The EU's first housing plan avoids regulating prices and urges more construction

The housing crisis is one of the EU's main challenges. The average purchase price of homes has increased by 60% across the European bloc, while rental prices have risen by 20% in the last ten years. There are one million registered homeless Europeans – 400,000 of them children – and 20% of homes are vacant, according to data from the European Commission itself. For this reason, and also at the request of the leaders of the Member States and of a good number of the mayors of the main cities From across the continent, Brussels has unveiled its first-ever housing plan with great fanfare, particularly from the Social Democratic commissioners. However, the European Commission has avoided regulating prices, and in fact, the only legislative reform it is proposing is a European-level legal framework—still to be defined—that aims to make it easier for local and regional authorities to more efficiently control the proliferation of short-term rental apartments. However, this reform does not oblige cities and member states to apply any restrictions. Furthermore, it is worth remembering that the EU already approved regulations in 2023 requiring platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com to inform the authorities about short-term rentals and the identity of the tenants. On the contrary, Brussels recommends that member states reduce bureaucracy and expedite permits to boost housing construction and renovation. In total, the European Commission estimates that to end the housing shortage, an additional 650,000 homes would need to be built each year on top of the 1.6 million already under construction across the EU. Brussels estimates this requires an extra €150 billion in public and private investment. The European Commission also calls for a substantial increase in the stock of social and affordable housing, and for increased aid for students and young people to facilitate their access to housing. With the same objective of boosting construction and renovation, Brussels is demanding a reduction in housing taxes. "Taxes constitute a significant part of housing costs, also at the time of purchase," the Commission stated in a press release issued this Tuesday. Brussels ignores Sánchez

The fight against the housing crisis has become one of the main political battlegrounds for the social democratic family in the European Union, which is now more right-leaning than ever before. In exchange for maintaining their support for the European Commission led by the conservative Ursula von der Leyen, the European socialists demanded the appointment of a Housing Commissioner and were the strongest advocates for the presentation of this plan. Pedro Sánchez, the leader of the European Socialist Party in the largest member state, went a step further and, at the last European Council meeting, urged Brussels to present measures against the speculative buying and selling of homes. However, the European Commission not only avoids implementing any regulations in this area, but also fails to recommend them to national and local governments, nor does it set preventing housing speculation as a priority. However, the Spanish government welcomed the plan in a statement, viewing the European Commission's desire to promote affordable housing—which "should never be used for speculation"—as a measure against speculation.

However, the European Commission has also largely ignored the requests that Jaume Collboni—on behalf of a coalition of mayors from many of Europe's major cities—has repeatedly made to the EU capital. Brussels is not proposing that member states be allowed to exceed the deficit ceiling to address the housing crisis, as is permitted for arms purchases, nor is it proposing a mobilization of €300 billion across the EU to end the lack of access to housing, as the mayor of Barcelona requested. Currently, according to Brussels, only €43 billion of European funds have been mobilized. The European Commission is also not considering designating areas as particularly strained where administrations could apply special regulations, such as a cap on rental prices. On the contrary, Brussels has partially taken up the challenge from the coalition of European mayors to increase regulation on short-term rentals. Their intention is to give mayors who want to restrict short-term rentals the legal tools to limit them, even if the legislation of the relevant Member State does not allow it.