Long-term rental management · Mont-Blanc Valley
Long-term rental management at 7 % incl. VAT, and a year-round tenant in a valley that is short of them
Since 1 May 2026, an owner may let only one furnished tourist rental in Chamonix or Les Houches. A second property has to find another purpose. Year-round letting falls entirely outside that authorisation — and we manage it for 7 % incl. VAT of the rent collected.
7 % commission incl. VAT
Rent guarantee insurance +3 % incl. VAT
No commitment
Our offices: Les Houches · Sallanches · Megève · Owner portal
A property we manage in the Mont-Blanc valley
our commission on long-term management
Commission incl. VAT on the rent collected
Rent guarantee insurance, optional
Properties managed across the valley
Offices: Les Houches, Sallanches, Megève
Choosing between the two
Short-term or long-term: the question is no longer only financial
Until recently, choosing between the two meant comparing two incomes. That is no longer the case. In the Chamonix valley an owner is entitled to a single change-of-use authorisation, and the tax treatment of unclassified furnished tourist rentals has tightened sharply. For many owners the real question has become: which of my properties goes into short-term letting, and what happens to the other one?
Our commission on long-term management
Our commission on short-term property management
The gap in commission reflects the gap in work. In short-term letting we handle the listings, the daily pricing, the arrivals, the cleaning and the linen between every stay. In long-term letting, most of the work happens once — choosing the right tenant — and then in the consistency of the follow-up. Short-term letting generally brings in more gross; it also costs more, demands more of your time, and now runs into a quota.
Advertised rents — apartments, Q3 2025
| Chamonix-Mont-Blanc | €25.65/m² |
| Les Houches | €23.13/m² |
| Megève | €21.01/m² |
| Saint-Gervais-les-Bains | €18.15/m² |
| Combloux | €17.42/m² |
| Sallanches | €15.52/m² |
An example — 60 m² in Chamonix
| Median advertised rent, charges included | €25.65/m² |
| For a 60 m² apartment | €1,539/month |
| Our commission, 7 % incl. VAT | −€108 |
| Rent guarantee insurance, 3 % incl. VAT (optional) | −€46 |
| Before charges and tax | €1,385/month |
Source: Carte des loyers 2025 (Direction de l’habitat, de l’urbanisme et des paysages), indicators calculated for the third quarter of 2025. These are advertised rents including charges for unfurnished lettings, modelled from online listings — not rents actually signed. The 60 m² example is an arithmetical illustration, not a promise.
What we will not tell you. We will not tell you that long-term letting earns more. In most cases it earns less in gross terms — and more in peace of mind, predictability and costs avoided. It makes sense if your property is your second home in the valley, if you do not want to run a season, if your home does not lend itself to frequent turnover, or if you would rather have an income that arrives every month than one that depends on the snow. We run both calculations before advising you, and we do sometimes advise short-term letting.
A note on these figures. No local rent observatory covers the communes of the Mont-Blanc valley: the Haute-Savoie observatory tracks only Annecy, Annemasse, Thonon and Cluses. The Carte des loyers is therefore the only public source at commune level, and its values carry wide confidence intervals. We do not publish a rent figure for houses: no reliable commune-level value exists.
Still weighing up the two? Our property management page sets out the short-term service, its actual results and how it works.
Compare the two
What would your property earn in short-term letting?
The calculator below estimates income from short-term letting. Compare its result with the long-term rent for your commune, higher up this page: it is the most useful comparison you can make before calling us.
Not sure? We run both calculations.
Tell us where your property is, how big it is and how many it sleeps: we send you back a short-term estimate and a year-round rent range, with the costs of each option. Free, no commitment, answer within 24 working hours.
Why now
Six reasons long-term letting is back in the conversation
This is not a passing trend. Three recent pieces of legislation and a housing shortage have changed the equation for owners in the valley. Here are the six concrete elements, each one verifiable.
One furnished tourist rental per owner
The Communauté de communes de la vallée de Chamonix-Mont-Blanc limits change-of-use authorisations to one property per owner in Chamonix and Les Houches, and two in Servoz and Vallorcine. Applied to private individuals since 1 May 2025, and to all owners, companies included, since 1 May 2026. If you own two homes here, only one of them can be a furnished tourist rental.
Year-round letting falls outside the authorisation
A home let on a residential lease, where the tenant makes it their main residence, falls entirely outside the change-of-use regime. No quota, no authorisation to apply for, no renewal every three years. It is the simplest route for a second property.
The “mixed letting” experiment
From 1 May 2026 until 30 April 2028, in Chamonix, Les Houches and Servoz, a home let to a seasonal worker for at least four continuous months earns an additional change-of-use authorisation, allowing it to be let as a furnished tourist rental for the rest of the year. In other words, housing a seasonal worker lets you go beyond the quota. It is one extra authorisation — not a subsidy, and not a rent guarantee.
The Le Meur law tightened the tax treatment
For income received from 1 January 2025, an unclassified furnished tourist rental falls under a micro-BIC allowance of 30 % capped at €15,000 of receipts, against 50 % and €77,700 for a classified rental. The stated aim of the legislation was to encourage year-round letting. For a small unclassified rental, the trade-off has changed.
A genuinely empty home is taxed
All six communes in the area are classified as tourist and high-pressure zones, so the vacant housing tax has applied there automatically since 1 January 2024, from one year of vacancy, at 17 % and then 34 % of the cadastral rental value. One distinction matters here: a furnished home subject to the residence tax is a second home and is not affected. The tax targets homes that are genuinely empty.
Year-round demand is real
In Chamonix, 39.5 % of main residences are occupied by tenants — 1,723 households. And an Action Logement study cited by the Pays du Mont-Blanc local housing programme counts 1,726 seasonal workers from outside the area, of whom 1,331 are housed in rented accommodation “in a fragile situation”. Demand is not the problem here.
What we do
One point of contact, from choosing the tenant to paying out the rent
Long-term management comes down to two things: the tenant you take on, and the consistency of the follow-up afterwards. Our teams work from three offices in the valley — Les Houches, Sallanches and Megève.
Choosing tenants
Rigorous selection: reviewing applications, verifying income, assessing solvency and checking references. This is the decision that shapes the next three years.
Lease administration
Drafting the lease, the inventory of fixtures, renewals, the annual rent review, handling notice and keeping the mandatory documents in order. We choose the right lease for your property with you.
Collection and accounting
Collecting the rent, managing the deposit, chasing arrears and a detailed statement on your owner portal.
Property upkeep
Handling tenant requests, coordinating repairs, maintaining the property and meeting your obligations as a landlord. A network of tradespeople from the valley, billed at actual cost.
24/7 assistance
Plumbing, electrics, damage: a fast response to protect your home and the comfort of the occupant. Our teams are in the valley, not in Geneva.
Rent guarantee insurance
Optional, for an additional 3 % incl. VAT: your rent is paid to you even if the tenant defaults. We will tell you plainly when it is worth the cost and when it is not.
The market in figures
Six public figures, and what they say about year-round letting
Each one with its own geographic scope, its year and its source. We checked them one by one against the official sources before publishing them.
per m² per month in Chamonix — advertised rent including charges, unfurnished apartment
Commune of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc · Q3 2025
Carte des loyers — DHUP
per m² per month in Sallanches — the most affordable of the six communes
Commune of Sallanches · Q3 2025
Carte des loyers — DHUP
of main residences in Chamonix are occupied by tenants, that is 1,723 households
Commune of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc · 2023
INSEE — census
seasonal workers from outside the area, of whom 1,331 are housed in rented accommodation
Pays du Mont-Blanc
Action Logement study cited by the PLH 2022-2028
furnished tourist rental authorised per owner in Chamonix and Les Houches
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc valley · 1 May 2026
Council decision 2025.00104
and then 34 %: the vacant housing tax, from one year of vacancy
Tourist and high-pressure zone · since 1 January 2024
Article 232 of the French general tax code
What these figures say to an owner. The valley has tens of thousands of second homes and very little housing available year-round. The local authorities say so themselves: the Communauté de communes de la vallée de Chamonix observes that the situation of seasonal workers “is becoming more precarious year after year because of the cost and scarcity of housing available to rent during the season”. For an owner with a second property, this is a market in which you do not look for a tenant for long.
Sources and methodology. Data verified on 3 September 2026. Rents: Carte des loyers 2025 (DHUP), advertised-rent indicators including charges calculated for the third quarter of 2025, estimated at commune level. Population and housing: INSEE, 2023 census. Seasonal workers: Action Logement study cited by the 2022-2028 local housing programme of the Communauté de communes Pays du Mont-Blanc, whose perimeter includes neither Chamonix nor Les Houches; the programme does not date that study. Change of use: decision 2025.00104 of the Communauté de communes de la vallée de Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, adopted on 25 September 2025. Vacant housing tax: article 232 of the French general tax code, zoning from the decree of 22 December 2025.
Which lease for which tenant
Four possible leases, and the one that suits your property
Choosing the lease is not a formality: it sets how long you are committed for, the deposit you may ask for and the notice your tenant has to give. In a valley where part of the demand is seasonal, that choice changes a great deal. We make it with you.
| 3 yearsunfurnished lease — minimum term, private landlord | 1 yearfurnished lease — automatic renewal | 1 to 10 monthsmobility lease — no deposit | 9 monthsstudent lease — furnished |
1 · The unfurnished lease, three years
An unfurnished letting commits you for a minimum of three years when the landlord is a private individual, six years for a company, with automatic renewal. A shorter term of at least one year is possible if you need the property back for a specific family or professional reason, provided this is written into the lease. Deposit: one month of rent excluding charges. It is the most stable arrangement, and the one that calls for the least intervention.
2 · The furnished lease, one year
One year, automatic renewal, deposit of two months excluding charges. The tenant only has to give one month’s notice, which gives both parties flexibility but means more frequent turnover. The property must contain the list of furniture set by decree — we check this before it goes on the market, because an incompletely furnished home can be reclassified as an unfurnished letting.
3 · The mobility lease, one to ten months
Designed for people in vocational training, higher education, apprenticeships, internships, civic service, on a professional transfer or a temporary assignment. Free choice of term from one to ten months, non-renewable, and no deposit is permitted. It is the lease that fits a season best — provided the tenant genuinely falls into one of those situations, which we check case by case.
4 · The student lease, nine months
Nine months, furnished, reserved for students, deposit of two months. A real option in an area that hosts training courses, and one that frees the property up for the summer. The tenant’s notice is one month on a furnished lease and three months on an unfurnished one, apart from the reductions provided for by law.
The point not to miss. If your property is in Chamonix, Les Houches or Servoz, a lease of at least four continuous months with a seasonal worker earns you, until 30 April 2028, an additional change-of-use authorisation to let it as a furnished tourist rental for the rest of the year. It is the only scheme in the area that concretely rewards year-round letting. We put the application together with you.
They trust us
What our owners and tenants say
Six Google reviews, reproduced word for word.
Reviews published on our main Google listing, reproduced without correcting spelling or punctuation. Read the 281 reviews on Google
Frequently asked questions
Long-term management: what owners ask us
How much does your long-term rental management cost?
7 % incl. VAT of the rent collected, with no hidden fees. You can add rent guarantee insurance for a further 3 % incl. VAT. That is well below our short-term property management commission (19 % incl. VAT), because the work is not the same: no listing to reprice every day, no cleaning between stays, no linen to change every week. Technical work is billed at actual cost, with no mark-up.
I own two properties in the valley. What can I do with them?
Since 1 May 2026 the Chamonix valley grants only one change-of-use authorisation per owner — one property in Chamonix and Les Houches, two in Servoz and Vallorcine. In practice, only one of your two homes can become a furnished tourist rental. The second can be let year-round, which requires no authorisation at all, or kept for your own use. This is the most common situation among the owners calling us today.
What is “mixed letting”?
It is an experiment run by the Communauté de communes de la vallée de Chamonix, in force from 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2028 in Chamonix, Les Houches and Servoz. If you let a home to a seasonal worker for at least four continuous months, you obtain an additional change-of-use authorisation allowing you to let it as a furnished tourist rental for the rest of the year. It is the only local scheme that rewards year-round letting. One caveat: it is an authorisation, not financial assistance and not a rent guarantee.
How much rent can I expect?
The advertised rents published by the Carte des loyers for the third quarter of 2025 range from €15.52/m² per month in Sallanches to €25.65/m² in Chamonix, charges included, for an unfurnished apartment. These are rents that were asked for, not rents that were signed, and the confidence intervals are wide. For your particular property we start from its address, its size, its condition and the demand at the time. The estimate is free.
What happens if my tenant does not pay?
It starts well before any arrears: we verify income, solvency and references before accepting an application, and it is the part of the work on which we do not compromise. If arrears do arise, we handle the reminders and the follow-up. Rent guarantee insurance, optional at 3 % incl. VAT, then takes over and pays you the rent. We will tell you plainly whether it is justified on your property.
Can I take my property back whenever I want?
No, and that is the real trade-off of long-term letting. An unfurnished lease commits you for three years and you can only end it at term, with six months’ notice and for a reason provided by law: taking it back for yourself or a close relative, selling, or a legitimate and serious cause. A furnished lease commits you for one year with three months’ notice. The mobility lease, of one to ten months, simply ends on its own — it is the option to look at if you want your property back on a fixed date.
Owners in the valley
Let us talk about your property
We give you both figures — the year-round rent and the short-term income — and a clear picture of what the regulations allow you to do. Answer within 24 working hours, no commitment.
Come and meet us
Les Houches head office
Our head office and logistics base for the valley. Our Sallanches and Megève offices cover the Pays du Mont-Blanc. Open 7 days a week, 9am – 5pm.
