Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

LIVING IN FRANCE

What are the rules on home exchanges in France?

Home exchanges are an up-and-coming way to spend a holiday, offering a low-cost alternative to Airbnb and hotels. Here are the rules about them in France.

Published: 29 August 2024 08:11 CEST
What are the rules on home exchanges in France?
Photo by Maria Ziegler on Unsplash

Home exchanges are becoming popular across the world.

They represent a budget-friendly alternative to renting a hotel room or an Airbnb, where one person swaps their home with another for a short period of time. 

Many people will do so using a website, such as HomeExchange, Kindred or Swaphouse. These platforms usually offer some sort of vetting, such as asking for proof of ID and address.

What are the rules in France?

France has strict rules about renting, including for short-term rentals. In many cases, you would need to register with local authorities, and pay tax on your earnings.

READ MORE: What you need to know about renting out your French property on Airbnb

As for home exchanges, they are not regulated. As long as there is no money being exchanged, then it is more or less equivalent to inviting a friend to come stay at your house.

According to the French insurance company Allianz, “home exchanges are not taxable, as no financial transaction takes place between hosts and guests in this context.”

Both owners and tenants can engage in ‘home swaps’, but tenants must inform the landlord, according to the French government website Service-Public.

Tenants should also check to verify that there is not a clause in the lease preventing home exchanges.

If you do not go through a website that creates a formal, signed agreement, you should make one yourself. Be sure to specify the dates of the home exchange, as well as other expectations.

Home insurance

The main aspect you will need to consider is your home insurance contract and how to protect yourself from any possible damage.

The first step would be to check your home insurance contract to see whether home exchanges are covered. If so, you simply need to inform them of the identity of the occupants who will be staying in your home.

If your insurance does not cover home exchanges, then you should contact them to negotiate a new amendment, which would involve adding a supplementary document to your contract.

For those using an online platform to facilitate the exchange, you should also read the terms and conditions for the website for damages and responsibility.

READ MORE: A beginner’s guide to renting property in France

You may want to request that the family staying in your home have a ‘holiday civil liability’ insurance (garantie responsabilité civile villégiature). This could cover them in the event of a fire or water damage.

As for yourself, you will want to ensure that the other party has informed their insurance company you are staying in their home and purchase a holiday civil liability cover for yourself as well.

This may already be part of your home insurance, and if not you may be able to add it on.

Swimming pools

If you own a swimming pool, be sure it is up to all safety standards. If there is an accident and you have not followed the safety rules, then you could be held liable.

READ MORE: What rules do swimming pool owners in France have to follow?

French construction and housing code specifies that personal pools should be fitted with at least one of these four standard safety devices;

  • Fencing or walling around the pool, with access by a gate which can be locked (so for example if you have a pool in your garden you should make sure that the garden has a fence or wall around it with a lockable door or gate)
  • Alarms fitted which go off when the water is disturbed
  • Pool covers fitted that meet safety standards (ie can be walked on without the person falling in)
  • Pool shelters (eg a rigid cover, roof or folding roof) that meet safety standards.

All of the above must meet French or EU standards – and you can be fined up to €45,000 if your pool does comply with safety regulations. You can find more specific rules for each safety device here.

Member comments

  1. I am sure that any fine for non-compliance with safety regulations would only be awarded if the home owner did not comply with the regulations and not as stated, above.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

LIVING IN FRANCE

MAP: Which French cities have the best local amenities within walking or cycling distance?

A new study has ranked global cities based on how accessible local amenities such as shops, health services and parks are on foot or by bicycle - here's how France's towns and cities scored.

Published: 17 September 2024 17:27 CEST
MAP: Which French cities have the best local amenities within walking or cycling distance?

For a new study, titled “A universal framework for inclusive 15-minute cities”, researchers built an online database comparing roughly 10,000 cities around the world based on accessibility – by foot or bicycle – to essential services such as shops, schools, health centres, parks and cafés.

The researchers used open source data to map out how far of a walk or cycle residents were from different, essential services, including shops, restaurants, education, exercise and healthcare.

Their goal was to rank the world’s ’15-minute cities’ – which they define as places where “citizens [can] satisfy their personal needs by travelling no more than 15 minutes away from their home on bike or on foot.

“These needs should include goods, work, sport and cultural activities.”

The ranking therefore encompasses both the ease of walking and cycling in a city, and the range of local amenities that are available in each neighbourhood, from health centres and parks to boulangeries and schools.

What about France?

Overall, the researchers also found that population density is a crucial factor for ’15-minute cities’ – basically, if enough people are living close enough to each other, it is much easier for them to have easy access to services.

This meant that somewhat smaller yet relatively dense cities scored well on their map.

However, the lead author of the study, Matteo Bruno, told AFP that Paris was ‘an outlier’ among the world’s biggest cities for how quick it is to walk or cycle to essential services.

The researchers estimated that this may be related to Anne Hidalgo, the Paris Mayor’s early embrace of the 15-minute city concept in 2020.

READ MORE: What is a ’15-minute city’ and how is it working in Paris?

As for France’s other cities – five made it to the top 20 (Grenoble, Nancy, Rennes, Paris, Arras) of all global cities for having the shortest average walking time to access local services and amenities. 

An additional five French cities (Dijon, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes) fell in the top 20 to 40 range. 

Map of France, showing walkable cities. Credit: ‘A universal framework for inclusive 15-minute cities’

Find your French town

The authors’ map is interactive and public, meaning anyone can access the information contained, and zoom in to find how well their French town or city scores.

The city’s ranking is an average of several categories for the distance to essential activities you would need to get to in daily life. You can use the drop-down menu to explore these.

Places in dark blue are considered the most accessible, and the opposite for those in dark red.

The categories include:

  • Outside activities (parks, walks, picnics)
  • Learning (schools, universities)
  • Supplies (supermarkets, grocery stores)
  • Eating (restaurants, bistros, cafes)
  • Moving (bus stations, train stations, taxis)
  • Cultural activities (museums, theatres, cinemas)
  • Physical Exercise (gyms, sport centres)
  • Services (offices, banks, post offices, town halls)
  • Healthcare (hospitals, doctors, pharmacies).

The French top cities

Grenoble

The eastern French city is particularly known for its close proximity to the mountains, as such it is sometimes referred to as the ‘capital of the Alps’, with the Isère river running through it.

It scored the highest of French cities, with its 287,938 inhabitants having an ‘average proximity walk’ of six minutes to their local services, while the average proximity bicycle ride was three minutes.

READ MORE: French ‘capital of the Alps’ tops global ranking for best quality of life

The city has invested heavily in its cycle paths, with more than 450 km of bicycle routes, according to the town hall, and has won several other awards relating to quality of life for its residents.

Nancy

This eastern French city – located in the Grand Est region – came in 12th place overall for walk/cycle times to essential services for its 193,554-strong population.

The average walk to any of the above locations would take seven minutes, while the average bicycle ride – perhaps to bank or museum – would take three. 

Both Grenoble and Nancy’s suburbs did not perform as well, but the centre of the city had travel times (by foot or bicycle) of less than 10 minutes to get to neighbourhood amenities.

Rennes

Rennes came in 13th place globally with an average ‘proximity walk’ of seven minutes, and the average bicycle ride took three minutes. When interacting with the map in parts of central Rennes, most though journeys to local services took under 10 minutes, either by bicycle or foot.

However, the suburbs and peripheral areas, particularly in the north-west, showed longer distances, especially for the ‘supplies’ (getting to supermarkets or grocery stores) category.

Rennes routinely ranks highly among France’s ‘most green’ cities. In 2023, it came in second place. Almost a quarter (22 percent) of the city’s total surface area is dedicated to green spaces, with 63 percent of its road network including trees and greenery.

Paris

France’s capital showed an average walk time of eight minutes, and bicycle time of four minutes. 

When hovering over areas in central Paris, namely the first four arrondissements, the travel times to essential services were less than five minutes for all categories.

Distances to transport services (the ‘moving’ category) were the longest across the board in Paris, and in central areas it took between 5-6 minutes.

However, peripheral areas and western arrondissements, such as portions of the 15th, 8th, 7th and 16th, showed slightly longer walking/ bicycling commutes, particularly for ‘moving’ (which sometimes exceeded 10 minutes).

The other best French cities for walking/ cycling were;

Arras – The northern French city, located near Lille, came in fifth place for France. The average walking time to services was eight minutes, and the average biking time was four minutes.

Dijon – Located in eastern France, in Burgundy, the average proximity walk was eight minutes, while bicycling was three minutes. This city scored 10th best globally for cycling.

Lyon – Also in eastern France, and the country’s third most populous city, Lyon had an eight minute average walking time, and a four minute average bicycling time.

Marseille – The second city, located along the Mediterranean and home to over 903,004 people (using the study’s figures), had an average walking time of eight minutes, and bicycling time of four minutes.

Montpellier – Also located along the Mediterranean, Montpellier showed the same averages as Marseille, with eight minutes for travel by foot, and four minutes for travel by bicycle.

Nantes – The western French city had an average walking time of eight minutes and an average cycling time of four minutes. 

What about the worst scoring towns?

The study also included the cities in France that took longer to get to essential services by foot or bicycle – either because the walking/cycle facilities are poor or because neighbourhood lack crucial amenities (or both).

They included:

  • Vannes (located in Brittany, with an average walking time to essential services of 30 minutes, and cycling time of 14 minutes)
  • Angoulême (located in the south-west, 30 minutes to walk/ 13 minutes to cycle)
  • Béziers (located in southern France, 30 minutes to walk/ 14 minutes to cycle)
  • Albi (also located in southern France, 30 minutes to walk/ 14 minutes to cycle)
  • Fréjus (along the Mediterranean near Nice, 29 minutes to walk/ 14 minutes to cycle)
SHOW COMMENTS