By Alexandra Voudouri
“We are not fundamentally opposed to short-term rentals,” EU Energy and Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen made clear. “They can be useful for travel and tourism and provide households with extra income.” The problem, he told a small group of European newspapers, including Kathimerini, begins when they help push up prices in some cities and ultimately “displace people” from the neighborhoods where they live.
Cities that have tried to restrict short-term rentals have faced legal challenges.
That is the balance the European Commission is seeking with its new affordable housing proposal, presented yesterday. It could open the way for restrictions not only on Airbnb-style rentals but, under strict conditions, on the use or purchase of second homes. It could also allow measures targeting properties that have stood empty for a long time.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the initiative exactly a year ago in her State of the Union address, promising specific legislation on short-term rentals as part of Europe’s response to the housing crisis. Months of consultations followed with member states, regions, and municipalities, as well as landlords, tenants, rental platforms, and the tourism industry.
According to Jørgensen, one of the main requests from local authorities was greater legal certainty. Cities that have tried to curb short-term rentals have faced court challenges and, until now, have had to defend their measures under broader EU law.
“Mayors asked for legal clarity,” the commissioner said. When their measures are challenged in court, they want to be able to point to a clear European framework.
The proposed regulation aims to provide that certainty by setting out when restrictions intended to make housing more affordable can be justified under EU rules.
For an area to be classified as under housing “pressure,” the price of a representative home must, as a starting point, equal at least eight years of disposable income per person. Authorities would also look at how prices are changing and whether supply, demand, and population trends suggest the situation will improve over the next three years. Restrictions could apply to a particular municipal district, or even part of one, if that is where the problem lies.
In the case of short-term rentals, there would also need to be evidence that they have had a serious negative effect on the availability or affordability of housing for at least three years.
So what could a city do? Jørgensen cited limits on the number of days a property can be rented out short-term, caps on the number of short-term rentals, or rules governing the conversion of homes into accommodation used solely for that purpose. The choice, he stressed, would remain with local authorities, and any measure would have to be proportionate and justified.
Asked by Kathimerini about Greece, and Athens in particular, where empty homes are a significant issue, Jørgensen stressed that the discussion goes beyond Airbnb.
Vacant homes, he said, make up a “much, much larger” share of the housing stock than short-term rentals. The new framework could cover measures aimed at homes left empty for long periods, as well as conditions encouraging properties to be used as primary residences.
Asked whether a tax on vacant properties might be among the possible tools, the commissioner left the door open. He was quick to add, however, that this was only a potential example and that any such measure would have to comply with national and EU law.
The new regulation “will not solve the housing crisis on its own,” the Danish commissioner cautioned. But in areas facing a clear problem, such measures could ease the pressure, and he said, “We hope they bring prices down in a meaningful way.”
