On 19 November 2024, France enacted the Loi Le Meur — formally the loi visant à renforcer les outils de régulation des meublés de tourisme à l'échelon local. Its central provisions came into full effect on 20 May 2026, and they affect every owner who lets a ski property in the French Alps on a short-term or seasonal basis, regardless of which platform they use or whether they rent privately.
The legislation is wide-ranging: it introduces a mandatory national registration number, tightens the micro-BIC flat-rate tax allowances that most occasional rental owners have relied on, requires a valid DPE energy certificate for all new short-term lettings, and gives municipalities the tools to cap rental nights and restrict tourist use at a co-ownership level. Airbnb, Booking.com, and other platforms must now transmit monthly booking data directly to the French authorities.
What it does not do is make renting your ski property harder for owners who are properly organised. French Alps rental yields remain among the strongest in European mountain property, and the new rules are, in substance, a compliance exercise rather than a restriction on well-run lettings. Here is the checklist.
1. National Registration — Declaloc Is No Longer Optional
The single most immediate obligation under the Loi Le Meur is mandatory registration on the national Declaloc portal, operated via service-public.fr. Every owner of furnished tourist accommodation — primary residence, secondary residence, new-build, resale, rented privately or through a platform — must register and obtain a 13-character alphanumeric registration number.
That number must appear on every listing and in every rental advertisement. Platforms are legally required to verify and display it. Failure to register carries an administrative fine of up to €10,000. A false or misleading declaration raises that ceiling to €20,000. From May 2026, platforms transmit monthly rental activity data to the authorities, who forward it to the relevant municipality — so unregistered lettings are no longer invisible.
Registration is straightforward for owners who are already properly declared. You need your fiscal number, the property's address, and the cadastral reference from your acte de vente. The portal generates the number immediately on submission.
Owners who already hold a local commune registration number — obtained from the mairie under the existing tourist-letting declaration system — still need a separate Declaloc national number. These are two distinct systems operating in parallel under French law. (Source: Legifrance — Loi Le Meur, Article L.324-2-1)
2. Micro-BIC Thresholds: The Tax Change That Needs Immediate Attention
The Loi Le Meur permanently restructured the micro-BIC flat-rate expense allowance available under French rental income tax. The changes apply to 2025 income onwards — meaning the first affected return was filed in spring 2026. The impact varies sharply depending on whether your property is classified.
For unclassified furnished tourist accommodation — the default if your property has no official star rating from Atout France — the annual revenue threshold for the micro-BIC regime has dropped from €77,700 to €15,000, and the flat-rate expense allowance from 50% to 30%. For many owners of mid-range ski apartments achieving €18,000–€25,000 in annual rental revenue, this means either moving to the régime réel (actual cost accounting) or formally classifying the property.
For classified furnished tourist accommodation (1–5 stars under the Atout France scheme), the threshold has dropped from €188,700 to €77,700, and the allowance from 71% to 50%. This is materially less generous than before, but the classified route still offers significantly better treatment. A classification inspection costs around €200–€300 and is arranged through an approved body — a straightforward exercise for any well-furnished ski apartment meeting modern standards.
The practical takeaway: getting your property formally classified is now financially significant rather than optional paperwork. A full breakdown of how French rental income is taxed for non-resident owners, including the Loi de Finances 2026 changes, is in our dedicated guide. For owners weighing the LMNP regime against para-hôtellerie structures, that comparison is covered separately here.
3. DPE Energy Certificate: A Hard Gate for New Lettings
Under Article L.173-1-1 of the Loi Le Meur, a valid Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique (DPE) is now mandatory for all furnished tourist lettings. The property must achieve a rating between Class A and Class E. From 1 January 2034, the floor rises to Class D — at which point a Class F or G property cannot legally be let on a short-term basis anywhere in mainland France.
For buyers in the French Alps, this sits alongside the mountain property DPE timeline covered here, which explains how alpine properties above 800 metres benefit from a modified calculation methodology and an extended transition period. The key practical point: most new-build ski properties completed under RE2020 regulations routinely achieve Class A or B, making compliance automatic. For resale buyers — particularly older apartments in village-centre locations — a DPE should be commissioned before listing.
4. Co-Ownership Rules: The Vote That Could Affect Your Letting Rights
The Loi Le Meur changed the voting threshold required for a co-ownership assembly to restrict short-term tourist lettings. Previously, a ban required a unanimous vote — in practice, impossible. From November 2024, a two-thirds majority of co-owners is sufficient to amend the règlement de copropriété to prohibit furnished tourist lettings.
For purpose-built résidences de tourisme — the dominant structure across French Alps ski resorts — this change is largely academic. The co-ownership rules of these developments are typically drafted to permit or even mandate short-term tourist use. The risk is concentrated in older mixed-use buildings in town centres or lower resort stations, where a predominantly residential co-ownership could now move to restrict tourist use by majority vote.
There is also a new transparency obligation: any owner operating a furnished tourist letting must formally notify the syndic de copropriété of that activity. This is a documentation requirement rather than a restriction, but it formalises the position in developments where owners have historically operated informally.
5. The 90-Night Cap and Municipal Regulation: What Applies in Ski Resorts
The Loi Le Meur allows municipalities to reduce the annual lettings cap for primary residences from 120 to 90 nights. For ski property investors — who own secondary or investment properties, not primary residences — this provision is not directly applicable. The 90-night rule is a primary-residence control only.
What does apply to investment properties is the broader municipal toolkit the law provides: the ability to designate zones requiring prior authorisation for short-term lettings, to set numerical quotas on tourist listings, and to restrict new tourist use in specific areas through local urban planning rules. French Alps ski resorts have been slower to implement these restrictions than coastal cities or Paris — the tourism economy of a resort municipality depends on short-term lettings in a way that urban housing markets do not. However, buyers in smaller, increasingly pressured resorts should check the current position with the local mairie before purchasing specifically for rental.
What This Means for Buyers Purchasing Now
The Loi Le Meur does not alter the structural investment case for French Alps ski property. The supply constraints imposed by the Loi Montagne remain fully in place, international buyer demand is firm heading into 2026, and achievable rental income for properly managed, classified properties is largely unaffected by the registration and compliance steps described above.
For buyers weighing new-build against resale, the compliance argument adds further weight to new-build. RE2020 properties achieve the best DPE ratings automatically, VEFA purchase costs run at 2–4% of the purchase price rather than 7–8%, and purpose-built résidence developments are structured from the outset for short-term tourist use — with co-ownership rules, rental management operators, and classification already in place.
One additional purchase cost to factor in for resale buyers completing now: Haute-Savoie and Savoie both raised their DMTO (transfer tax) from 4.5% to 5% from 1 April 2025, adding approximately €500 per €100,000 of purchase price. Isère — home to Alpe d'Huez and Les Deux Alpes — did not increase its rate. The higher rate runs until 31 March 2028. Source: DGFIP DMTO rate table 2026.
Buyers purchasing through a rental management company should confirm that the operator has already completed Declaloc registration on their behalf, holds current DPE certification for the property, and is filing taxe de séjour returns correctly — these are the three pillars the Loi Le Meur has now formalised into enforceable obligations.
