Brussels’ upcoming plan to take on the EU’s housing crisis will include measures curbing real estate speculation, Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen announced Monday.
Jørgensen confirmed the EU's first-ever plan to take on the crisis — which is expected to be unveiled later this year — will include a revision of state aid rules, allowing national governments to use public funds to build homes for middle-class Europeans priced out of the market.
As public cash alone will be insufficient, the commissioner explained these funds will need to be combined with private investment. Stressing that such investments need to "balance steady returns with social responsibility," he said the Commission was working with the European Investment Bank and other financial institutions to ensure homes built through public-private schemes are genuinely affordable.
In addition to measures aimed at slashing byzantine EU and national rules delaying the construction of new homes, Jørgensen announced the upcoming plan will also target short-term rentals.
The conversion of housing stock into tourist flats is seen as a major factor in rising costs, with authorities moving to ban these properties altogether in places like Barcelona. The commissioner vowed to address the “complex” issue “firmly but fairly.”
Posted by John3262005
6 Comments
one would think that the way to handle speculation on an artificially scarce asset is to just not make it artificially scarce so it doesn’t appreciate massively
The last thing the EU needs to do is regulate housing
Americans who think California is the final boss of NIMBY-ism and bad housing and zoning policy have cannot even fathom the sheer scope of rent seeking and “protection of neighborhood character” in the EU and its member states.
I have seen convoluted Teutonic zoning plans. I have seen 1×1 m ad panels be struck down by county councils with the full might of the state. I have seen the mighty city of Berlin engage in a crusade against types of toilets and Swabian hamlets regulating what kind of roofs are permissible. I have seen single family houses with excellent train connection 20 minutes away from large cities and small plot gardens 300 m away from main train stations. Subsidies so rent-seeking and demand-subsidizing in their nature, they make generations of economists cry out in unison. And Lord protect anyone try to build a wind park. The full might of Germany’s most terrifying will rally under the banner of local democracy and crusade against any concept of cheap energy: pensioners.
With… with the banning of Blackrock in Germany everything will be in order.
You can thank the S&D group for this; it was one of the concessions VDL granted them to ensure their support in the no-confidence vote.
edit: I of course mean this negatively.
EU should not have a housing policy to begin with. Those are things that should exclusively stay at the national level.
This is pseudo-technocratic brainrot
Is it building more? Thus increasing supply and making housing an unattractive investment?