State of Coliving in France

How big is the France coliving market?

France has approximately 18,000 flex-living beds at end-2024 (JLL), among Europe's largest and second only to the UK in the western European market. Paris is the core hub, but the regional expansion (Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Marseille, Nantes, Toulouse, Montpellier) has driven most of the 2023-2025 growth.

The market's defining event was the Le Meur Law (Law No. 2024-1039 of 19 November 2024), which tightened short-term tourist rentals while explicitly leaving long-term furnished rentals untouched. This cleanly distinguished coliving as a distinct asset class from STR , unlocking institutional capital that had been sitting on the sidelines waiting for regulatory clarity.

Ares Management's €1 billion financing agreement with Colonies (France's largest coliving operator by tenant count, 180 residences, 11,000 tenants) is the largest single European coliving capital commitment. The Ares-Colonies deal targets adding approximately 2,000 additional units on top of Colonies' existing footprint.

The Nomo joint venture between Bouygues Immobilier (one of France's largest property developers) and Ares represents a different institutional archetype: €450M JV, 1,500+ beds already secured, targeting 10,000 beds by 2030. Bordeaux was the first Nomo site. This is mainstream property development entering coliving at institutional scale , the kind of move that legitimizes the sector for the next tier of French capital.

Cohabs holds 13 houses in Paris and is expanding into Marseille, funded by part of its ~$450M PropCo raise. The Belgian-origin operator represents the same PropCo model that has scaled institutional coliving across northwestern Europe.

The Babel Community opened France's first coliving building (Marseille, November 2017) and now operates across Paris, Marseille, Lille, and Grenoble as a hybrid coliving-coworking-hotel format. Chez Nestor (now part of Joivy after the 2023 Joivy rebrand) operates 1,300 rooms across 6 cities including Lyon (HQ), Paris, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Lille.

Colonies' average tenant age of 31 and average rent of ~€590/month positions French coliving at the younger, more affordable end of the European institutional spectrum, distinct from Paris's premium coliving (Cohabs at €800-€1,200) or UK-style purpose-built shared living.

The French planning framework treats long-stay coliving as residential (résidence-services or coliving-specific classifications depending on the municipality), which sits cleanly outside the Le Meur Law's STR restrictions. This distinction is the single most important regulatory feature of the French market.

How is coliving regulated in France?

Le Meur Law (Law No. 2024-1039 of 19 November 2024) is the defining piece of French coliving regulation , not because it targets coliving, but because it tightens STR while explicitly leaving long-stay coliving untouched.

Le Meur Law provisions: primary-residence cap is cuttable to 90 days by municipal decision. Mandatory registration for STR from January 2025. DPE (Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique) energy requirements apply , properties below a certain rating can be prohibited from STR letting. Condominium boards can now vote (two-thirds majority) to ban STR in their building. Fines up to €100,000 for non-compliance.

Crucially, Le Meur does NOT target long-term furnished rentals. Long-stay coliving is defined by contract structure (>90 days, standard residential lease terms) and falls cleanly outside the STR regime. This is the effective distinguishing legal act for French coliving.

ELAN Law (2018) reforms had earlier introduced coliving-adjacent classifications and simplified some multi-tenant housing planning. Le Meur builds on that framework.

Résidence-services classification is often used for institutional coliving properties in France. It provides a distinct regulatory category with clear rules on management services (housekeeping, meals, community programming) and is more clearly defined than most European coliving planning frameworks.

The Loi Climat et Résilience (2021) affects building energy performance requirements for rental properties, including coliving. Properties classified F or G on DPE face progressive rental restrictions.

IFI (Impôt sur la Fortune Immobilière) wealth tax on real estate applies to property owners above certain thresholds, affecting institutional coliving PropCo economics.

Municipal control over housing policy is significant. Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Bordeaux each set specific rules on room-rental (colocation) and coliving classification.

Corporate lease structures. Many French coliving operators sign master leases with property owners rather than owning inventory (though the Nomo JV represents a shift toward development-and-hold). Tax treatment of master-lease structures affects operator economics.

Where can I find coliving data for France?

• JLL , European coliving research

• Gide , Le Meur Law analysis

• Legifrance , Law No. 2024-1039 of 19 Nov 2024

• Cushman & Wakefield France , French living-sector research

• Knight Frank France , Paris coliving analysis

• CBRE France , Institutional living-sector coverage

What makes France coliving distinctive?

Regulation as tailwind. Le Meur Law of November 2024 does something no other European coliving law does explicitly: it separates long-stay coliving from tourist rentals cleanly enough that institutional capital can underwrite the sector without regulatory tail risk. That single legislative act is the reason Ares committed €1B to Colonies, why Bouygues launched the €450M Nomo JV, and why Cohabs, Habyt, and The Social Hub are all accelerating French pipelines. France is now Europe's second-largest coliving market by beds, behind only the UK, but with a fundamentally different growth trajectory. Where the UK grew through post-Collective institutional discipline and Knight Frank-tracked pipeline management, France is growing through mainstream property-developer commitment (Bouygues), single-operator scale (Colonies at 180 residences, 11,000 tenants), and regulatory certainty. The regional expansion , Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Marseille, Nantes, Toulouse, Montpellier , is what will determine whether France catches up to the UK or plateaus. Colonies' €590 average rent positions French coliving as the more affordable European institutional archetype, distinct from UK premium coliving or Spain's Madrid flex-living pipeline. If the Nomo JV delivers on its 10,000-bed 2030 target, France may become the market that defines what mainstream, mid-priced, regionally distributed European coliving looks like at scale.

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