The European Commission’s proposed Affordable Housing Act risks imposing new restrictions on homeowners without addressing the fundamental causes of Europe’s housing shortage, ECR Housing Coordinator Antonella Sberna warned on Wednesday.

Speaking during an exchange with Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen in the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Housing Crisis, Sberna criticised plans that could allow restrictions on short-term rentals, second homes and vacant properties in areas designated as being under housing pressure.

Antonella Sberna, ECR Coordinator in the European Parliament’s Housing Committee, said:

“Families who rent out their homes are not property speculators. People who have bought a home through their own work should not be treated as if they were responsible for Europe’s housing crisis simply because they rent it out for a few weeks a year. Not a single extra home will be created by restricting them.

“The Commission says that Brussels will not decide whether to impose restrictions, but it will decide who is allowed to impose them. That risks leaving Europe with thousands of different local rules, while doing nothing to tackle the real problem: the lack of housing supply.

“The housing crisis is real, but this response is ideological and based on bans. The risk is that this will further reduce the supply of properties, discourage investment and make homes even less affordable.

“Europe needs more homes, faster planning and construction procedures and better access to finance. We will not support an approach that turns the housing crisis into an excuse for unnecessary restrictions on property rights.”