What if you took advantage of the return of sunny days to rent a garden—or to rent yours out, if you’re lucky enough to own one?
Renting a Garden, Why Not?
There’s a lot of talk about the rise of peer-to-peer rentals, which has literally exploded with the global success of the online platform Airbnb. But as the good weather returns, or almost, many French people don’t own a garden. The desire for outdoor space became particularly acute during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But if one can rent out one’s home, under certain conditions, to boost monthly income in these inflationary times and with the rising cost of living, why couldn’t, in the same vein, a garden be rented out to a private individual? This is already the case in grand estates and castles offered for weddings, though only the exteriors and gardens are actually accessible to guests. The setting, the backdrop for a life’s photos, that comes at a price!
Families or Urban Couples
Yet it’s now possible to rent out a garden, even if it isn’t Versailles-level in size. This is precisely what a new French online platform, jardins-prives.com, offers. Its goal: to simplify the rental and sharing of gardens between individuals in France, for everyone who lacks outdoor space, and for all tastes and budgets. An Airbnb for the garden, in a sense… A wedding, a birthday, a barbecue with friends, a family reunion, a cousin gathering… The good reasons to rent a garden are plentiful. But it can also be a day of rest (or remote work). Some gardens even offer a “tiny house” (tent, caravan…) for rent as well.
The demand comes from both urban couples who want to escape for a weekend and families who can’t find affordable rentals in a tourist region, explains Pascale Krief, co-founder. According to the site’s founders, launched in 2016 and now with 15,000 users and nearly 1,000 gardens to rent across France (including 338 in the Paris region), this kind of rental can represent a supplementary income ranging from €1,500 to €6,000 per year, with an average of about €3,000. Notably, the platform charges no service fees to owners.
