Short-term letting and buying to let in Nice: the rules in 2026

Since the metropolitan rules of 22 June 2026, letting a whole home short-term in Nice when it is not your main residence requires a temporary change-of-use authorisation, limited by quotas: 691 authorisations for 2026, spread across four zones. This authorisation is personal: it does not pass to the buyer, who must apply for one in turn. Before buying to let, the address decides everything.

• The temporary authorisation is granted for five years, one per owner, is not renewable, and ends when the property is sold.
• Only an authorisation obtained by compensation, by turning into housing a space that was not housing, is attached to the property and passes to the buyer.
• For a change of use, the energy performance certificate (DPE) must have been carried out after 30 June 2021 and rate the home from A to E.
• Your main residence follows a different rule: 120 days of letting a year at most, with no change of use.
• The co-ownership rules may forbid or restrict the activity: read them before making an offer.

Our adviser Arno Joyeux, who specialises in rental investment and works in English, checks the quota zone of the address, the energy rating, the co-ownership rules, the charges and the tax position for each property before any offer. The general short-term letting rules, still valid, are set out below.

With its conventions, its festivals and a Promenade des Anglais that draws visitors from across the world, Nice is one of the French cities where short-term letting appeals to the greatest number of owners. Letting your home for a few weeks a year while you are away, or entrusting a studio in Vieux-Nice to visitors passing through, can genuinely add value to a property that would otherwise stand empty for part of the year.

It is also an activity that the City of Nice regulates strictly, and one whose rules change regularly. Before publishing your first listing, it is essential to understand which framework applies to you. Here are the principles and the formalities to be aware of, explained simply by Cabinet Immobilier Nice.

We speak of short-term letting — or of a meublé de tourisme, a furnished tourist let — when a furnished home is let to a transient clientele who do not take up residence there: tourists, business travellers, short-stay visitors. This regime is distinct both from unfurnished letting and from conventional year-round furnished letting, and it carries obligations of its own.

• The property is let furnished and equipped for immediate occupation, by the day, the week or the month.
• The occupier does not establish their main residence there: the stay is a temporary one.
• The activity falls under a specific declaration regime, distinct from an ordinary residential tenancy.
• It may be subject to prior authorisation depending on the commune, the status of the property and the declared use of the premises.

This is the first point to clarify, because almost everything else follows from it. The applicable framework is not the same depending on whether you are letting the home you live in or a property you do not occupy yourself.

Letting your main residence

If you occasionally let the home you occupy for most of the year — while you are away on holiday, during a major Nice event or on a business trip — the formalities are generally lighter. A declaration to the mairie de Nice, the town hall, is nonetheless required, and an annual letting cap applies in those communes that have introduced registration, Nice among them. The exact level of that cap is a matter for the regulations in force: check it with the City of Nice, as it has changed in recent years.

Letting a second home or a dedicated property

If the property is not your main residence — a pied-à-terre, a family property, a buy-to-let investment — the framework is markedly more demanding. Assigning a residential dwelling on a lasting basis to short-term letting constitutes a changement d'usage, a change of use, subject to prior authorisation from the mairie in the communes concerned, Nice included. That authorisation is neither automatic nor permanently acquired, and it may come with a compensation requirement.

In cities where housing is scarce and tourist pressure is strong, the mairie may make the change of use authorisation conditional upon compensation: the owner must then return an equivalent floor area to the residential market elsewhere in the commune, according to locally determined rules. Nice, like other coastal cities, applies a regulatory scheme of this nature. The precise terms — the sectors concerned, the calculation rules, the documents to be supplied — are laid down by municipal regulation and may be amended: they must without fail be verified with the City of Nice departments before any financial commitment is made.

Every project is particular to its owner, but the method remains the same: verify before you invest, and secure the authorisations before you market the property. Here is the order in which we advise proceeding.

1. Re-read the co-ownership rules

First of all, re-read the co-ownership rules. Certain clauses, in particular those imposing habitation bourgeoise, that is to say strictly private residential use, may prohibit or limit short-term letting. If in doubt, ask the managing agent and, where necessary, seek legal advice.

2. Establish the property's status and use

Establish whether the property is your main residence or a second home, and what the declared use of the premises is. It is this pairing of status and use that determines which authorisations are required.

3. Apply for change-of-use consent where required

For a meublé de tourisme that is not your main residence, this prior authorisation is applied for at the mairie, with a file whose contents are set locally. Do not commit to any works or to marketing the property before you have obtained it.

4. Register the let and obtain its registration number

The declaration is made to the City of Nice, through the dedicated scheme. It gives rise to a numéro d'enregistrement, a registration number, which you must display on all your listings, whichever platform you use.

5. Put your administrative and tax position in order

Income from furnished letting falls within a specific tax category and entails registration formalities. Have the regime applicable to your situation confirmed by your accountant or your tax adviser.

6. Review your insurance cover

Inform your insurer: a standard home insurance policy does not necessarily cover the hosting of travellers. Check public liability, cover for damage caused by occupants and, in a co-ownership, how the policy dovetails with the building's own insurance.

7. Arrange the tourist tax

The tourist tax is payable by the traveller and collected by the host or, depending on the case, by the booking platform, then remitted to the local authority according to the terms and timetable set locally. Check precisely who collects what for each of your listings.

A well-prepared project is judged at this stage: it is obtaining the authorisations, not the quality of the décor, that determines whether your income lasts.

Many projects come unstuck on this point. Obtaining a numéro d'enregistrement from the mairie never exempts you from complying with your co-ownership rules. In the older buildings of Vieux-Nice as much as in the handsome residences of the Carré d'Or, these rules frequently contain restrictive clauses, and the general meeting may take up the subject. Reading the document attentively, and in good time, avoids long and costly disputes with the co-owners' association or with the neighbours.

Welcoming travellers calls for a property that is beyond reproach and a settled relationship with the rest of the building. A few requirements hold good in every case.

• Insurance cover confirmed by your insurer for the activity of hosting travellers.
• A decent and safe property: electrical and gas installations in good order, a smoke alarm, well-maintained equipment.
• Clear information given to the traveller: how the equipment works, the house rules of the building, waste management.
• Particular vigilance over the peace and quiet of neighbours, a sensitive subject in the lively streets of the centre and of Vieux-Nice.
• Rigorous records of stays and of monies received, invaluable in the event of an inspection by the commune.

The demand is there, and it is solid: the seafront and the Promenade des Anglais draw an international clientele, Vieux-Nice appeals to short breaks, and the Carré d'Or and the pedestrian centre benefit from being a step away from the shops, the convention venues and the tramway. That appeal is precisely why the City of Nice has chosen to regulate short-term letting strictly, in order to preserve the supply of housing for residents. Inspections do take place, and local regulation continues to evolve: accurate information at the moment you launch your project is worth more than a certainty dating from two years ago.

Short-term letting is a profession in its own right: regulation, pricing, calendar management, welcoming guests, housekeeping, maintenance, traveller relations. That is why we have devoted a sister brand to it, La Joyeuse Conciergerie, specialising in high-end short-term letting in Nice and on the Côte d'Azur. Our teams help you to verify the feasibility of your project at the outset, to assemble your files for the mairie and to run your property to the same exacting standard as Cabinet Immobilier Nice.

Hesitating between a long-term let and a meublé de tourisme? We examine both scenarios with you, taking account of the property, your neighbourhood, your availability and the applicable regulatory framework. For any question relating to authorisations and to the declaration, we also invite you to approach the City of Nice departments directly, as they alone are competent to validate your situation.

This article is general information provided for guidance only. It replaces neither the local regulations in force, which change regularly, nor the advice of a legal or tax professional or of the City of Nice departments. Before taking any decision, have your particular circumstances verified.