The objective of the Paris Council, which voted this Saturday to double the tax on vacant housing from next year, is to “decongest the rental market”.
The Paris Council voted this Saturday July 18 on doubling of the tax on vacant housing in 2027as permitted by law, in order to “decongest the rental market” in the capital, where the town hall hopes to recover 20,000 housing units. The capital has 150,000 vacant housing units, or 9% of all its housing, explains the City of Paris, highlighting the “persistent imbalance between supply and demand”.
The finance law for 2026 authorizes municipalities to increase, from January 1, 2027, the tax rates on vacant housing from 17% of the cadastral rental value after one year of vacancy and 34% after two years, to 30% after one year and 60% after two years.
“A historic victory after 10 years of battle,” said Jacques Baudrier, housing deputy to PS mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, after the vote.
“It’s tax bludgeoning”
Of the 150,000 vacant homes, “around 80,000 are structurally vacant” and therefore subject to the tax, estimates the communist elected official who hopes to put around 20,000 homes back for rental or sale.
The increase in the tax should also “discourage certain owners from tax optimization by declaring their second home as vacant accommodation”, explained Jacques Baudrier. According to him, the measure will make it possible to “stop the decline in the number of main residences in Paris and therefore halt the decline in the population”.
For the right-wing opposition, which disputes the City’s figures on the vacancy of residential premises, doubling the tax “will be of no use” as stated by Grégory Canal, co-president of the Paris Liberté group. with Rachida Dati. “You are putting the tax at the ceiling while the average of the law is 17%. This is not an incentive, it is tax bludgeoning”, vilified the elected LR whose group continues to denounce the 52% increase in property tax under the mandate of Anne Hidalgo.