Tomorrow, Brussels hands every city in Europe a legal instruction manual for capping short-term rentals.
The European Commission presents its Affordable Housing Act on Wednesday 9 September. Reuters and Euronews have both seen the draft.
What it does: gives national and local authorities explicit EU legal cover to restrict short-term rentals in areas under housing stress. Until now there has been no such framework.
How an area qualifies: Price-to-income ratio and its movement over time, plus indicators showing the pressure is unlikely to ease. Reported trigger is house prices at 8 times local income, risen over the past decade, with no improvement expected within 3 years.
The line operators need to read twice: The draft says quantitative caps, or grandfathering rules that let those already operating continue under existing regulations, could be more appropriate than a ban on the acquisition or use of property.
Grandfathering. In a Commission draft. That is the whole story.
Also in scope: Renting your own primary residence is exempt The target is commercial operators running multiple properties Restrictions on second-home purchases apply only in areas of acute pressure
Why this is bigger than another city crackdown:
Since the CJEU's Cali Apartments judgment in September 2020, every city wanting to restrict short-term rentals has had to defend its proportionality in court, one case at a time. Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam all fought that fight separately. This draft replaces the fight with a template.
The pressure behind it, from Eurostat: EU house prices up 64.9% since 2015 EU rents up 21.8% over the same period Q1 2026 alone: prices up 5.1%, rents up 3.0%
The Commission's own Joint Research Centre puts the shortfall at more than 2 million new homes a year to 2035, needing an extra €150bn annually.
The platforms argue short-term rentals are 1.2% of EU housing stock. In Sorrento, Dubrovnik and Fuerteventura the reported figure is closer to 20%. The averages were never the argument.
The caution, and it is a real one: this is a leaked draft, not law. It goes to member states and Parliament next, and the thresholds can move before anything binds.
What to do this week:
Know your price-to-income ratio. If your city is anywhere near 8 times, assume a cap is coming and act like it.
Get every property fully licensed and registered now. Grandfathering rewards the compliant and only the compliant. An unregistered unit has nothing to grandfather.
If you are buying, the acquisition window in stressed markets is narrowing, not the operating window.
From Wednesday, the most valuable thing about a licence may be the date it was issued.
Are you treating your licences as a cost or as an asset?
