Europe’s Affordable Housing Act must look beyond short-term rentals

The appointment of a dedicated Commissioner for Energy and Housing, the launch of the European Affordable Housing Plan, and growing political attention to Europe’s housing crisis raised expectations of a comprehensive policy response. The next legislative step was therefore expected to address one of the Union’s most pressing social challenges. The proposed Affordable Housing Act is an important step in that direction. Yet its binding Regulation focuses primarily on one specific aspect of the problem: restrictions on non-primary housing use, particularly short-term rentals, in areas under housing stress. While addressing short-term rentals is a welcome intention, it cannot on its own provide a comprehensive response to Europe’s housing crisis. The pressure that holiday homes and short-term rental platforms are putting on housing markets, particularly in popular tourist destinations, has been rising, and giving local authorities better tools to respond is important. However, questions have already been raised about whether the proposed framework will give cities sufficient room to act effectively. For instance, the proposed approach to defining “areas under housing stress” risks being too narrow. Housing stress cannot be understood through property prices, income levels and short-term projections alone. Energy poverty, combined housing and energy costs, overcrowding, vacancy rates and the condition of existing housing stock all influence whether households can access decent and affordable homes. A broader understanding of housing stress would better reflect the reality facing communities across Europe. Yet the broader picture reveals an important limitation: many of the structural drivers of housing unaffordability remain outside the scope of the binding Regulation. In particular, it gives limited attention to one of Europe’s most significant untapped housing resources: the buildings and homes that already exist. Renovation, adaptive re-use and the mobilisation of vacant and underused buildings feature in the European Affordable Housing Plan and the Recommendation accompanying the Act. But if Europe is serious about increasing affordable housing stock, these approaches should play a stronger role in the framework itself. Across the EU, more than 47 million dwellings are estimated to be unoccupied. This does not mean that every empty home can or should be brought back into use. But it illustrates the scale of an existing resource that cannot be ignored. Bringing even a fraction of suitable vacant and underused stock back into use could create much-needed homes while reducing pressure for new construction and making better use of existing buildings and infrastructure. Europe cannot reuse buildings it cannot see. Yet many public authorities still lack reliable information about which homes and buildings are vacant, why they are empty, what condition they are in and what potential they have for affordable housing. The EU does not need to start from scratch. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and National Building Renovation Plans already provide a natural policy framework for understanding and planning the future of Europe’s building stock. Vacancy identification, mapping and monitoring should become part of the binding architecture of the Affordable Housing Act, ensuring that public authorities are, at a minimum, equipped to identify vacant and underused homes and assess their potential for conversion into decent and affordable homes. Identifying vacant buildings, however, is only the first step. The accompanying Recommendation could go further by providing guidance on how to mobilise vacant properties, support the conversion of different building types and develop viable financing models. EU financing should also better support the mobilisation and re-use of existing buildings. The next EU budget should continue to support affordable housing investment and recognise that renovation and re-use projects simultaneously deliver social, climate and energy benefits. Ultimately, however, success cannot be measured only in buildings renovated or investment mobilised. It must be measured in whether people can access decent homes they can afford. According to the Commission's EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, one in five Europeans – nearly 93 million people – are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, while approximately 1 million people experience homelessness. Affordable housing policy must therefore place particular emphasis on those least well served by the housing market, including lower-income households and people experiencing or at risk of housing exclusion. The Affordable Housing Act is an important step forward. But as it moves through the legislative process, there is still an opportunity to broaden its ambition. A stronger focus on re-use, better implementation support, dedicated financing and a more people-centred approach would help turn a useful regulatory framework into a more comprehensive response to Europe's housing affordability challenge. This article is supported by Habitat for Humanity International, Climate Action Network (CAN), European Environmental Bureau and World Green Building Council. This stakeholder article is paid for by a third party. All opinions in this article reflect the views of the author and not of EUobserver.