The European Commission is preparing to introduce a legal proposal next week designed to assist European cities in regulating short-term tourist rentals. This initiative, part of the broader Affordable Housing Act, aims to provide local authorities with clear conditions for restricting services like Airbnb, which have faced significant scrutiny in popular tourist destinations such as Barcelona and Florence. Residents in these areas have increasingly complained about being priced out of their own neighborhoods by the influx of visitors.
Local officials have long raised concerns that the proliferation of short-term lets contributes to rising house prices and leaves residents struggling to find affordable housing. While many cities have attempted to implement curbs, these measures have frequently triggered legal challenges from rental providers and tourism operators, leading to widespread legal uncertainty. The upcoming EU legislation seeks to clarify exactly when authorities can intervene without violating the bloc's single market rules.
According to a draft of the proposal, authorities in areas identified as being under "housing stress" would be permitted to restrict the provision of short-term rentals or even limit property purchases intended for such use. The document establishes specific parameters for defining these stressed areas, such as the gap between local income levels and property prices. The rules would not apply to landlords renting out their primary residences for short periods of time.
Data from Brussels highlights the urgency of the issue, noting that property prices across the 27-nation bloc have surged by 60 percent over the last decade, while rents have increased by 20 percent. While the EU attributes these trends primarily to insufficient housing supply, it acknowledges that short-term lets exacerbate the problem by further reducing supply and driving up prices. Rental providers, however, dispute this claim. An Airbnb spokesperson stated that the housing crisis requires structural solutions and argued that the implementation of the Act should focus on increasing the overall supply of homes.
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