The legislation is still being developed and has not been adopted. The Commission has said it intends to present the Affordable Housing Act during 2026, while documentation from the European Economic and Social Committee indicates that a Commission draft is expected in September.
The planned legislation forms part of the European Affordable Housing Plan, presented by the Commission in December 2025. The wider programme addresses housing supply, investment, planning and permitting, speculation and the impact of short-term rentals in areas where housing availability and affordability are under pressure.
According to the Commission, the Affordable Housing Act is intended to help public authorities identify areas of “housing stress” using publicly available data and, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity, enable them to take measures designed to protect housing affordability.
Short-term accommodation rentals are expected to be a central component of the legislation. The Commission has stated that the initiative will seek to address their impact on housing affordability while preserving the benefits that short-term accommodation can provide to tourism and local economies.
The issue is particularly relevant to heavily visited European destinations. According to recent reporting by the Financial Times, short-term rentals account for around 1.2% of total housing across the EU but can represent as much as 20% of housing stock in tourism-intensive locations including Sorrento in Italy, Dubrovnik in Croatia and Fuerteventura in Spain.
Several major European tourism cities have already introduced restrictions on short-term accommodation. Florence, Paris and Barcelona are among the destinations that have implemented measures including licensing requirements, limits on rental activity and other controls intended to manage the use of residential properties for tourist accommodation.
However, local and national measures have repeatedly faced legal challenges over their compatibility with EU rules governing the freedom to provide services. The forthcoming legislation is intended, among other objectives, to provide greater clarity over the measures authorities may apply in areas where short-term rental activity is considered to be contributing to housing pressure.
A 2020 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union established an important legal precedent. In a case concerning short-term rentals in Paris, the Court ruled that a shortage of affordable long-term rental housing can constitute an overriding reason in the public interest capable of justifying an authorisation system for short-term accommodation.
The Court nevertheless required such measures to comply with proportionality requirements and other conditions under EU law. The interpretation of what constitutes a proportionate restriction has subsequently remained an important consideration for cities introducing controls on short-term rentals.
The Affordable Housing Act follows a separate EU regulatory framework that has already entered into application. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on data collection and sharing relating to short-term accommodation rental services has applied since 20 May 2026.
The existing regulation does not establish EU-wide limits on the number of properties or nights that can be offered for short-term rental. Instead, it creates a common framework for registration, data collection and information sharing between hosts, online platforms and public authorities where Member States operate registration systems or require platform data.
Under the framework, hosts can be required to obtain unique registration numbers, while online platforms are required to display and verify those numbers and conduct checks aimed at identifying non-compliant listings. Authorities can also request the removal of listings that do not comply with registration requirements.
Platforms are required to provide monthly information on guest stays and nights booked to public authorities through national Single Digital Entry Points where the regulation applies.
According to the Commission, guests spent 951.6 million nights in short-term rental accommodation booked through online platforms across the EU during 2025. The sector now represents around one quarter of tourist accommodation offers in the European Union.
The Commission has linked the new housing initiative to wider changes in European housing costs. Between 2015 and 2025, average house prices across the EU increased by more than 60%, while rents rose by more than 20%.
As part of preparations for the Affordable Housing Act, the Commission conducted consultations with Member States, cities, regions, tourism destinations, property owners, tenants, short-term rental hosts, platforms, tourism organisations and other stakeholders during the first half of 2026.
A detailed expert consultation closed on 29 March, while the Commission’s call for evidence closed on 3 April. Workshops included representatives from all EU Member States, nearly 150 participants representing cities and regions and around 180 representatives from other stakeholder groups.
During the consultation process, cities and regions called for a framework of measures compatible with EU law and capable of responding to different local housing-market conditions. Participants also highlighted the need for clearer legal parameters governing short-term rentals and for measures to increase the supply of long-term and affordable housing.
Airbnb has argued that housing affordability problems are primarily linked to structural factors including insufficient new construction, vacant properties and regulatory barriers affecting housing supply. The platform has also maintained that restrictions on short-term rentals can have limited effects on housing prices while affecting tourism-related economic activity.
Representatives of the holiday-home sector have similarly pointed to vacant housing and wider supply constraints as factors contributing to Europe’s housing shortage.
The final scope of the Affordable Housing Act, including the specific regulatory tools that could become available to national and local authorities, remains under development. Any Commission legislative proposal would subsequently have to proceed through the EU legislative process before becoming law.