Numéro d'enregistrement for Non-Resident UK and US Property Owners 2026

Numéro d'enregistrement for Non-Resident UK and US Property Owners 2026

You bought a Côte d'Azur villa, a Provence farmhouse or a Paris pied-à-terre and now you want to list it on Airbnb from London or New York. Since the Loi Le Meur reform of November 2024, every French short-term rental in a regulated commune must show a numéro d'enregistrement (French STR registration number) on its listing, and platforms cross-check that number daily with the mairie. This guide walks through the entire setup for non-residents: SIRET via INPI, mairie portal application under Decree 2021-757, post-Brexit visa friction and the workaround that lets you finish the procedure without a single trip to France.

The numéro d'enregistrement was created by Decree 2017-678 (codified at Code du Tourisme art. L324-1-1), refined by Decree 2021-757 of 11 June 2021, and made compulsory for almost every tourist commune by Loi 2024-1039 du 19 novembre 2024 (Loi Le Meur). It is a 13-character alphanumeric code that proves the mairie (local town hall) has been notified that your property is rented to a transient clientele. From January 2026 onward, Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and Abritel automatically delist any French listing that fails to display a valid number within 14 days of a verification request.

The rule applies to any meublé de tourisme (furnished tourist rental). It applies whether you rent for one night or 120 days. It applies even if you rent the property only two weekends per year. It applies even if you co-own with a French resident. Non-resident status does not exempt you from anything, it only adds friction.

Step One: SIRET via INPI for the Non-Resident Foreign Owner

Before you can apply for the numéro d'enregistrement you need a SIRET (Système d'Identification du Répertoire des Établissements, the 14-digit French business identifier). Every French STR landlord, including non-residents, declares the rental activity to INPI (Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle) which feeds INSEE for SIRET issuance.

The remote SIRET process for a UK or US owner: open a Guichet Unique account on formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr, choose "Activité de loueur en meublé non professionnel" (LMNP, the non-professional furnished landlord regime), enter your foreign address, your French property address and a foreign tax ID (UTR for UK, ITIN or SSN for US). INPI confirms within 10 to 30 working days and INSEE issues the SIRET. The fee is EUR 0. The status is automatically LMNP unless your French rental gross income exceeds EUR 23,000 and represents more than half of your worldwide income, in which case you are LMP (Loueur en Meublé Professionnel) with social security implications.

You will need a French phone number to receive INPI verification SMS. A Skype-To-Go French DID, a Wise virtual French number or a SIM bought during a property visit all work. The correspondence address can stay in London or New York for your LMNP file.

Step Two: Identify Whether Your Commune Requires the Numéro

Not every French commune enforces the numéro d'enregistrement. Communes with more than 200,000 inhabitants must enforce it (Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, Nantes, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lille). Communes with a housing tension classification (zone tendue under décret 2013-392, around 1,150 municipalities) must also enforce it. Most coastal and Alpine tourist towns enforce it by deliberation: Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Annecy, Chamonix, Biarritz, La Rochelle, Saint-Malo, Le Touquet and so on.

The Loi Le Meur expanded the optional regime so that any commune may opt in by simple municipal council vote. Check the mairie website or call the service de l'urbanisme. If your property sits in a non-enforcing rural commune you only need the SIRET and the LMNP cerfa, no numéro.

Step Three: The Mairie Online Portal Application

For enforcing communes the procedure is online via the téléservice de déclaration. Paris uses meubles-tourisme.paris.fr, Lyon uses smartloc.lyon.fr, Nice uses nice-meublesdetourisme.fr, Marseille uses declaloc.marseille.fr. The interface is French only with no English version, so a non-resident either learns to navigate the form or appoints a French mandataire with a power of attorney.

The application gathers: SIRET, owner identity (passport scan accepted in lieu of carte d'identité), property cadastral reference (parcel ID from cadastre.gouv.fr), surface in m2, number of rooms, maximum capacity, type of rental (entire dwelling, room, secondary residence), DPE (Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique) rating, and a sworn statement that the property complies with CCH (Code de la Construction et de l'Habitation, the French building code) decency requirements. Decision time: instant for most communes, up to 7 days when the form is queued for human review.

Step Four: Decree 2021-757 and the Residence-Principale Question

Decree 2021-757 created two parallel procedures. The simple déclaration is for properties classified as residence principale (your main home, where you sleep more than 8 months per year). The change-of-use authorisation (autorisation de changement d'usage, art. L631-7 CCH) is for residence secondaire and triggers a 1-for-1 commercial compensation in central Paris arrondissements (1er, 2e, 3e, 4e, 5e, 6e, 7e, 8e, 9e), Annecy, Bordeaux centre and other tension-zone municipalities.

For a UK or US owner, the property is almost always residence secondaire because you live abroad. That means in central Paris and similar communes, the simple numéro d'enregistrement is not enough: you also need the changement d'usage which requires you to acquire commercial square metres in the same arrondissement (typically 1.5 m2 of commercial conversion per 1 m2 of residential rented). The compensation market in Paris 1er trades around EUR 2,500 to 4,500 per m2 in 2026.

Step Five: Post-Brexit Visa Considerations for UK Owners

UK passport holders post-Brexit can stay in France only 90 days in any rolling 180-day Schengen window without a visa. Property ownership does not grant residence rights. If you plan to do hands-on management (welcoming guests, doing turnovers, supervising work), schedule visits to fit the 90/180 cap or apply for a visa de long séjour temporaire (VLS-T, up to 6 months, no work right) or a visa visiteur (1 year, renewable, no salaried work). Property ownership above EUR 250,000 supports a visa visiteur application but is not automatic.

US passport holders enjoy the same 90/180 Schengen rule. The 1948 US-France visa-free arrangement does not change Schengen limits. For longer stays the visa visiteur is the standard route.

Step Six: Cost Stack for a Foreign Owner

Item	Cost (EUR)	One-off / Recurring
SIRET via INPI / Guichet Unique	0	One-off
Mandataire to file SIRET remote	150 to 350	One-off
DPE diagnostic (mandatory)	120 to 250	Every 10 years
Numéro d'enregistrement (mairie)	0	One-off (free in France)
Changement d'usage (Paris central)	variable, often EUR 25,000+	One-off (compensation)
Comptable for CERFA 2042 NR	300 to 800	Per year
French bank account for taxe de séjour	0 to 50	Per year
Total year 1 (no compensation)	570 to 1,450

Step Seven: Display Rules and Platform Cross-Check

Once issued, the 13-character numéro d'enregistrement must appear in every Airbnb, Booking, Vrbo and Abritel listing for the property within 30 calendar days of the mairie's confirmation. The format is 13 alphanumeric characters typically structured as 6 digits (commune INSEE) plus 4 digits (sequence) plus 3 letters (control). Platforms read the field through the API plugged into the mairie database. From January 2026 the platforms run a daily sync and delist any property where the number is missing, malformed or revoked.

The numéro d'enregistrement is also the field tax authorities use to cross-reference with DAC7 platform reports (see our DAC7 article). DGFiP (the French tax authority) ties your declared CERFA 2042 NR rental income to the platform-reported gross via this code.

Common Pitfalls Foreign Owners Hit

• Skipping the SIRET and trying to file the numéro alone, the mairie portal rejects the form.
• Using an LMP regime accidentally because gross rents exceed EUR 23,000, triggering URSSAF social security registration.
• Filing the numéro for a residence secondaire in Paris 4e without the changement d'usage, leading to a EUR 50,000 fine under art. L651-2 CCH.
• Listing on Airbnb with the SIRET in the numéro d'enregistrement field, which fails platform validation.
• Letting the DPE expire (10-year validity) and being denied at numéro renewal.
• Missing the platform 14-day delisting window because the numéro was revoked after a noise complaint.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get the numéro d'enregistrement without travelling to France?

Yes. The SIRET is filed online via INPI/Guichet Unique. The mairie déclaration is online for almost every enforcing commune. You may need a French phone number for SMS verification and a French mandataire if your French is limited, but no physical presence is required.

Does my property need to be classé meublé de tourisme to obtain a numéro?

No. The classement (1 to 5 stars under art. D324-2 Code du Tourisme) is optional and unrelated to the numéro d'enregistrement. The classement gives you the 71% micro-BIC abattement (vs 30% for non-classé after Loi Le Meur) but does not replace registration.

What happens if I rent without a numéro in an enforcing commune?

The fine is EUR 5,000 per dwelling under art. L324-1-1 IV Code du Tourisme. Repeat offences and platform-aided breaches can stack to EUR 10,000 to 50,000. The numéro may be issued retroactively but the fine still applies.

Do I need a French bank account?

Not for the numéro itself. You will need one for the taxe de séjour collected from guests and remitted to the commune (Airbnb collects and remits in most municipalities, but some smaller ones still require host remittance). A Wise EUR account works in most cases.

How does the numéro renewal work?

The numéro is permanent but the underlying declaration must be refreshed if the rental conditions change (capacity, surface, owner identity) or every 5 years in some communes by deliberation. Paris currently does not require renewal for residence secondaire if the data is unchanged.

What if I co-own with a French resident, do we both need a SIRET?

Only the owner declared as the LMNP fiscal manager needs the SIRET. The other co-owner is reported on the LMNP tax return as a co-investor. Choose the resident if available, it simplifies URSSAF and DGFiP correspondence.

For end-to-end registration handled by our team, see the Standard Package HostReady (France) which bundles SIRET filing, numéro d'enregistrement application, DPE coordination and the first CERFA 2042 NR for non-residents.