We're talking about France, fix the law too much and heads will roll, or at least cars burn.
I'm not French but IMHO, Airbnb style short term renting for tourst purposes should come with hefty taxes because housing should always prioritize the locals who live, work, have families and pay taxes there, not wealthy foreigners on vacation.
Sucks for them I guess. Maybe they should have diversified and invested in stocks or bonds instead of going all-in in housing-for-rent "investment" and complaining it doesn't turn up to be a huge profit making scheme like they expected, and expect the government to cover their losses.
Someone's housing shouldn't be someone else's for-profit side-hustle gamble. It's why housing is such a mess in the first place.
You can't have housing be affordable AND provide hefty profit returns in private pockets at the same time. Those will always be in contradiction at odds with each other in capitalism.
Honestly, I expected better from the socialist French, that they would have solved affordable housing for the masses.
I agree, income from property should be heavily taxed, it's essentially private profit from the land value, and that value derives directly from it's location and the strength of the local economy, rather than any effort or contribution from the owner.
Anyways I don't have an opinion about this, just wanted to answer why would people protest - because it's not some faceless corporation but them directly you're taxing.
Owning 1 apartment is completely different than owing 5 apartments in the same city. You can live in 1 apartment but you can't live in 5 at the same time. You're profiting off the other 4 ,so you should pay tax for it.