The context: national law, local implementation
Everything stems from French Act No. 2024-1039 of 19 November 2024, known as the 'Le Meur Law', which gave local authorities reinforced tools to regulate furnished tourist rentals. Among these tools, the most visible: the option, by reasoned decision, to lower the annual rental limit of a primary residence from 120 to 90 nights.
Nice was one of the first major tourist cities to activate this option: by a municipal council resolution of 23 May 2025, the city had set the cap at 90 nights per calendar year. On 5 December 2025, the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolitan Authority then adopted a first regulation governing change-of-use authorisations, with quotas per zone, applicable from 1 January 2026. That framework has been replaced by a new change-of-use regulation for the city of Nice, adopted by resolution No. 2.1 of the Metropolitan Council of 22 June 2026 and applicable since 1 September 2026.
This new framework concerns every owner: those letting their primary residence and those operating a property dedicated to furnished tourist rental.
Nice is now among the most restrictive French cities for short-term rental, alongside Paris and certain coastal municipalities. Regulatory pressure is strong, but does not prohibit the activity — it structures it.
Primary residence: 120 days per year
If you let your primary residence — the home you live in for more than eight months of the year — as furnished tourist accommodation during your absences, no change-of-use authorisation is required, provided the letting does not exceed 120 days per year. This is the limit currently stated by the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolitan Authority, whereas Nice had lowered it to 90 days by the municipal resolution of 23 May 2025.
Beyond 120 days of letting per year, the property is no longer considered your primary residence: a change-of-use authorisation becomes mandatory. You may, however, let one or more rooms of your home for more than 120 days per year if you live there at the same time.
Non-compliance can lead to a civil fine of up to €15,000.
How do I know if my property is my primary residence?
Under French tax law, your primary residence is the home you occupy for at least 8 months per year, except in specific cases (professional obligation, health reason, force majeure). It is also the home declared as primary residence on your tax return.
If you occupy your property for less than 8 months per year, it automatically becomes a secondary residence — and a completely different and much more constraining legal regime then applies in Nice from 2026.
The 90-night cap given in earlier versions of this guide is no longer the one stated by the Metropolitan Authority: the limit is 120 days per year. Beyond that, your property requires a change of use.
Second homes: the neighbourhood-quota regime
Second homes (or buy-to-let properties) used as furnished tourist accommodation require a temporary change-of-use authorisation. The regulation applicable since 1 September 2026 also subjects the four most affected districts of Nice to a quota regime: in these zones, the number of authorisations issued each year is capped.
The four zones concerned
According to the public notice published by the Metropolitan Authority, the maximum number of authorisations for 2026 is set as follows:
- Zone 1 — Old Nice: 47 authorisations
- Zone 2 — Riquier, Port, Mont-Boron: 204 authorisations
- Zone 3 — City centre: 324 authorisations
- Zone 4 — West: 116 authorisations
That is a maximum of 691 authorisations across the four zones for 2026.
In quota zones, obtaining a temporary authorisation is reserved for natural persons (and assimilated legal entities) for their first application. Applications can only be filed online, at changementdusage.fr/nice, from 1 September 2026. The Metropolitan Authority's web pages give 31 December 2026 as the closing date, while its public notice of 15 August 2026 gives 21 December: do not delay, especially as only complete and eligible applications are accepted, in order of filing and within the quota.
Each owner may file only one application, for a single property, per opening period and across all quota zones: any additional application is rejected, and you then have to apply again when the quotas next open.
Not subject to the quotas, and open for filing all year round: renewals of earlier authorisations, mixed-letting applications, compensation applications and homes located in serviced residences.
Background: the legal challenge to the December 2025 regulation
For the record, several professional bodies — including the Union des Professionnels de la Location Meublée Côte d'Azur and the Union des Professionnels de la Location Touristique — had challenged the December 2025 metropolitan regulation in court, through a substantive appeal seeking its annulment and an emergency motion seeking its suspension.
By an order of 29 January 2026, the urgent-applications judge of the Nice administrative court had partially suspended that regulation, solely regarding the method of calculating the quota base. The City of Nice had lodged a cassation appeal before the Conseil d'État, and the filing phase in the quota zones had been suspended pending its decision.
That regulation has since been replaced by the one adopted on 22 June 2026, applicable since 1 September 2026. The Metropolitan Authority's official pages on furnished tourist rentals no longer refer to these proceedings: the rules described above are the ones that apply to applications filed today.
You may still read that filings in quota zones are suspended pending the Conseil d'État: that information is out of date. Since 1 September 2026, first applications can be filed again, under the new regulation and within the quota.
Outside the quota zones: the general regime applies
Outside the four quota zones (Old Nice, Riquier-Port-Mont Boron, city centre, West), there is no numerical cap on authorisations, and applications can be filed all year round. For a second home, the temporary change-of-use authorisation is nonetheless still mandatory, under the same rules: 5 years maximum, non-renewable, one per owner and per tax household.
Outside the quota zones, applications can also be made on paper: forms sent on request by email or post, and filing by post or in person by appointment with the Mission Protection des Logements (5 rue Gabriel Fauré, Nice). The classic obligations also remain: declaring the rental, obtaining a registration number, and compliance with technical criteria (notably the energy performance certificate, which has become a filtering criterion since the Le Meur Law).
The registration number remains mandatory
Regardless of your situation (primary or secondary residence, in or outside a quota zone), one point remains universal: you must declare your furnished tourist rental to the Nice city hall and obtain a registration number. This number must be displayed visibly on every one of your listings, regardless of the platform used.
The procedure is online, free of charge, via the municipal e-service. Without this number, your listing is automatically removed by the main platforms and you risk administrative penalties.
Tourist tax: little change, but worth knowing
The tourist tax remains an unavoidable obligation for any furnished tourist rental in Nice. For star-rated furnished rentals (classification by the prefecture or via an accredited body), the tax is set at a flat amount per night and per adult, generally between €0.75 and €4.95 depending on the rating.
For non-classified furnished rentals, the tax is calculated as a percentage of the nightly rate — 5% of the pre-tax price per person, with a proportional cap. This method is significantly harder to manage and strongly encourages owners to obtain official classification, which also brings significant LMNP tax advantages (see below).
If you let through Airbnb, the platform automatically collects and remits the tourist tax to the Metropolitan Authority. On other platforms (Booking, Vrbo, specialist platforms), collection and remittance may remain your responsibility depending on your account settings.
2026 taxation: the evolution of the LMNP regime
The LMNP (Non-Professional Furnished Lessor) status has also undergone significant changes in 2025 and 2026, independent of municipal decisions but with a cumulative economic impact.
Micro-BIC: reduced allowance for non-classified rentals
Since 1 January 2025, the micro-BIC regime for non-classified furnished rentals has been significantly tightened: the flat-rate allowance has fallen from 50% to 30%, and the eligible turnover ceiling has dropped from €77,700 to €15,000. Above this ceiling, the property automatically switches to the actual-expenses regime.
Star-rated furnished rentals keep a more favourable regime: a 50% micro-BIC allowance and a €83,600 ceiling. This is one of the reasons why we systematically recommend our clients to pursue official classification, which pays for itself well within a few years.
Actual-expenses regime: still the most powerful
The actual-expenses LMNP regime remains by far the most advantageous option for the majority of Nice owners. It allows the deduction of all real expenses (loan interest, taxes, service charges, management, cleaning, insurance and so on) and, crucially, the depreciation of the property over 20 to 30 years and of the furniture over 5 to 10 years.
In practice, many LMNP owners on the actual-expenses regime in Nice pay zero tax on their rental income during the first years of activity, thanks to the depreciation mechanism that wipes out the taxable result.
Capital gains on resale: depreciation now reintegrated
A major structural change took effect in 2025: depreciation taken under the actual-expenses regime is now reintegrated into the calculation of capital gains on resale. In concrete terms, if you have depreciated €60,000 over 10 years, that €60,000 is added back to your taxable capital gain at the time of sale.
This reform mechanically reduces the net benefit of the actual-expenses LMNP regime for owners planning a medium-term resale. It does not make the regime unfavourable, but it changes the long-term arithmetic: the longer the holding period, the more attractive the depreciation benefit remains net of tax.
Social contributions: no change for LMNP
The CSG increase voted in 2026 (overall rate raised to 10.6%) does not apply to property rental income. LMNP income remains subject to social contributions at the overall rate of 17.2%.
Co-ownership: a topic not to neglect
Before even starting, you must check your building's co-ownership rules. The Le Meur Law significantly strengthened the ability of co-ownerships to prohibit furnished tourist rental: a general meeting can now vote such a ban with a two-thirds majority, where unanimity was previously required.
The Constitutional Council validated this new rule in March 2026, putting an end to the last challenges on this point. If your co-ownership has voted or is preparing to vote such a ban, you must cease your activity, on pain of proceedings being launched by the building manager.
As a precaution: systematically inform your building manager of your activity, take out tailored professional insurance (reinforced public liability) and look after your relationship with your neighbours. Disgruntled neighbours are, in practice, the leading source of reports to the city hall.
Enforcement and penalties: the operational reality
The enforcement resources of the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolitan Authority have been considerably reinforced since 2024. A dedicated unit constantly tracks listings without a registration number, breaches of the 120-day limit, second-home rentals without a valid authorisation and failures to collect the tourist tax.
Penalties are graduated: administrative warning, civil fine of up to €15,000 for exceeding the primary-residence cap, fine of up to €100,000 for letting a second home without a change of use, daily penalty payments and criminal prosecution in cases of repeat offending or proven fraud.
The platforms cooperate actively with the Metropolitan Authority: automatic removal of non-compliant listings, transmission of anonymised statistical data and automatic enforcement of calendar limits.
2026 compliance checklist: a recap
Here, in order, are the essential steps to operate a compliant Airbnb in Nice in 2026:
- 1. Precisely identify the status of the property: primary residence (you occupy it for more than 8 months per year) or secondary residence.
- 2. If a secondary residence: check whether the address falls within one of the four quota zones. If so, file your first application online during the opening period (since 1 September 2026, until December 2026), bearing in mind that authorisations there are capped and reserved for natural persons.
- 3. Check the co-ownership rules and inform the building manager.
- 4. Apply for the registration number with the Nice city hall (free online service).
- 5. Choose and declare your LMNP tax regime (the actual-expenses regime is almost always recommended).
- 6. Where possible, start the star-rating classification process to benefit from the tax advantages and the flat-rate tourist tax.
- 7. Where applicable, file the change-of-use application: all year round outside the quota zones, during the opening period in the quota zones (temporary authorisation of 5 years maximum, non-renewable).
Support from a concierge service
Regulatory complexity in Nice is now one of the main reasons owners choose to delegate management to a local professional concierge. At La Joyeuse Conciergerie, we systematically support our clients through the entire administrative journey: city hall registration, obtaining the registration number, monitoring regulatory changes, managing tourist-tax collection and remittance, and introductions to LMNP-specialist accountants.
To understand how this support fits into our complete service, see our short-term rental management service in Nice or our premium Airbnb concierge in Nice.
