Press remarks by Executive Vice-President Ribera and Commissioner Jørgensen on the Affordable Housing Act

Executive Vice-President Ribera

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Thank you, Paula.

Today, we adopted the Affordable Housing Act. It is a European framework to give a legal umbrella to mayors from across the European Union that need certainty to tackle the housing problem.

As you know, housing is a top priority for this Commission. The   dimension of this crisis makes it urgent to act with urgency. Because social cohesion and fairness are at stake. This is also an extremely complicated crisis that has to be tackled through multiple instruments.

There's no silver bullet for housing. It's far too complex for that. We will need to hit many different targets, from many different angles if we are to solve this crisis.

And that's what we are doing.  Last December, we adopted the first Affordable Housing Plan, and we amended our State aid rules to make it easier for Member States to financially support housing.

Today, with the Affordable Housing Act, we provide legal architecture, enabling tools, not prescribing one size-fits-all solutions for those authorities that want to act to protect their citizens.

Because housing is more than a social problem. When people cannot afford to live where jobs and opportunities are, it limits labour mobility, educational opportunities, and, ultimately, Europe's competitiveness. It puts pressure on the cohesion of our societies and communities.

We have seen that many mayors have already taken action, and we have been listening to their concerns to figure out how we could help them. 

So, what are we doing with the Affordable Housing Act? For the first time in Europe, we are setting technical criteria to define what constitutes an area under housing stress.   This will give mayors the legal certainty and the tools to act with measures that may be justified, necessary, and proportionate. 

This includes measures addressing short-term rentals.  Because short-term rentals have a place in Europe's tourism economy, but their impact in some cities is devastating. 

In some of Europe's most popular tourist destinations and city centers, short-term rentals can account for up to twenty percent of homes. There is also solid evidence that they impact prices and rents of housing stock in that area.

We also include other measures targeted at second homes. These are restrictions on buying or using residential properties for purposes other than as a primary home, for instance, as short-term rentals or investment properties. 

We're not imposing obligations.  Whether to act, and which measures to use, remains entirely a matter for the competent authority under national law, needs and local contexts. 

 

Today, we have also adopted a Recommendation on housing affordability and supply in areas under housing stress: it's a guidance on how to increase housing supply, with a particular focus on housing below market prices.

It covers practical action on planning, renovation, repurposing existing buildings, new methods of construction, and investment.

Does this bring more protection to the mayors? Yes, absolutely. Because we're establishing common criteria for them all.

So, today's package is is an important step forward about both sides of the housing challenge:

- giving authorities greater legal clarity where housing stress requires difficult choices, and

- supporting them with practical guidance to increase the supply of affordable, sustainable and resilient homes.

We believe homes should be places to live in, places to enjoy, and places to feel safe. Where housing pressure becomes severe, Europe must help authorities respond in a way that is lawful, proportionate, and fair.

And that's exactly what we have done today.

I want to personally thank the guidance, courage, and experience that mayors have shown in this difficult battle. I believe in their commitment to bring affordable housing for their citizens and fight against a dangerous idea in our times: housing being only an asset to speculate.

Dan, the floor is yours.

 

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Commissioner Jørgensen

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51% of European citizens that live in cities consider the lack of affordable housing a serious and urgent problem.

More than half.

We are in a housing crisis. We do need to act.

And today, we are giving Member States, we're giving local governments, tools that they can use to introduce measures that can help solve some of the challenges that we have.

Short term rentals are a part of the problem in many cities

Short term rentals, as a fundamental idea, is a good one. And we are not at all arguing against short term rentals as such.

For some, it's a great opportunity to travel and visit countries that they've never visited before.

For others, it's a welcome source of income

But we do see areas and cities where there has been an increase in short term rentals, that has led to normal people being crowded out of their homes and that has led to an increase in prices, that are totally unacceptable.

And if we look at what has happened with the prices it is quite worrisome.

The numbers tell a clear story: over the past 10 years, rents have gone up by 59% in Berlin. 75% in Madrid, and 103% in Lisbon. 

This means that normal people with normal jobs – nurses, schoolteachers, police officers – are not able very often to live where they serve.

A home and a house should not primarily be a commodity on a market.

To have a home is a human right. It's something that provides safety, security, dignity in people's lives.

And if you don't have a home, obviously the consequences can be quite severe.

Young people are not able to leave their parents home when they want to. They are delayed in starting a family. They might not be able to get the education that they want and that, by the way, society needs them to take. Or the job that they want and which, by the way, society needs them to take, because they cannot find a home.

So we need to take this seriously and this is what we're doing today.

On the other hand, we also need to realise that probably one size does not fit all when it comes to solutions.

So what we are providing is a legal framework for local governments and Member States to act.

We are saying that they can define certain stressed housing areas. If they fulfil a common set of criteria in these areas, they can then introduce measures.

Measures regulating short term rentals or indeed vacant homes.

We also have cities where, sometimes 20-30% of the houses are vacant.

And I do understand that for some citizens that is considered a big challenge and probably also a big problem.

Because if you don't have enough homes, then is it legitimate to have too many vacant homes?

That is not up to us to decide from Brussels, but it is up to us to make it possible within the rules of the common market to introduce if you want to, as indeed some Member States already do, to reserve new housing for primary residents or restrict prolonged vacancies, or introduce primary residents conditions.

Again, this is not something that we prescribe, it's not something that we make mandatory, but it's something that, if in a stressed housing area you want to do this, then within the European rules you can and here is the legal framework to do it. 

So, overall: today we are delivering on the promise from President von der Leyen in the State of the Union last year – we proposed the first legal act on housing in this mandate

We show that we take it extremely seriously when more than half of our citizens in cities across Europe say that they are facing a real problem with a lack of affordable housing.

And we do it in a way where we respect subsidiarity and where we respect that of course that there will be different approaches from country to country, from city to city.

Thank you.