EU will help cities curb Airbnb-style short-term lets

Ursula von der Leyen to announce measure as Brussels aims to tackle the problem of housing affordability and supply

A protester with an anti-Airbnb placard during a demonstration against overtourism and house prices in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on July 26. Picture: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

The European Union is preparing measures that will help cities clamp down on short-term rental operators such as Airbnb, as Brussels aims to tackle the problem of housing affordability and supply.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, will propose a common methodology that can be used across the bloc to identify areas under housing stress and a process to determine which measures could be considered proportionate, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is effectively an effort to give local authorities the legal shield to withstand court challenges, the people said.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce the measure, the central plank of the commission’s Affordable Housing Act, ahead of her annual address to the European Parliament in September.

Housing crisis

The move marks an effort by the EU to respond to the housing crisis — a key area of concern for European citizens but one where Brussels holds little power. Decisions about housing policy are traditionally reserved for national or local policymakers.

The proposal attempts to strengthen the hand of local authorities, which have faced numerous court cases over efforts to curb tourist rentals. In those legal challenges, property owners and short-term rental operators have cited EU internal market rules.

However, a judgment in a landmark 2020 case brought by property owners in Paris against short-term rental measures found that single market rules could be overruled if it was proved to be sufficiently in the public interest, a ruling that has informed the upcoming proposal.

A commission official told Bloomberg News that the Affordable Housing Act will provide a common operational framework to help authorities apply existing EU law more consistently as well as ensure that housing-related restrictions measures are deemed proportional to the scale of the problem.

Airbnb response

An Airbnb Inc. spokesperson said that Europe’s housing crisis “needs structural solutions and we support an evidence-based, targeted approach.” “We know that hosts, guests and communities want to preserve the benefits that short-term rentals provide to Europe, so we expect any EU proposal to be proportionate,” the spokesperson said. 

“On the ground experience in cities such as Barcelona and Amsterdam show that blanket short-term rental restrictions do not improve the local housing situation.”

• Bloomberg