A good portion of them must have been doing it for a long time, last time we were in Paris (2005) there was no shortage of owned apartments for rent because the

A good portion of them must have been doing it for a long time, last time we were in Paris (2005) there was no shortage of owned apartments for rent because the usual occupants were somewhere else for the summer. I don't think people were as likely to be buying properties for the explicit purpose of short-term renting (i.e. never intending to actually live there) back then, but I have no actual facts to back that up :P