90-Day Primary Residence Cap: Paris, Lyon, and Large Cities 2026

For years, the national rule was simple to remember: a primary residence (PR) — the home where you reside at least eight months a year — could be rented as a furnished tourist accommodation for a maximum of 120 days per year in municipalities that had established registration. The Le Meur Law (November 19, 2024) changed the game: mayors can now, by reasoned deliberation, lower this cap to 90 days. Paris applied it starting January 1, 2025. Lyon since January 1, 2026. Marseille, Bordeaux, and a dozen other metropolises are following in 2026. For thousands of hosts who supplemented their income by renting their apartment during business trips or vacations, the room for maneuver is shrinking — and sanctions are toughening. Here is how to read the rule, keep a reliable counter, and adapt your commercial strategy without falling into illegality.

Primary Residence: The Definition That Really Matters

PR status is not a checkbox on Airbnb. It is based on legal criteria: the place where you usually reside, proof of address (taxes, bills, voter card), and consistency between your real life and the declared address. Renting for 200 nights while maintaining "façade" PR status exposes you to reclassifications (secondary residence, change of use, fine).

Short-term rental (STR) in a PR is designed as an ancillary activity: you leave for a few weeks, you rent temporarily. As soon as your activity resembles a permanent commercial operation (prolonged absence, weekly turnover all year round, concierge service managing your PR for you without you living there), you step out of the protective framework and into the stricter one of secondary residence or professional furnished rental.

From 120 to 90 Days: What the Le Meur Law Allows

Article 7 of the Le Meur Law modifies IV of Article L. 324-1-1 of the Tourism Code. The national cap remains 120 days unless the municipality adopts a deliberation to bring it down to 90 days. This decision must be reasoned (pressure on the rental stock, residential balance, etc.) and is published in the collection of administrative acts.

Practical consequences:

The counter is calendar year (January 1 – December 31) unless a local order specifies otherwise. Every rented night counts, regardless of the platform (Airbnb, Booking, direct) or the length of the stay (one night or thirty).

Mapping Large Cities in 2026

Regulation is becoming hyper-local. Here is the state of play in the first half of 2026 for the metropolises most consulted by Majordia hosts:

This list evolves: consult your town hall's website or the EPCI every quarter. A studio in Villeurbanne (Rhône) and a one-bedroom in Lyon proper may have different rules.

|> Take Action — Synchronize your calendars and create your welcome book to secure authorized stays.

Night Counter: The Discipline That Avoids the Fine

With European Regulation 2024/1028 and the monthly transmission of nights by OTAs to authorities (STR transparency guide), your internal counter must match reality. Frequent error: counting only Airbnb nights and forgetting a week rented directly to a colleague.

Recommended method for a PR host:

1. Single Table (Google Sheet, Notion, PMS tab): one line per night, columns for date, channel, traveler, status (confirmed / canceled).
2. Cumulative Formula: =SUM of nights over the calendar year; automatic alert at 80 nights if 90-day cap, 100 nights if 120-day cap.
3. Calendar Blocking: close dates as soon as the threshold is reached on all channels simultaneously.
4. Weekly Review in high season (June–September, school holidays).

Concierge services must display the counter to the PR owner every month. Without contractual traceability, the fine hits the declared landlord, not the platform.

Legal Strategies When 90 Days Are No Longer Enough

Maximizing the Value of Authorized Nights

With fewer nights available, the margin per night becomes critical. Prioritize:

• Dynamic pricing during periods when you are actually away (small portfolio pricing);
• Minimum stay of 3 to 5 nights during events (trade shows, festivals) to reduce turnover;
• Upsells (late checkout, mid-stay cleaning) via digital guide (upsell revenue);
• Listing quality for a high conversion rate on fewer dates (photos that convert).

Medium-Term Stays Without Exceeding the Cap

Stays of 30 to 90 nights quickly consume the annual quota but generate less turnover and sometimes less neighborhood friction. See 30–90 night stays. Note: an 89-night stay exhausts almost the entire Parisian cap — plan the rest of the year.

Honest Reclassification

If your business model requires more than 90–120 nights, consider:

• Change of use or secondary residence authorization (costs, delays, uncertainty depending on the municipality);
• Mobility lease or long-term furnished rental during months when STR is prohibited — distinct regimes from furnished tourist accommodation;
• Relocating activity to a less constrained municipality, if you are investing (mandatory urban planning due diligence).

Do not rely on "non-retroactivity" to secure a practice clearly incompatible with PR status: recent case law (Cass. April 2025 on non-retroactivity of authorizations) protects duly declared situations, not counter fraud.

Interaction with Declaloc and the NER

Since May 20, 2026, your registration number (Declaloc / apimeubles) identifies the property and its regime. A declared PR with a communal cap of 90 days will be automatically cross-referenced with the nights transmitted by the platforms. Full guide: Le Meur Law.

PR compliance checklist in cities with a 90-day cap:

Case Studies

Marie, PR in Paris, consultant. She travels 15 weeks a year on missions. Before 2025, 120 days were enough for her. In 2026, she is capped at 90 days: she concentrates STR on the 15 most profitable weeks (trade shows, summer), switches to mobility lease or leaves it vacant for the rest, and increases her nightly rate by 12% to compensate.

Karim, PR in Lyon, family. He rented during school holidays (≈ 60 nights). The switch to 90 days does not constrain him, but he documents each stay for the town hall and installs a guide with neighborhood rules (noise and parties) after a neighbor's complaint.

Concierge service managing 12 Parisian PRs. It sets up a compliance dashboard: NER, counter, deliberation, next co-ownership GM. Mandates include an automatic listing stop clause at D-5 before the cap.

Fatal Errors to Avoid

1. Counting days of presence instead of rented nights.
2. Forgetting a direct booking not synchronized on Airbnb.
3. Assuming 120 days when the municipality switched to 90 days six months ago.
4. Renting as a PR a property where you haven't lived for two years.
5. Ignoring co-ownership: even in a PR, rules can impose constraints (see Constitutional Council decision March 2026 on secondary residences in co-ownership).

Taxation and PR

STR in a PR remains subject to the micro-BIC or actual regime depending on your case, with allowances revised in 2025 for non-classified furnished rentals (2026 taxation). Fewer nights do not mean less fiscal vigilance: authorities have more data.

FAQ

Can I rent for 90 days in Paris and 90 days elsewhere with the same PR status?

No: the cap applies to the property that is your PR, not to you personally. Only one PR property per usual tax household.

Do nights when I am away without a tenant count?

No. Only actually rented nights (contract or confirmed booking) count.

What if I exceeded by mistake?

Stop new bookings immediately, document the error, and contact legal counsel. Do not "compensate" by canceling confirmed stays without compensating — reputational risk and OTA penalties.

Does the 90-day cap apply to bed and breakfasts?

No: bed and breakfasts in the landlord's PR fall under a distinct regime (Article L. 324-1-1). However, check the town hall declaration.

How does Majordia help PR hosts?

Digital guide to limit incidents, AI Majordomo (Individual/Pro) for recurring questions, OTA synchronization via integrations — all on an account adapted to your volume. Demo: /visio.

The Essentials to Remember

The switch from 120 to 90 days in a primary residence is not just a line in a municipal order: it is a complete recalibration of ancillary activity in large cities, amplified by the data transparency imposed by Europe. Map your municipality, keep an implacable multi-channel counter, maximize the value of each authorized night, and honestly reclassify your model if the cap is no longer enough. In 2026, the high-performing PR host is the one who plans their 90 days like a budget, not like an unlimited resource.