Dan Jørgensen
The first European response plan to the housing crisis will be announced in full in December and foresees tighter rules for short-term rentals and protections for tenants.
The European Union is preparing new rules to restrict short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com as part of its first affordable housing strategy.
Dan Jørgensen, the EU’s first Commissioner for Housing, said Brussels I couldn’t continue to ignore the problem. “If we, as policymakers, do not take this problem seriously and recognize that it is a social problem and needs action, then the anti-EU populists will win,” Jørgensen told The Guardian and other European media outlets.
The new housing plan, which is expected to be announced in full in December 2025, was initially scheduled for 2026, but was brought forward in response to what Jørgensen called a “social crisis”. The package will be a significant change for the EU, which has traditionally left housing policy to national governments. “One of the areas in which we need more European rules it’s short-term rental,” he said, describing the issue as a “huge problem” in many cities.
Platforms such as Airbnb or Booking have been accused of helping to increase rents and expel residents from urban centers, transforming historic neighborhoods into dormitories for tourists. Across the EU, house prices rose 48% and rents 22% between 2010 and 2023, according to Eurostat.
The EU housing plan will also address the “financialization” of housing, Jørgensen said, criticizing property speculation that treats homes as assets rather than necessities. The Commission is examining how Member States can require property developers to build affordable housing units and is exploring relaxing state aid rules to allow governments to offer tax incentives or subsidies for affordable housing projects.
The initiative comes after the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, created the housing portfolio in 2024 to secure the support of socialists for his second term. Rising housing costs and the cost of living were voters’ main concerns in the 2024 European elections, where far-right and populist parties made big gains.
The European Commission will also consider ways to strengthen tenants’ rights and possibly host the first EU Housing Summit, von der Leyen announced last month. Socialist MEPs are still trying to approve a further €300 billion in EU subsidies and loans to tackle the crisis, a proposal that is likely to face opposition from more fiscally conservative member states.
Drawing a parallel with the EU’s coordinated response to the pandemic, Jørgensen stated that Europe again needs to act collectively: “As with the Covid crisis, when we find ourselves in new situations, we also need redefine the role of the European Union”.
