MEPS WHO SIT on the EU’s special housing committee have approved a much-touted plan to address the housing crisis, overcoming rancour among members to move the proposals forward.

The measures include addressing the surge in short-term lets in tourist hotspots, increasing funding to local councils so they can build housing and an ambition to simplify the planning process for certain types of homes.

The proposals were approved by the EU housing committee tonight in Strasbourg, a little over a year on from the committee being formed to begin trying to tackle housing as a bloc-wide issue for the first time.

They will now move to the European Parliament in the coming weeks for approval by all MEPs, with the proposals to join a separate housing plan launched by the EU’s first Housing Commissioner late last year.

‘Difficult’ negotiations

Dublin MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin – who is the rapporteur for the left-of-centre Socialists and Democrats group on the committee – told The Journal that negotiations had been “difficult” over recent months as members from different ends of the spectrum contested solutions.

“There were earlier proposals that were very much market-led with less state intervention, so we looked to introduce stronger tenants’ rights, tackling of homelessness and changing of state aid rules,” Ó Ríordáin said.

On whether he was happy with the outcome, the Labour MEP said he believes he and allies on the left “got enough” concessions from the conservative leadership on the committee.

There’s always the risk of not going far enough – but not going far enough is better than nothing. You are dealing with the cards you’ve been dealt.

In a statement announcing the adoption of the goals, rapporteur of the committee Borja Giménez Larraz said they were taking a “balanced approach” overall, as they sought to strengthen private property rights while creating a stronger framework for investment.

The Spanish conservative MEP added that the report places housing supply “at the core” of the EU’s response, recognising the need to enable the delivery of “around 10 million additional homes across Europe” as a way of bringing prices down.

Currently, around 1.6 million housing units are built in Europe each year. To meet its new targets, the European Commission projects that on average two million new homes are needed each year to get the bloc out of the housing crisis.

Among the items Ó Ríordáin pointed to as among the wins was a call in the report for a revision of state aid rules to help the likes of councils build social housing.

One of the big items being examined by the EU is the regulation of short-term lets. Between 2018 and 2024, these shorter rentals almost doubled across the EU.

This starved local housing markets in many towns and cities, prompting the concern that has led to the sector having a significant presence in the new proposals.

Details remain thin on how exactly measures such as those for short-term lets would be directed, with the likelihood being that the EU will try to coax member states into getting to grips with that aspect of the housing crisis in each of their backyards.

Previous discussions in Ireland to try and restrict holiday rentals used by the likes of AirBnB proved controversial, particularly in the likes of the south-west of Ireland where businesses have defended the booming sector as having gifted significant benefits to the local economy.