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SECOND HOMES

LATEST: France set to reopen borders to American tourists from June 9th

French president Emmanuel Macron has laid out full details of France's reopening plan, including the relaxing of border restrictions for visitors from outside the EU.

Published: 29 April 2021 15:19 CEST
LATEST: France set to reopen borders to American tourists from June 9th
Photo: Ian Langsdon/AFP

Macron on Thursday set out the detailed timetable for reopening the country, including reopening bars and cafés and lifting the curfew.

And there was one date particularly important to Americans, who have largely been barred from France since March 2020. France had already eased the rules of entry for visitors from the UK, New Zealand and Australia.

The second stage of the reopening on Wednesday, June 9th includes the reopening of France’s borders to all non-EU visitors for all types of travel – including family visits, tourism and visits from second-home owners.

However, there are two important caveats:

Firstly, phase two only happens if Covid numbers are still under control after phase 1 of the reopening, which begins on May 3rd.

Secondly, all travel will be allowed only with a pass sanitaire, the president detailed.

This is a health passport, the same as France will also be introducing on June 9th to access things like concerts and large events.

The full details of what the pass sanitaire will involve have not yet been published, but a prototype that France is currently testing has options for travellers to either upload a vaccine certificate or a recent negative Covid test.

In March the French government announced it was lifting the requirement that meant only those people with “essential reasons” to travel to the UK were permitted to make the trip. Restrictions were also eased for travel to or from six other countries including Australia and New Zealand.

Anyone travelling in to France currently needs to present a negative PCR Covid test taken within the previous 72 hours and fill in a declaration stating that they have no Covid symptoms.

There is no compulsory quarantine for arrivals in France from the US, UK, Australia or New Zealand, but people coming from a non-EU country are asked to self-isolate for 7 days on arrival. This can be done at an address of their choice.

Travellers from India and Brazil however face 10-day compulsory quarantine on arrival in France and could be subject to steep fines if they flout the rules.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about travel rules between France and UK

Member comments

  1. Ironic that France is welcoming vaccinated Australians after the EU went to so much trouble to stop them getting the vaccines they’d paid for.

  3. I know there is a lot to learn about all this in the days and weeks ahead. I’m an American with a second home in Provence. My husband and I are both 1 month+ past our second vaccine dose. It wasn’t clear from the article… if we were to come to France after June 9, would we still have to quarantine for seven days?

    1. Kathy, you won’t need to quarantine if you’ve been vaccinated. We also have a second home in the Luberon and are excited to return in July.

  4. This is Roger.

    We have a second home in the Dordogne which haven’t been able to visit since January 2020.

    Unfortunately, we live in South Africa.

    If my wife and I manage to obtain a full vaccination (J&J) in the next few weeks, will we be able to visit our home. Self isolation is not a problem…… I’m sure there are plenty of maintenance jobs waiting for me.

  5. This is Roger.

    We have a second home in the Dordogne which haven’t been able to visit since January 2020.

    Unfortunately, we live in South Africa.

    If my wife and I manage to obtain a full vaccination (J&J) in the next few weeks, will we be able to visit our home?
    Self-isolation is not a problem…… I’m sure there are plenty of maintenance jobs waiting for me.

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SECOND HOMES

Campaign launched against second homes in France

Faced with increasing difficulty in finding housing, locals in one area of France have launched a campaign to limit the number of second homes in the region.

Published: 19 September 2024 12:47 CEST
Campaign launched against second homes in France

Overall, one in 10 properties in France is used as a second home, with the vast majority having French owners. But the situation in areas that have a particularly high number of second homes has led to locals feeling shut out of the market.

France has so far largely escaped the ‘anti tourist’ protests seen in countries including Spain, but the high number of second homes is a regular source of tension.

The most recent campaign is in Brittany, where a petition has been launched to close down a popular website (Madeuxiememaison.fr, launched in 2021 by the Caisse d’épargne Bretagne – Pays de la Loire) advertising second homes.

The petition accused the website of encouraging people to purchase second homes while Brittany residents are unable to find affordable housing. 

The left-wing political group, Union démocratique brétonne (UDB), launched the petition, writing that “Brittany does not lack housing. The truth is that hundreds of thousands of homes are empty nine months out of 12.”

Tifenn Siret, the spokesperson for UDP explained the petition to BFMTV. She said: “We are looking at an aggressive promotion [of second homes].

“The moment this website went up in 2021, there was a campaign to promote the site in newspapers and the media. We have several ‘housing shortage zones’ where people who work cannot live there.”

Another Brittany resident, Pauline from Finistère, told the French TV channel: “We are struggling to be able to buy homes in the area where we work.”

In response, Caisse d’épargne Bretagne – Pays de la Loire told BFMTV that “Out of 12,000 real estate projects in 2023, only 200 were for second homes, or 1.6 percent.

“We are not the ones creating the market, it’s the buyers who decide. Our role is to be facilitators, to support people.”

Other pushback against second homes

In recent months, second homes – notably those with their shutters closed (volets fermés) – have been targeted with graffiti and posters, BFMTV reported.

In July, a home in Trégunc (in the Finistère département) was sprayed with graffiti bearing the words “Besoin primaire, résidence secondaire” (Primary needs, secondary residence).

In March 2024, a car belonging to second homeowners in Névez (also in Finistère) was set on fire.

Some of these actions, including the burning of the car, have been organised by regionalist groups, such as the FLB (Front de libération de la Bretagne).

Another activist group, Douar Ha Frankis, which has particularly focused on limiting Airbnb rentals in the region, occupied a building used for Airbnb rentals in August, during the Inter-Celtic festival in Lorient, as well as placing flyers and posters on second homes.

The group told Franceinfo that they would like to see quotas put in place to limit the number of second homes in an area. 

What is the second homes situation in Brittany?

The western French region has become more popular amongst second home owners and tourists in recent years, partly due to climate change which has left parts of southern France exceedingly hot in the summer.

READ MORE: Why more and more tourists are flocking to Brittany

According to Ouest France, second homes make up 13.3 percent of properties in the region, higher than the national average of 9.5 percent.

However, those numbers increase significantly when looking at coastal parts of the region and its islands. For example, the Îles du Ponant have closer to 60 percent of properties as second homes, and that number rises to 72 percent for the island of Bréhat.

Local residents have noticed that areas with large portions of second homes have also become more expensive.

In Carnac, a coastal town in the Morbihan, second homes represent 71 percent of properties, BFMTV reported. Meanwhile, property prices in Carnac are closer to €6,027 per square metre, in contrast to the average of €2,814 for the rest of the Morbihan département.

In Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, located in the Ile-et-Vilaine département, the share of second homes is 60 percent, and price per square metre has reached €6,237, compared to the département average of €2,900.

What about other parts of France?

There has been similar pushback in other parts of France, but it is worth noting that the vast majority – around 90 percent – of second homes in France have French owners, and there is no particular animus against foreigners who buy a second home in France.

In 2022, France’s then-finance minister Bruno Le Maire, who owns a second home in the Pays-Basque in south-west France, saw his property briefly occupied by activists.

They called for extra powers for local authorities to impose a surcharge on second homes, with the money going towards creating affordable housing for local people.

Meanwhile, second homes in Corsica, where as many as one in three properties are second homes, have increasingly become targets for arsonists, Le Monde reported.

READ MORE: Where in France are locals protesting about second-home owners?

Steps to rein in second homes?

Thousands of French communes are officially designated as ‘zones tendues’. Literally translated as ‘tense zone’ in this context, it means an area with a housing shortage. 

To be officially designated by the government as a zone tendue, local authorities must be able to show that the area has a housing shortage, or that locals are priced out of the market.

If you own property in a zone tendue it could affect the property taxes you pay.

Areas with zone tendue status have the power to impose a surcharge on the taxe d’habitation on second-homes of up to 60 percent.

As for Airbnb, France imposes several restrictions on people who want to rent out their property via the holiday letting platform Airbnb.

There have also been calls to tighten these rules further, which could be included in the autumn legislative session in parliament, as they were put on hold due to the dissolution of parliament in June 2024.

READ MORE: Revealed: Where in France do foreigners buy second homes?

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