Airbnb Rules in Nice: Registration, the 90-Day Cap, Quotas — and What They Actually Mean When You Live Abroad

A warning before anything else: Nice's short-let rules changed on 1 January 2026, part of them is currently suspended by a court, and the final word is expected from the Conseil d'État later this year. This page reflects the situation as of July 2026 and I update it when things move. Bookmark it rather than screenshot it.

Now. If you've read anything in the British press about Airbnb in France, you've probably seen the "90-day rule" mentioned. Here's the thing most articles get wrong, and it matters enormously for you: the 90-day cap applies to primary residences only. If you live in London and rent out a flat in Nice, that flat is not your primary residence, and your situation is governed by a completely different, and frankly tougher, set of rules called changement d'usage, change of use.

So there are really two rulebooks. Let me give you both, quickly for the one that isn't yours, properly for the one that is.

Rule number one, for absolutely everyone: the registration number

Every short-term rental in Nice, main home or not, classified or not, must be declared to the authorities and display a 13-character registration number on every listing: Airbnb, Booking, Abritel, your own website, all of it.

No number, illegal listing. And this is no longer theoretical: the platforms are required to check, and they suspend listings that don't comply. The number is obtained after your file is validated, and for a secondary residence it comes after the change-of-use authorisation, not instead of it. Which brings us to the main event.

The rulebook that actually applies to you: change of use

Nice considers that a flat rented to tourists has stopped being housing and started being something else. Turning housing into "something else" requires the mayor's authorisation. That's the changement d'usage.

The key features, as they stand since January 2026:

It's now granted for 3 years. It used to be one year, tacitly renewable up to six years in total. The new regime is a 3-year authorisation, and you need to reapply about two months before it expires or you lose the right. Diary entry, not a mental note.

It's personal. The authorisation is tied to you, not to the flat. You can't sell it with the apartment, and a buyer can't inherit yours. (If you're ever buying in Nice with short lets in mind, this detail alone should reshape your offer price.)

The paperwork is real. Identity documents, title deed, an energy certificate (DPE) less than ten years old — and the flat needs a rating between A and E to be rentable at all — a floor plan with surface areas, photos inside and out, and a sworn statement that your building's règlement de copropriété allows tourist rentals. Incomplete file, rejected file, start again.

That last item deserves its own paragraph.

Check your copropriété before you do anything else

Two separate traps here. First, some co-ownership regulations simply prohibit short-term letting, and a municipal authorisation does not override your building's rules. Second, and this is recent: since the Le Meur law, buildings whose regulations contain a clause d'habitation bourgeoise (a very common clause in older Nice buildings) can vote to ban tourist rentals at a two-thirds majority, instead of the unanimity previously required. The Constitutional Council upheld this in March 2026. Translation: even if you're compliant today, your neighbours can change the rules of the game at the next AGM. Worth knowing before you furnish the place around a short-let business plan.

The 2026 quotas, and the court case

This is the big change, and the reason this article carries a date.

In December 2025 the Métropole adopted a new regulation creating annual quotas of change-of-use authorisations in the four most touristic areas of the city: Vieux-Nice, Riquier–Port–Mont Boron, the Centre-Ville, and the western sector. 671 authorisations per year in total, applications accepted only during the month of February, online, first-come with complete files.

If your flat sits in one of those zones, you can't just apply when convenient. You apply in February, against everyone else, within the quota, for a 3-year permit. Miss the window or the quota, wait a year.

Except that right now, you can't apply at all: professional associations challenged the regulation, the administrative court found serious doubts about how the quotas were calculated, and applications in the four quota zones are suspended until the Conseil d'État rules, currently until 31 August 2026. Outside the four zones, applications continue normally, all year round.

What does a sensible owner do with this mess? If you're outside the quota zones: proceed normally. If you're inside: prepare your file now so it's ready the day the window reopens, whatever shape the rules take, and in the meantime look seriously at the alternatives below. What you don't do is list the flat anyway and hope. Which brings us to what non-compliance costs.

What happens if you ignore all this

The fine for operating a change of use without authorisation can reach €50,000 per unit, plus a daily penalty until the situation is regularised. Exceeding the rules on a listing, renting without a registration number, or false declarations open other fronts, up to €15,000 in some cases, and the city has a dedicated enforcement unit that does actual checks. Nice is not a city where this is a paper rule. The platforms' data-sharing makes detection close to automatic, and remember they also share your revenue with the tax office (that's a separate, equally cheerful subject: see my guide on declaring rental income as a non-resident).

The smaller print: tourist tax and energy ratings

The taxe de séjour is owed on every stay; for an unclassified flat it runs at 5% of the nightly price. Airbnb collects and remits it automatically for you; on other channels or direct bookings it's your job. And the DPE requirement isn't static: tourist lets will need to reach class D by 2034, so if your flat is a draughty E, the renovation question is a when, not an if.

If the door is closed: the exit that's actually an upgrade

Suppose you're in a quota zone with no authorisation, or your copropriété says no, or three years of paperwork for a permit you might not get back has cured you of the Airbnb dream. Here is the part that the doom-scrolling articles never mention: the same regulation that's strangling tourist lets is quietly creating a rather good business next door.

Think about what Nice actually hosts besides tourists: relocating professionals on six-month missions, hospital and clinic staff on fixed contracts, business-school students (EDHEC and the university are here), consultants at the airport three days a week, and a growing crowd of remote workers who'd rather spend winter on the Riviera than in Rotterdam. All of them need a furnished flat for one to ten months. None of them is a "tourist" in the legal sense — they live in the flat while they're here.

And that single fact changes everything: a furnished rental to someone who makes the flat their home needs no registration number, no change-of-use authorisation, no 90-day counting, and no quota. It works today, in the Vieux-Nice, in the Port, everywhere the tourist-let window is currently bolted shut. While your neighbours wait for the Conseil d'État, your flat can be earning.

France even built a lease for exactly this: the bail mobilité. One to ten months, furnished, for tenants in professional mobility or study, non-renewable, and, pleasingly, the law forbids taking a security deposit — protection comes through a guarantor or the free state-backed Visale guarantee instead. Fewer moving parts, not more.

The honest arithmetic: headline income is below a perfectly-run, fully-legal, peak-season short let. But compare it to your actual alternatives — a flat you cannot legally list, or one capped and quota'd into part-time work — and mid-term usually wins outright. Two to four tenant changes a year instead of forty. No reviews to defend at midnight. A tenant who emails about a lightbulb, on a Tuesday, politely.

Setting this up properly is mostly about doing three things well: choosing the right lease and drafting it correctly, pricing for the corporate and relocation market rather than the holiday one, and having someone on the ground for check-ins, inventories and the lightbulb. That last part is me; for the rest, I make sure your flat is presented where this clientele actually looks, and you decide who moves in. If your Airbnb plan just hit a quota wall, this is the conversation to have before you conclude the flat should sit empty.

Two smaller options round out the menu:

The student-plus-summer mix. Nice allows a specific arrangement: rent to a student on a nine-or-ten-month lease, take the flat back for tourist lets in summer, under a temporary authorisation with conditions (including rent levels). For a well-placed one or two-bed outside the frozen zones, an underrated compromise.

Classification. Getting your flat officially classified as a meublé de tourisme doesn't bypass the change-of-use rules, but it does improve your tax treatment significantly if you're on the simplified regime. Details in my micro-BIC versus réel guide.

The short version

Your Nice flat is (almost certainly) not your primary residence, so ignore the 90-day headlines: your subject is change of use. Check your copropriété first, get the DPE sorted, and find out whether you're in one of the four quota zones, because that dictates your entire calendar. And if the tourist-let door is shut for now, don't leave the flat idle out of frustration: the mid-term market is open, legal everywhere, and better than its reputation. Everything about the 2026 regime rewards owners who prepare early and punishes improvisation, which, if you're managing this from another country, in another language, is rather the theme of French property administration in general.

Written from Nice; rules as they stand in July 2026, with a court decision pending that may change the quota system. Not legal advice; for a binding view on your specific flat, speak to a French avocat or ask me for an introduction. Figuring out which zone you're in, assembling the change-of-use file, and keeping your listing compliant from 1,500 km away is, as it happens, exactly the sort of thing I do for owners.

FAQ

Does the 90-day limit apply to my Nice flat if I live abroad? Almost certainly not, because the cap concerns primary residences, meaning a home occupied at least eight months a year. Your flat is a secondary residence, which needs a change-of-use authorisation instead. Different regime, more paperwork.

How do I know if my flat is in a quota zone? The four zones are Vieux-Nice, Riquier–Port–Mont Boron, Centre-Ville and the western sector, and the city's online portal lets you test your address. If you're in one, applications are only accepted in February, and they're suspended pending the court ruling as of mid-2026.

Can I apply for the authorisation from abroad? Yes, the process is online for the quota zones and can be handled remotely elsewhere, but the file is French-language and document-heavy. This is where most foreign owners either give up or delegate.

My building's rules say nothing about Airbnb. Am I safe? Safer, not safe. If your règlement contains a "bourgeois occupation" clause, your co-owners can now ban tourist lets at a two-thirds vote. A quick read of the règlement, or having someone read it for you, is worth doing before any investment in the activity.

Is it still worth doing short lets in Nice at all? For a well-located, compliant flat with the authorisation in hand: yes, demand remains excellent. For a flat in a quota zone without authorisation: don't wait for the court, run the numbers on mid-term rental instead. Relocations, hospital contracts and business-school terms fill flats twelve months a year, need no authorisation whatsoever, and I can help you set it up. Owners tend to arrive at mid-term as a consolation prize and stay because the economics per headache are better.