REPORT. "It's my property, I'm keeping it": in the Basque Country, the anti-Airbnb regulation is struggling to bear fruit

Faced with a housing crisis that has worsened year after year, the municipalities of the Basque coast have adopted some of the toughest regulations in France against seasonal rentals. Much to the dismay of property owners, who are resisting.

The war against Airbnb is dividing the Basque Country. For two years, 23 municipalities in the Basque Country metropolitan area have been implementing one of the toughest regulations in France against seasonal rentals. The goal is to resolve the housing crisis in this region, where one in five houses is a second home and young Basques struggle to find accommodation. But is it working? Franceinfo visited Hendaye, where the number of Airbnbs has exploded in recent years.

"In summer, from July 15 to August 15, we have an average of 700 covers," says Carl, as he puts the first pizzas in the oven at his restaurant on the seafront in Hendaye, overlooking the waves. " The record I set is 144 pizzas in one evening." The chef travels every day from Irun, on the Spanish side, because he lost his apartment in Hendaye, "chased out," as he puts it, by his landlady, at the beginning of summer.

"She wanted me to vacate the apartment for her Airbnb. I was renting it for 650 euros a month. She offered me, even though it's an apartment that sleeps two, to sleep four for 2,000 euros a month."

Carl, a restaurateur in Hendaye, evicted from his home

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"So, I simply find myself sleeping in Spain in a small room, because I couldn't find a rental in Hendaye. Even though I've had a permanent contract here for three years and I earn a very decent salary."

Many employees live year-round in mobile homes or far from the coast, unable to find housing. It was for them that elected officials in the Basque Country voted for this new regulation, known as "compensation." It prohibits owners of second homes from renting them out for tourists, with rare exceptions, forcing them to rent their homes year-round to local workers.

The new rule doesn't sit well with homeowners like Stéphane. He owns two apartments on the seafront at Eskualduna, a former 1910s palace, with a magnificent view from the third-floor window. "Look, Chingoudy Bay, it's a very beautiful thing," he says. He and his wife are professors in the United States, so this is their vacation spot, which they previously rented out on Airbnb.

And there is no question of them complying with the new rule. "No, no and no ! I will not let my arm be twisted by far-left politicians, that is to say it will neither be rented out year-round nor sold. It's my property, I'm keeping it ," says the owner, furious. "It's becoming an apartment with closed shutters and cold beds. Instead of bringing housing taxes to the city, of making the traders work, since they couldn't move the sea, they don't like tourists, they have made sure to prohibit them from renting. We're going to end up with a land-based economy," assures Stéphane.

According to the Tourist Office, furnished tourist rentals have collapsed, from 770 in 2024 to 130 this year. Yet, at his real estate agency, a few streets from the beach, Yannick hasn't seen any year-round rentals return. "Unfortunately, not at all," he confirms. " I had about 60 vacation rentals, we're down to 11 this year, and we haven't recovered any year-round rentals." According to him, owners prefer to keep their apartments, shutters closed, rather than rent them out year-round and no longer be able to enjoy them.

Meanwhile, many tourists are no longer able to find a place to stay. "We used to rent by the week," says Yannick, the real estate agent. " I've been doing this for 32 years with clients who used to come to Hendaye every year and can no longer come. Last year, I had a man who cried, 'We don't see each other anymore, Yannick.' I've known him for 30 years, and I no longer have the apartment he'd been coming to for 20 years. It was closed."

Yannick has had to cut a position at his agency, where the phone line remains desperately quiet at the beginning of July. The Tourist Office reports that 600 holiday rentals have been taken off the market and 2,000 fewer tourists are arriving in the town every day, prompting shopkeepers to fear a catastrophe for Hendaye's economy.

The Alda association, which means "to change" in Basque, campaigned for the new regulation, which was passed by a large majority of the urban area. Its spokesperson, Malika Peyraut, insists: the Airbnb wave had to be stopped. "The first effect of the compensation is to stop the hemorrhage. The massive speculative phenomenon, this tidal wave that transformed year-round housing into furnished tourist accommodation, must be stopped in its tracks. That's the case," she asserts.

"The calculations are very clear: a year-round resident has twice the economic impact of a tourist."

Malika Peyraut, spokesperson for the Alda association

to franceinfo

"The second effect," continues Malika Peyraut, "is that a certain number of properties are reinjected into the housing stock year-round. Here, we have to be careful because, for the moment, no one has any proven figures."

Associations want to go further; they are now encouraging municipalities to ban second homes in new construction. The mayor of Bidart, further north on the coast, was the first to do so, in June, for a 70-unit housing project.