifying mobility situation
- Standard long-term furnished rental (minimum 1-year lease): no duration restrictions, stable income but below tourist nightly rates
- Official change of use with compensation: allows unlimited short-term letting for a secondary residence, but the procedure is lengthy and costly in Marseille since 2025
The mobility lease: the optimal seasonal strategy
The bail mobilité is a furnished tenancy agreement lasting between 1 and 10 months, non-renewable by tacit extension, reserved by France's ELAN law of 2018 for tenants in a legally defined mobility situation: a student enrolled in a training programme, an employee on temporary assignment or professional relocation, a trainee, an apprentice, or a person in vocational training. The tenant must provide documentary evidence of their mobility situation at the time of signing.
The most common strategy among Marseille property owners combines tourist rentals during peak season, June to September, targeting 60 to 90 nights, with a mobility lease of 6 to 8 months running from October to May. This captures the highest nightly rates of the year while maintaining steady rental income during the quieter months, without ever exceeding the legal ceiling. Marseille is home to Aix-Marseille University, the largest French-speaking university in Europe with 80,000 students, and numerous grandes écoles, generating structural demand for 3-to-10-month furnished leases throughout the academic year.
Expert advice
For the mobility lease to be legally sound, the tenant's mobility situation must be genuine, current and documented: an internship agreement, a temporary assignment contract, an employer relocation letter or an enrolment certificate for a training programme. A mobility lease signed with a permanent resident could be reclassified as a standard one-year furnished tenancy, with full tenant protections. Have your contracts drafted by a professional.
Elyos
