How to rent out a property in Nice

The majority of investors in Nice are interested in letting out their apartment on holiday letting sites like AirBnb as it combines the best of both worlds: the maximum yield, and they get to use it themselves during the periods it is not rented out.

However there are restrictions to doing this in Nice. This has been changing over the past few years, first being restricted and then being slightly loosened. Do not ask any AI in chat advice about this subject as it will nearly always give you wrong advice. Please get the latest up-to-date advice before committing to this path.

You may see adverts saying "AirBnb is allowed" for a property. This is misleading. It only means the building rules do not explicitly forbid it. It does not mean that the Town Hall with authorise it for holiday rental.

This page will be more generic advice for buyers that do obtain authorisation from the Town Hall to do holiday lettings. I will put up a page specifically on whether you can rent on AirBnb but please note any caveats on that page. With that said, let us continue.

Sometimes I get asked if a two bedroom makes a better rental than a one bedroom, or if the Old Town is better than the Musicians Quarter. The answer is that there is demand for all types of property so they are all good. What you need to do is operate within the boundary parameters of your budget and avoid "deal breakers", or negative aspects that eliminate a significant share of the market that particular property is aimed at. For instance being on a high floor with no lift may have little effect on rental in the Old Town where renters that enjoy historic district will expect to have to make that sacrifice but have a disproportionately negative effect elsewhere.

If you want reliable rental then Old Town, Carre d'Or and Musicians Quarter are all A-Grade rental areas. If you love the Port area, or want a little more size for your money than the Carre d'Or can offer so are considering the Carre d'Argent, then these can also offer good returns but are B-Grade rental areas. You will still fill it peak season but the A-Grade will give you a better overall annual yield.

It does not matter how many bedrooms. There may be more demand for one bedroom but there are also more already on the rental market so the competition tends to balance out the prices fairly evenly. Features do make a difference, such as outside space like a balcony or a sea view. You need to be careful trading this off against area.

If there are two identical apartments, one in the Carre d'Or and the other in the Musicians Quarter but with a balcony you can sit outside on, which is the better rental? The answer is that they are both roughly the same. Holiday makers are prepared to pay a premium to stay in the Carre d'Or less than 5 minutes walk to the beach, but they are also prepared to pay a premium to be less than 10 minutes walk to the beach in the Musicians and be able to enjoy a glass of wine or meal on the balcony and watch the world go by every day.

When choosing a rental and paying more for a feature, is it appropriate to the area? Is it worth paying for a much larger apartment in the Old Town when they holiday makers that choose to stay there will spend most of the day on the beach and are just looking for a place to sleep?

Outside of location, things worth investing in are any sort of outside area such as balcony or terrace, a nice view such as a park or pedestrianised street, a beautiful building with very French features such as ceiling plaster-mouldings or frescos.

Generally a sea view is not the best choice for a rental in Nice from an investment viewpoint due to the high capital outlay. It will rent very well but you are paying such a high premium due to scarcity that it very much lowers your return

There are a few other considerations when choosing a rental. Is air-conditioning installed and if not is there the ability to do so. The facades of buildings in city centre are usually listed and what you can do to the outside is strictly controlled. The rooms should not be too awkwardly shaped, especially bedrooms being so small that the bed is squashed up against a wall. Can a sofa bed fit comfortably into the living room.

There are some things that matter less than you would expect. For instance the condition of the communal areas rarely deters people from renting. Having a concierge is not really a requirement. Which way the windows face, where as many people are trying to avoid over-exposure to the sun as those that want to bath in it as much as possible. The lift can be small as 90% of the other rentals you will be competing with will also have the same.

A good way to confirm whether a property you have found is a good rental or not is to contact a holiday rental property management company, send them the details and photos, and simply ask "Is this the kind of property you would like to take onto your books?".

It is the advert that will drive the rentals toward your property. Make sure the photos are well staged and well lit. A glass of wine or a croissant on the table may seem like a cliche but that does not mean you should not copy it. Pay for a professional photographer. Even if it costs a couple of hundred euros, if it gets you even a couple of days extra rental then it has already paid for itself. Choose wisely your "hero" photo that will go in the gallery listings against your competition.

When writing the text, put the most important features first such as how far to walk to the beach and if it has air-conditioning. The reader does not need a list of historic monuments in the vicinity, you can be sure they have already geo-located you using Google maps.

The number one thing that makes a good advert, and really number one and more important than any of the above, is to have a large quantity of five star reviews. I cannot emphasise this enough. Be prepared to drop the price in the first year as it is hard to book up an apartment with no reviews. When choosing somebody to manage your property, do no compare them simply on their costs. Ask for links to properties on rental web sites and see how many good reviews they have. This is more important, and leads us nicely to the next section.

Managing holiday rentals is a lot of work. Some people think it is about opening the doors when the guests arrive, then making sure it gets cleaned after they leave. There is far more to it. What can go wrong often will, and Murphey's Law dictates that it will probably happen right in the middle of August. Lifts or air-conditioning can break down, guests will break into linen closets and use up all the towels and bed sheets, or break keys in the front door lock at 3am in the morning. Sadly there are guests that will have a perfect stay, even compliment you, then claim a full refund from the company they booked through with fake complaints.

As the owner, you want to be shielded from this. Owning a holiday apartment abroad should be fun, a check in the bank each month and somewhere you can jump on a plane and enjoy forgetting your stresses at home.

When choosing who to trust your property with, we will list some key things to look out for.

• What are their vacancy rates?
• How much do they charge?
• Will they look after your property?
• What kind of standards do they maintain?

The first is a trick question. As a rule of thumb the apartment should be 2/3 to 3/4 full over the year. If it is half full or less then you are doing something very wrong. If it is fully booked then you are not charging enough and leaving money on the table. Your management company should be dynamically pricing the property both peak and off-peak to balance maximising profit, not revenue. Price it too low to increase bookings and not only do you unnecessarily increase wear and tear on your property but fixed overheads mean you may not make any profit at all.

Going to the booking web site to check occupancy will not work. Today, bookings are made last minute. If you see a property is booked up for the whole summer in advance, it could mean that that agent has done a superb job promoting it. Or it could be that there has been a surge in demand that year and the agent was too slow to react and raise the pricing. The only way to really tell if they are generating revenue is to ask for references, and then contact them to ask if they are happy with the income being generated.

A full service property management company will take around 30% of revenue. Some claim less such as 20-25% but they will hide the rest in other fees, such as renting the linens or for meet and greet. Some will take 40% or more but then they really need to justify why they are a cut above the rest. Do they invest heavily in marketing? Do they have an exclusive clientele list nobody else has access to?

The company should also be taking care of your property. There is no point making rental money if it just goes into a black hole of property maintenance. If a management company says they will do nightly rental then run a mile, or 1.6km if living in France. It attracts the wrong type of guests, the wear and tear will be costly, you will need to do a major refresh on a regular basis, and you will end up on the wrong side of all your neighbours.

There is also the issue of damage and breakages. Are they taking a sufficient deposit? Personally I recommend only using AirBnb or equivalent. They take care of the deposit for you, insure your apartment themselves against damage, and most importantly the guests are reviewed by the hosts so your management company can filter out guests that have not been vetted by previous hosts.

Let the management company take care of advertising the property. For instance many prefer to avoid Booking.com as they do not allow a host to cancel a booking even if unhappy or suspicious about the guest. Nearly all do not want the owner to advertise the property themselves for "extra bookings" as co-ordination is a nightmare and hosts can be heavily penalised for cancelling due to a double-booking which means your listing being dropped in the rankings.

There are management companies that provide key boxes for guests but in my opinion you are better choosing one that does a personal meet and greet. I base that on the thousands of reviews I have read, many of which mention how they appreciated the person that came to meet them.

One of the great things about having the apartment managed is they will have it clean and ready for your arrival, for a small fee of course. You can use it as much as you want from November to March without having too much economic impact on your annual yield. If you want nice weather but minimise impact then May, September and October are great months.

You can leave expensive items in the apartment but better if they are not breakable. For instance a statue should be safe but a vase you leave at your own risk. Those with more rooms sometimes lock one up for themselves. For instance the owner of a two bedroom may leave their personal belongings in one bedroom, lock it when not there, and rent it out as a one bedroom apartment. They deem it a trade off that is worth it.

Student lets are popular in Nice as it provides a secure rental income most of the year but also allows the owner to either rent it to holidaymakers or use it themselves during the summer.

The student rents it from September to end of May. It is a fixed length contract with no option for the student to extend it, and they must leave by the end of the contract. They have no protections as a tenant so there is no worry about them not leaving. Often the student is happy to leave once their exams are over and save rent money, and the owner also happy to gain several extra weeks peak holiday rental.

The prime areas for student rental are the Old Town, which is the most popular, the city centre such as Carre d'Or, and around the many campuses to the north, west and east of the city. As a general rule, the best properties tend to be in the Old Town as that is where all the students want to live because the nightlife is centered there, and it is where the most popular low cost rental is to be found.

You can either rent out a studio or one bedroom to a single student, or rent out each bedroom in a larger apartment to several students. For a surface area of over 20m² per student you can expect around €800-1,200/month for single occupancy or €600-800/month per person multi-occupancy. There is a spread for single occupancy because it can range from a studio on the 5th floor with no lift to a smart one-bedroom in the Carre d'Or with balcony. There is no shortage of foreign students that have parents with deep pockets as well as local French students looking for cheap digs.

This is a brand new rental type that became available from 2026 which is a mix of student and holiday rental. If you rent to a student during term time, which is generally 9 months but you qualify for if you rent at least 6 months, then you will be authorised to do 90 days of holiday rentals over the summer.

This sounds too good to be true and so of course there is a catch. The rent you can charge the student is capped at what the Town Hall considers to be market rate. This is revised upwards every year but for 2027 those rates are:

Property	2027 monthly rent cap
Studio	€525
1-Bedroom	€680
2-Bedroom	€890
3-Bedroom+	€1,260

This is still a very attractive proposition and so you need to run the numbers to see if is the right fit for you.

The bail mobilité (mobility lease) is a flexible French rental contract designed for people who need temporary housing without committing to a full year-long lease. It was recently created as a middle ground between short-term holiday rentals like Airbnb and long-term residential leases.

Here is how it breaks down across qualifications, duration, and key rules for landlords:

The bail mobilité isn't open to just anyone looking for a temporary stay—it is strictly reserved for people in temporary, documentable situations. To qualify, the tenant must be moving for one of the following reasons on the day the lease starts:

• Students in higher education or exchange programs.
• Interns, apprentices, or people doing civic service.
• Employees on temporary work assignments or undergoing professional transfers.
• Professionals taking vocational training courses.

Because this is a specific legal framework, the landlord will ask for official paperwork (like an internship agreement, school registration, or a letter from an employer) before signing. Tourists or people on general vacation do not qualify.

The lease length is fixed at between 1 and 10 months. Crucially, it cannot be renewed. You can adjust the end date once during the rental period via an amendment, but the total time can never cross the 10-month limit. If you want to rent it longer then you need to terminate this agreement and move them over onto a stadard long term furnished rental contract.

If you are considering renting under a bail mobilité, there are a few important features to keep in mind:

• Zero Security Deposit: French law strictly forbids landlords from asking for a security deposit. You can ask the rentor to have renter insurance, which can compensate you for damage or upaid rent.
• Must Be Fully Furnished: The property must be a move-in-ready, decent residential space that includes a specific list of mandatory items required by French law (bedding, cooking plates, kitchenware, storage, etc.).
• Flat-Fee Charges: Unlike the other rental types in this section where utility and maintenance bills can be charged to the renter, here utility charges must be billed as a fixed, non-adjustable flat fee.
• Notice period: There is no notice period that the landlord can give, they cannot end the lease early. The renter can leave with one month notice.
• No City Registration Needed: Unlike short-term tourist rentals, you don't need to register the home with the local town hall or change the property's legal usage.

In my personal opinion, this contract type will be subject to more stringent checks in the future. I have seen so many local agencies and landlords abusing it. The same rent cap applies as long term, you cannot charge more than any renter paid in the previous 18 months, but I have seen people charge varying seasonal rates. Also faking reasons for qualifying. However right now it remains a very valid option.

This is the least interesting form of rental from both a financial and legal perspective. Despite a chronic shortage or rental properties, long term rental income is heavily financially penalised especially from a tax perspective. Occassionally the Government will try and bribe buyers into rental schemes but offsetting some of the purchase cost against income tax but this often ends up only for new build property. If buying a property that was previously rented then the buyer is obliged to re-rent it at the same price as the previous contract. As for the legal side, France is famously protective of tenants. Insurance schemes have been introduced for renters that gaurantee missed payments to landlords but they are limited in their liability and it is still a multi-year process to evict bad tenants. We advise getting professional advice before committing yourself to contract.

An unfurnished contract normally three years when the landlord is an individual and six years when the landlord is a legal entity. The tenant may leave during the lease.= with a one-month notice period.

When a residential property in Nice has recently been rented, the rent on reletting is generally constrained by the previous rent but if major renovation works then there might be a legal argument for a slight increase.

A landlord looking to take back the apartment at the end of lease must generally give at least six months' notice and have an authorized reason such as taking the property back to live in or to house an eligible close relative, selling it, or another legitimate and serious reason.

In France in 2026, a property with an energy efficiency rating, called the DPE, of class G property cannot be rented out neither can you renew the rental contract. The class F properties will also be banne from rental starting 2028 under the current rules.

For an ordinary unfurnished residential lease, the security deposit is limited to a maximum of one month of rent excluding charges. The amount an estate agent can charge a landlord is also capped, to €13.12/sqm in Nice (€10/sqm for administrative fees and €3/sqm for a move-in inspection report).

A standard long-term furnished contract normally lasts for a minimum of one year. The tenant may leave with one month's notice. A landlord can recover the property at the end of the lease if they give at least three months’ notice but must provide a valid legal reason such as selling, intending to move in as their primary residence, or another legitimate and serious reason.

A furnished residential property must contain the statutory minimum equipment needed for normal occupation. This includes:

• A bed with pillows and duvet or sheets
• Shutters or curtains in the bedroom
• A hob to cook on
• An oven or microwave
• A fridge, that must have a frozen food compartment
• Minimum cooking utensils to be able to use the hob and oven/microwave
• Sufficient crockery and cutlery for the tenants to be able to eat a meal.
• Table and chairs
• Shelves or cupboards for storage
• Adequate lighting, so floor standing lamps if no overhead lights
• Adequate cleaning equipment, so vacuum cleaner if carpet or bucket and mop for tiles

For a standard furnished residential lease, the security deposit is limited to a maximum of two months of rent excluding charges. Otherwise the same rules apply as unfurnished including the restrictions on renting with a low energy efficiency rating, so anything rated as "G" may not be rented out right now.