Source: European Parliament
The Commission shares the Honourable Member’s view that housing affordability has deteriorated over the last years. Most Member States are suffering critical housing shortages, and citizens in many Member States consider access to affordable housing a major priority.
The Commission President’s decision to appoint an EU Commissioner responsible for housing reflects the strong commitment of the Commission to contribute to solutions.
The Commission has established a Task Force for Housing to coordinate effectively the work strands across the Commission services, and support the Commissioner for Energy and Housing in putting forward the first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan.
This plan will inter alia reflect on the work of the European Parliament’s Special Committee and aims to address structural drivers of housing crisis and help unlock the public and private investment needed.
The Commission has started working with the European Investment Bank to establish a pan-European investment platform for affordable and sustainable housing, engaging also with international financial institutions, national promotional banks and institutions and other stakeholders.
In addition, the Commission plans to tackle systemic issues with short-term accommodation rentals and the inefficient use of the current housing stock. As a first step, the EU has adopted a regulation[1].
The Commission is also examining how state aid rules for housing could be revised to enable housing support measures for affordable housing and energy efficiency.
This assessment will take into account among others, the necessity to avoid undue distortions in the commercial housing market and a detrimental effect on social housing, which supports the more vulnerable.
- [1] Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on data collection and sharing relating to short-term accommodation rental services (OJ L, 2024/1028, 29.4.2024 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1028/oj/eng) will apply from 20 May 2026 and aims to increase transparency and obtain data from platforms on short-term accommodation rental services supporting national and local governments in taking evidence-based decisions.