Brussels, BELGIUM – Today, the European Commission presented its Affordable Housing Act, introducing a new framework for local authorities seeking to restrict short-term rentals in areas deemed to be facing housing pressure.
The proposal, however, lacks the enforcement mechanisms needed to ensure cities actually follow those rules, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) warns. With little provision for independent scrutiny or effective redress, disproportionate restrictions could still be imposed unchallenged and remain in place for years.
CCIA Europe recognises the Commission’s attempt to introduce a clear methodology for cities. Requiring authorities to show, with objective data, that short-term rentals contribute to a specific local problem before imposing restrictions is a sensible starting point. It marks a clear improvement over the restrict-first-ask-later approach taken by cities to date.
But these new rules are only as good as their enforcement. Under today’s proposal, almost nothing stands between a local authority’s own assessment and a restriction taking effect.
There is no independent verification, no automatic expiry when a review does not take place, and no EU-level mechanism to challenge disproportionate measures. Platforms and property owners are left with the status quo: lengthy and costly judicial proceedings.
More worryingly, the proposal deliberately removes short-term rental restrictions from the Services Directive’s scope, ruling out the Commission’s one existing tool to scrutinise the necessity and proportionality of restrictions on services in the EU.
Effective scrutiny matters all the more because the EU’s Short-Term Rental Data Regulation, designed to collect the data needed for proportionate measures at a hyperlocal level, only began to apply in May 2026. Europe is therefore moving towards new restrictions before it has comparable EU-wide data to show where, or whether, restrictions are justified.
CCIA Europe warns that unchecked restrictions will limit consumer choice and tourism, rather than making homes more affordable. The European Parliament and Member States should therefore now step in to fix the Affordable Housing Act by introducing clearly enforceable guardrails, including independent review and effective redress.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Europe’s Head of Policy and Deputy Head of Office, Alexandre Roure:
“Europe will not solve its housing crisis by giving cities an EU framework to restrict short-term rentals and then letting them police their own compliance. Without independent scrutiny or effective redress, this proposal will remain a paper tiger, leaving disproportionate restrictions in place and undermining the legal certainty the Affordable Housing Act is meant to provide.”
“The European Commission has spent two years warning that fragmentation in Europe’s services market carries costs equivalent to a 110% tariff. Yet it is excluding short-term rental restrictions from the Services Directive, including its notification obligation, the one tool available to catch harmful restrictions before they take effect.”
