Airbnb rules in Nice:
can you rent your apartment?

If you live in France and this is your primary residence then you do not need this and you can rent it out without contacting the Town Hall. However you are restricted to 90 days of holiday rental per year. You do need to declare this income but if you use an accountancy that specialises in "LNMP" and provide the bills then this should normally be almost tax free.

For secondary homes, there are two different ways of getting a "change of usage". You can get a temporary authorisation or a permanent authorisation.

Temporary authorisation

Anybody can apply for temporary authorisation for free with the Town Hall. They do not look at the building rules so it is irrelevant whether AirBnb is allowed in the building or not. This is purely administrative. You supply proof of ownership and they will give you an authorisation number that you have to display at the bottom of every advert for holiday lettings. Many major portals such as AirBnb will prompt you for this authorisation number when you try and register your property. This is valid for 5 years and is non-renewable. It is also non-renewable for other properties so if you buy a new property then you cannot apply for another temporary authorisation. However if the property is sold to somebody else they can re-apply for authorisation in their own name. As of writing, applications are only accepted in February. This may change. Once this temporary authorisation expires then you can move onto permanent authorisation or move to a different rental type.

The Quota system

The previous Mayor, Christian Estrosi, wanted to balance AirBnb throughout the city so that there were not too many buildings that were empty most of the year because of holiday rentals. Therefore he introduced a quota system for what he deemed the 4 most critical areas. This instantly hit legal challenges and is seen unfavourably by the current Mayor, Eric Ciotti. It was still in place in 2026 but it may be phased out.

Taxe de Sejour

There is one in Nice but it is collected automatically on your behalf by the major property portals.

Permanent Authorisation

This is a system called "compensation". It is very new and not very well understood. The principle is that for each office that is turned into an apartment, one apartment can be turned into a holiday rental. There is a big difference: the temporary authorisation is on the person but the permanent authorisation is on the property. This apartment then becomes a permanent holiday rental no matter who owns it. If somebody buys it then they do not need to apply to the Town Hall to be able to rent it out, that right is permanent and is sold along with the property.

As you can imagine, this adds a considerable amount of value to the property and you can consequently sell it for a lot more money.

You do not need to buy an office yourself and convert it. Any office being converted anywhere in Nice can have that authorisation transferred to your property. There are middle-men that exist that match up people converting offices to apartment owners wanting to do holiday lettings. There are two rules: it must have always been used as an office since 1970 (or from construction if the building was built after then), and it must be equal or greater in size to the apartment being converted.

Though anybody converting an office can transfer the credits to you, it will not be free. The price is negotiable between buyer and seller. It is a one-for-one transfer: you cannot convert an 80sqm office into an 80sqm apartment, and then convert two 40sqm holiday homes into permanent rental. For this reason the middle-men offer a match-making service so that you do not over-pay for an unnecessary amount of credits.

Your Notaire can take care of the transfer of credits. They will check the office is eligible and that the building rules allow it to become a home, and they will check your building does not forbid holiday lettings.

Of course the answer is: it depends.

If you have no interest in Nice and this is a pure fire-and-forget investment play to get maximum yield for minimum outlay then probably not. There is legal uncertainty and the rules may continue to evolve over the next decade. Also the current 5 year limit for temporary authorisation will negatively affect your calculations. As will having to recuperate the nearly 8% purchasing costs.

For those that want a holiday home but want to make some money on the side then yes it is still viable. Five years is a long time and you have so many benefits:

1. Nice is one of the most solid places in the world to invest, and makes for a relatively liquid asset because it is so easy to sell here
2. capital appreciation has historically been very solid and investment continues to pour into Nice
3. local taxes and charges are relatively low compared to other cities
4. those five years give you a great return before you need to consider your options
5. those restrictions are unlikely to get tighter so if they loosen you win out
6. once people start getting interested in the compensation then the credits market will grow making a deal easier to find
7. from experience, after five years is often around the time many first time buyers think about upgrading, for instance something larger or with a balcony or view
8. otherwise the mixed rental (see rental guide) offers a great secondary route
9. you can still rent out occasionally after; you need authorisation if the tax authorities see revenue generation as the primary purpose for the asset
10. it is a top global destination so you can stay around the world for free in exchange for guests in your apartment, either through personal contact or via exchange web sites

Is the world the easy free-for-all it was when AirBnb started? Not in many cities but it feels to me that Nice has fared a lot better than others. Does it feel unjust being told what you can and cannot do with your own property? Maybe. However the doom and gloom over the strong left-wing parties in France as well as the worry about the hotel lobbying on the French Riviera has not brought the crushing blow to holiday rental that many thought it would. Things are not perfect but I am cautiously optimistic right now. If I had to maintain a certain yield via holiday revenue to make the purchase viable then I probably would not pull the trigger. If this is a hybrid purchase then considering how rapidly Nice is developing and all the new infrastructure project that will come to fruition over the next several years that will boost it even more then yes I would.

This page contains purely my opinions, which may change over the coming years, and may even no longer be valid by the time you read this. You absolutely must act on the latest information around the time you are looking to purchase.