The European Commission continues to take action to tackle the housing crisis in the European continent. In addition to proposing a legal framework to protect public administrations that want to limit temporary tourist rentals and second homes, Brussels accompanies this regulation with a series of non-binding recommendations to member states when fighting this issue that affects much of the cities in the bloc and to increase supply in areas under residential pressure.
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This is a list of proposals included within the Affordable Housing law presented yesterday by the Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, and the Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jorgensen. Among these ideas, Brussels recommends that states fiscally incentivize the long-term residential use of empty flats, for example with taxes on these residences, facilitate the change of use of offices or promote the rental of rooms for young people and students.
“When the market fails, public authorities have the responsibility to act,” says Ribera
Among the main administrative measures, the Commission also advocates giving priority to the processing of permits for social and affordable housing, speeding up rehabilitation processes and even sets a figure, 60 days, which should be necessary to obtain permits for so-called “simple projects.” In addition, it advises simplifying judicial procedures by setting time limits for the review of decisions.
In this document, Brussels considers that the increase in land prices is one of the factors contributing to making housing more expensive. Therefore, one of the remedies it puts on the table is that authorities acquire buildings, public or private, create public land agencies or banks, and separate the ownership of the land and the building through long-term concessions.
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“When the market fails to provide something as fundamental as affordable housing, public authorities have the responsibility to act,” Ribera said when presenting the draft regulation. “With the Affordable Housing law, we are providing legal certainty to local authorities, allowing them to take measures and address one of the greatest problems of our time,” she said.
The draft regulation still needs to receive the approval of the European Parliament and member states, something complicated by the conservative majorities in both institutions. Yesterday, the PP flatly rejected the principle of restricting the purchase of residences or land not used as a main residence through MEP Borja Giménez Larraz, who leads a parliamentary report on the crisis. “Pure populism,” he assessed.
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