British citizens who have second homes in Paris should begin preparation to meet a possible huge council tax increase. This follows the approval yesterday of a policy initiative to free up residences in the capital. The proposal would mean second-homeowners in Paris would face an average annual council tax hike of more than £1,750 (€2,000) – which is likely to make some consider selling up.
Paris’ left-wing council voted in favour of plans to increase the surcharge rate paid by owners of second homes in the city to 250 per cent above the normal rate – more than quadruple the current rate of 60 per cent.
Jacques Baudrier, the French Communist party councillor behind the scheme, said: “There are too many second-homeowners who come here for three or four days a year and leave their flats empty the rest of the time.
“I want to make them pay.”
He added the average annual council tax on main residences in Paris was around £877 (€1,000), while second-homeowners pay an average surcharge of around £526 (€600) on top.
Under the new proposal, which requires parliamentary approval before it can become law, Paris council want to increase the surcharge to almost £2,200 (€2,500), taking the total annual bill to more than £3,000 (€3,500).
The proposal has been put forward to encourage second-homeowners to consider selling or renting out their additional properties in order to make residences available to Parisians and drive down house prices in the city.
The council also voted in favour of quadrupling the annual average tax on vacant properties from £1,750 (€2,000) to £7,016 (€8,000).
Mr Baudrier claims there are around 110,000 second homes in Paris, and another 100,000 vacant properties.
French media report that should the plans go ahead, it could bring an additional £175million (€200 million) to the city.
Ian Brossat, the Communist deputy mayor in charge of housing, told the Telegraph in January that the aim of the tax was to ensure that Paris did not end up like London, with the working and middle classes increasingly priced out of the housing market.
He said: “That is exactly the model we want to avoid here in Paris.”
The number of non-resident owned homes in Paris rose by 43 percent over the last 15 years, while owner-occupied homes rose by just three percent in the same period.
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