What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

13. Urges efforts to improve the availability of building land in a sustainable manner, particularly in densely populated areas; emphasises that responsibility for decisions on publicly owned land and planning processes must remain with national and municipal authorities; urges competent public authorities to mobilise publicly owned land, review land zoning regulations and reclassify infrastructure-ready land for immediate development, to fast-track the delivery of affordable housing and cooperative, social and non-profit models; highlights that any land-use strategy must balance housing needs with high-quality construction standards; emphasises that housing developments must always be integrated into broader development strategies in urban areas, including the development of public infrastructure, to ensure social cohesion and prevent socio-economic segregation and market-distorting practices; calls on the Member States and local and regional authorities to adopt integrated approaches that ensure consistency between construction projects and environmental and social objectives; calls on the Member States to integrate environmental risk assessments into urban planning, ensuring that certain areas vulnerable to climate-related disasters are prioritised for protective measures and resilient infrastructure;

14. Highlights that solutions already exist to build new housing without new consumption of natural areas, while, at the same time, improving building quality and increasing housing supply and diversity; underlines that these solutions range from gentle, horizontal and vertical density housing, co-designed with local residents, to urban renewal, including the development of lightweight housing;

15. Underlines that habitable brownfields provide an additional reservoir of urban land for possible development; calls on the Member States and local and regional authorities to map brownfields on their territory that could be transformed into housing and to introduce ‘brownfield passports’ defining conditions under which brownfield areas would be automatically transformed in urban plans into areas for housing development; calls on the Commission and the Member States to actively promote the rehabilitation of abandoned or underused sites within existing urban fabrics, while ensuring that such regeneration projects contribute to affordability, sustainability and social inclusion;

16. Calls on the competent public authorities to provide the responsible institutions with adequate resources to ensure effective and timely handling of applications in order to ensure permitting processes are made faster and simpler, including through measures such as introducing the principle of positive administrative silence for the issuance of building permits for new construction and renovation works, except in cases involving safety of persons, environmental standards and protection measures or requirements for the preservation of cultural, historical, and archaeological or architectural heritage, which must be safeguarded; recalls the importance of participative planning processes and the social function of housing; calls on the Commission to urge the Member States to set out a goal to achieve housing permits within a deadline of 60 days to deliver decent, sustainable and affordable housing; calls on the Member States to promote the delivery of housing through priority action allowing shorter procedures to be activated at national level and to introduce fast-track approval procedures for housing projects deemed critical for addressing urgent shortages;

17. Calls on the Commission to explore how to support the Member States in their efforts to manage urban planning and licencing procedures effectively, giving guidance, providing technical assistance and adequate resources for the strengthening of technical and administrative capacity of local authorities under the Digital Europe Programme and the European Regional Development Fund, or upgrading online guidance tools for the Member States; further advocates advancing the digitalisation of permitting processes through interoperable national platforms enabling electronic submission, tracking, and the approval of applications for building, repurposing and renovation; further calls for the establishment of one-stop-shops at national level, providing advisory support to reduce administrative delays in line with the Commission’s Smart Finance for Smart Buildings initiative and the Renovation Wave; calls on the Commission to issue a study evaluating the causes of the excessive time required to obtain permits and undergo licencing procedures, including a collection of best practice, with a view to improving efficiency; stresses that permitting processes should ensure transparency and facilitate data sharing among local authorities, developers, and citizens, while complying with EU data protection standards; stresses the need for timely, well-resourced and thorough judicial procedures and rulings related to permitting, construction, environmental requests and ownership, in order to avoid lengthy legal disputes, ensuring that processes are both swift and robust;

18. Stresses the need for renovation and repurposing activities to address fragmented housing policies and lengthy permitting procedures, which can hinder the development of existing building stock; calls on the Member States to provide further incentives to renovate derelict housing and highlights the fact that the process of applying should remain straightforward; calls for renovated housing to be made available to those on housing waiting lists or first-time buyers, recognising their needs; calls on the Member States to adopt a new focus and adequately fund the renovation of properties for housing in areas traditionally used for purposes other than residential, so that the property ‘above the shop’ on subsequent floors is fully utilised to meet urgent local housing needs in these communities;

19. Believes that the EU should maintain a level playing field and ensure the efficient use of EU resources, which should be directed towards ensuring decent, sustainable and affordable housing for all; calls on the Commission and the Member States to fully integrate the Commission’s Renovation Wave strategy into housing policies, including support schemes for private housing upgrades, ensuring that building renovation is not only focused on energy efficiency and decarbonisation, but also on social fairness and the expansion of affordable housing supply, improving quality of life, preventing disproportionate rent hikes during renovations and reducing long-term housing costs; stresses the importance of setting specific renovation earmarks within the forthcoming European Affordable Housing Plan and of contributing to improving the average energy performance levels of the residential housing sector and prioritising the worst performing buildings; calls on Member States facing high concentrations of low-efficiency, standardised multistorey buildings to develop mechanisms that enable the necessary renovation rates to meet EU targets; supports incentives for the renovation of dwellings in densely populated areas and advocates solutions that positively incentivise owners to put houses back on the market to make them available for long-term renting, particularly in pressured urban areas; underlines that when designing housing policies, competent authorities should be able to carry out a single and thorough environmental assessment, avoiding unnecessary duplications, and complete the necessary administrative and procedural steps for a given geographic area prior to the development of residential projects;

20. Calls on public authorities to increase efforts to combat energy poverty, including by accelerating and simplifying procedures for energy-efficient renovation permits and licences; calls on the Member States to support energy-poor households to combat energy poverty; stresses the importance of the social climate plans in supporting renovation to help tackle high energy prices; calls on the Commission to monitor closely the progress made so far in preventing energy poverty;

21. Recalls that the aim of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is to reduce energy consumption for households; acknowledges that the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive imposes building requirements that could affect construction costs; notes the importance of environmental standards, such as the energy performance certificate, and calls for measures to ensure that these standards do not have a negative impact on both rental and property markets; expresses concern about the calculation methods and inconsistencies in the energy labelling of residential buildings, which should accurately reflect the actual energy performance of properties; warns about the possible consequences of such labelling; acknowledges that the practical implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive affects many construction companies and private owners; stresses the need to ensure that regulations do not lead to higher costs for both tenants and property buyers; calls for energy renovation projects to become more accessible through technical assistance and advisory services; calls on the Member States to facilitate participation in energy communities for social housing residents, supporting citizen-led renovation, while respecting national priorities and available resources;

23. Underlines that tax policy is an exclusive competence of the Member States; calls for a healthy tax mix in the Member States, strengthening efforts to remove tax obstacles for new entrants to the housing market, such as high registration taxes in certain countries, while at the same time promoting tax conditions that make long-term rentals more affordable, stable and secure; calls on the Member States to review tax regimes with the aim of increasing mobility and ensuring a more efficient use of housing; calls on the Member States to ensure that any tax and financial incentives to support housing contribute to a decent, sustainable and affordable housing market, avoiding price inflation and market-distorting practices that would worsen access to housing;

Raw materials and products for construction and renovation

24. Requests that the Commission issue an analysis of the different causes affecting the price and supply of raw materials and products for construction and renovation, including legislation, with a view to improving access to them and ensuring that the cost of renewal of previous building design features does not escalate, in accordance with the EU’s competences and the subsidiarity principle; regrets the lack of a unified single market for raw materials and products for construction and renovation; calls on the Commission to improve the scale-up of innovative and sustainable products and their accessibility in all Member States; calls for particular scrutiny of competition in the construction materials sector to ensure the competitiveness of the sector; believes that innovative solutions are needed to achieve affordable housing and to ensure a future-proof building stock, one solution being prefabrication or off-site construction for renovation, rather than on-site construction, which can substantially shorten construction times and help address supply gaps; underlines that industrial prefabrication can decrease construction time by 20-50 % and therefore reduce the associated disruption, as well as create significant energy and cost savings; is convinced of the importance of the circularity of materials and the resilience of the building sector, including through design that facilitates re-use and the promotion of local sourcing of building materials; requests that the Commission study the impact of import tariffs on the security of supply and prices of essential building materials needed for the renovation and construction sector, and that it explore new markets for such materials, including through the promotion of strategic agreements; calls for the strengthening of the single market for raw materials and products essential to the housing sector; in this vein, calls for the swift implementation of the Construction Products Regulation and for EU-wide certification routes to support sustainable construction and competitiveness;

25. Highlights the importance for the EU of enhancing its industrial sovereignty in the construction and renovation sectors and of coming up with measures for identifying and addressing gaps in the construction production chain; calls on the Member States to encourage the use of construction materials produced in the European Union, thereby supporting local job creation and enhancing the EU’s competitiveness; calls on public authorities to incentivise the technologies produced in Europe by applying the principle of European preference in public procurement; calls on the Commission to include minimum origin clauses for EU co-financed projects in the sustainable construction sector for ‘Made in EU’ components, and to launch support programmes for industrial conversion, research and investment within the European value chain; underlines the responsibility of authorities and industry to ensure high standards in construction, protection against defective building materials and accountability; stresses the need for appropriate EU-level safeguards to protect consumers and workers; stresses the importance of improving the sustainability and durability of European buildings and incentivising sustainable and durable refurbishment, while taking due account of the situations and constraints faced by households living in housing in need of refurbishment;

Productivity and innovation

26. Emphasises that regulatory frameworks should support innovation; encourages the competent public authorities to invest in productivity and innovation within the housing sector to increase capacity and reduce construction costs while improving the quality of housing stock, in terms of energy performance, energy efficiency, indoor air quality and ventilation, acoustic and thermal insulation, structural solidity, and accessibility, and to foster productivity and efficiency in the construction process itself, through faster, more cost effective and less labour-intensive methods, including the industrialisation, prefabrication and digitalisation of building techniques, where appropriate, while ensuring that traditional and hybrid construction methods continue to be supported, particularly in renovation contexts;

27. Calls for new dwellings to meet reasonable quality and habitability standards on insulation, energy-efficiency, indoor air quality and fire safety; calls for better coordination at EU level to increase fire safety in the Member States; calls on the competent public authorities to ensure that innovation in the housing sector supports local enterprises and traditional crafts, and does not lead to increased housing costs or the displacement of residents; calls for EU and national funds to strengthen support for innovation and research in the construction sector, such as projects led by European microenterprises and SMEs focused on research into new materials and construction methods, and to link innovation support to affordability; calls for European financial instruments to help SMEs scale up module and off-site housing delivery; calls for the development and deployment of smart home solutions and technologies; calls for the standardisation of Building Information Modelling; calls for the European Construction Sector Observatory to be strengthened; calls for innovation to go hand in hand with labour standards, safe working conditions and fair and stable contracts to make the construction sector more attractive; calls on the Commission to introduce a ‘Housing Valleys’ initiative, creating collaborative hubs for housing solutions based on the model of Innovation Valleys;

Granting legal certainty and protection to property owners and tenants

28. Stresses that housing policy must strike a fair balance between protecting owners’ rights and safeguarding tenants; recalls that EU citizens have the right to own, use, dispose of and inherit lawfully acquired possessions; strongly condemns the phenomenon of illegal occupation of private and public properties across Europe, known as squatting, which infringes on the fundamental right to private property; calls on the Member States to protect this fundamental right and adopt stricter measures to safeguard owners, ensuring swift and effective legal mechanisms for the recovery of property, including timely court orders for evictions, strengthening protection for victims of such acts, restoring lawful possessions and upholding the rule of law; underlines that the illegal occupation of housing units can generate insecurity, urban decay and social tension and undermine social cohesion; considers that owners being lawfully able to regain control of their dwellings is not only a matter of fairness and justice, but is also vital for maintaining investor confidence and rental supply; calls for coordinated policies at EU level to address and curb housing occupation, guaranteeing the right to property and the legal certainty of owners as important elements for ensuring, economic stability and security, in particular protecting small owners who depend on rental income as a means of earning a living, such as pensioners; calls for better cooperation, data collection and information-sharing between the Member States in this regard; and calls for better use of Europol tools where organised crime is suspected to be involved in squatting, including by exploring the added value and possible establishment of an online platform;

29. Encourages property owners to offer long-term and stable rental contracts, in order to enhance security of tenure and provide greater predictability for tenants; encourages the Member States to increase transparency in the private rental sector, based on the advertised prices, with the aim of improving housing conditions for tenants, and to strengthen national legislation in this regard; calls on the Member States to strengthen the protection of tenants’ rights, including by encouraging online rental platforms to provide information on average rent levels in the area, in order to ensure fair conditions and prevent disproportionate rent increases; calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen their commitment to ensuring equality and non-discrimination in the housing sector; calls for coordinated responses from social services to resolve tenant-owner conflicts and prevent further vulnerability of the parties involved, including small owners and vulnerable tenants in these circumstances; encourages the Member States to offer legal dispute settlement mechanisms for resolving housing-related disputes, for example, in cases of prolonged or abusive non-compliance with rental contracts that deprive owners of the legitimate use of their homes, as well as landlords who fail to comply with tenants obligations; calls on public authorities to protect families, in particular those with children, for example, by facilitating access to temporary shelter to address short-term vulnerability, with the protection of vulnerable families resting with competent authorities; underlines that local authorities need to identify and address cases of non-compliance with property, management and safety requirements, contributing to higher standards in the private rental market; condemns abusive housing practices that subject tenants in vulnerable situations to inadequate, unsafe or unsanitary conditions; supports the role of tenants’ unions and housing civil society actors as stakeholders in housing policy;

Tackling specific labour needs: guaranteeing quality jobs, developing talent and investing in skills

30. Is concerned about the labour gap and the lack of competitiveness in the construction and renovation sectors, and the shortage of skilled workers; calls for the European Affordable Housing Plan to be connected to the EU Quality Jobs Roadmap; underlines that the housing crisis cannot be solved without a fully trained and mobile construction workforce; stresses the importance of improving the working conditions of construction workers in order to address labour shortages and attract a skilled workforce; underlines, therefore, the need to guarantee fair wages, stable employment, safe working conditions, improved contracts, and health and safety standards; stresses that workers’ rights should be respected and enforced, and encourages effective monitoring, including the use of digital tools and company registers to detect fraud; calls for national measures to prevent accidents at construction sites; calls for strengthening the implementation of the EU occupational safety and health acquis; calls for the Member States to improve collective bargaining for workers in the construction and renovation sectors;

31. Highlights that under the upcoming European Strategy for Housing Construction, it is of the utmost importance to better tackle skills shortages to ensure the availability of necessary, skilled workers in order to improve the construction sector’s efficiency; encourages the Member States, public authorities and construction companies to invest more in vocational education and training (VET) and apprenticeships linked to the construction sector, as well as lifelong learning to upskill and reskill workers in these sectors in close cooperation with social partners, including skills for modular home construction, energy-efficient construction and renovation, new sustainable construction materials, and digital solutions; highlights the need to expand VET in the construction sector and to improve access to skills training in regions with low construction output; calls for vocational and apprenticeship programmes focused on modern methods of construction; stresses the need to fast track construction apprenticeships through modular, dual delivery training; highlights the need to train workers of the construction industry on net-zero technologies and to deploy related skills across the production chain and all skills levels in order to ensure that low-skilled workers can also benefit from training on new technologies; calls on the Member States to actively promote and deploy the content produced by the net-zero skills academies; calls on the Member States to make provisions for voluntary, appropriate, industry-regulated construction site training for students; calls for EU funds, such as the ESF+, to be mobilised to back skills development in the construction and renovation sectors;

32. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to boost labour mobility in the construction sector as one of the ways to alleviate skills shortages; urges the Member States and the Commission to effectively use existing tools for matching skills in the construction sector, in line with the Construction Industry Skill Card within the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), in order to help regions with severe workforce shortages and promote cross-border opportunities for skilled workers; stresses the need to ensure protections for mobile workers, including equal rights, decent working conditions, and access to training in order to ensure fair mobility; calls on the Commission to facilitate intra-EU mobility with minimal administrative burden, through initiatives for strengthening the mutual recognition of professional qualifications in the sector including, where necessary, for skilled workers from third countries; highlights the need for recognition and validation of professional skills and qualifications across the EU, as part of the European Strategy for Housing Construction; calls on the Commission to revise the Professional Qualifications Directive) to improve the mutual recognition of qualifications in the sector; welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a skills portability initiative to enhance the portability of skills and qualifications across the EU, independently of where they were acquired, as part of the Union of Skills; further welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a single digital declaration portal to reduce the administrative burden for the posting of workers and calls for its swift negotiation and implementation; calls for national labour legislation to support efforts to address long-term labour shortages;

33. Encourages the Commission and the Member States to ensure that legal labour migrants and seasonal workers whose accommodation is provided through their employer have access to decent, sustainable and affordable housing; stresses that no worker should be forced to live in overcrowded or poor conditions; calls for strengthened monitoring in this regard; calls on the Commission and the Member States to analyse the social and territorial effects of concentrated housing for labour migrants and seasonal workers; stresses the need to assess whether such spatial segregation undermines social cohesion and the integration of communities; calls on the Member States to collect data at regional and local level on the location and conditions of employer-provided accommodation; calls for a review of the European Labour Authority for more effective cross-border enforcement;

Small and medium-sized enterprises

34. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to strongly support micro-enterprises, SMEs and the self-employed in the construction and housing sectors, including through the provision of the necessary, accessible financing instruments and by ensuring timely payment for public contracts, while removing administrative burdens related to payments due; stresses the importance of improving regulatory frameworks that hinder the competitiveness and employability of micro-enterprises, SMEs and the self-employed, and of addressing the lack of EU-harmonised, performance-based standards and the prevalence of lengthy standardisation timelines, which prevent the uptake of innovative construction materials, in order to attract and foster talent and allow easier market access; recognises the contribution of the self-employed as a crucial labour force in these sectors, and calls for special protection to ensure stability, fair treatment and social protection for them; invites the Commission and the EIB Group to simplify access to EU funding schemes for micro-enterprises and artisans, paying particular attention to rural and depopulated areas, as a way to preserve local skills and employment; highlights that supporting micro-enterprises and the self-employed is not only an economic priority but also a cultural and social one, as it preserves local traditions and strengthens community self-sufficiency; highlights the need to support SMEs, including those that are housing cooperatives and social enterprises, as a broader strategy to engage in the long-term provision of decent, affordable and sustainable housing;

35. Recalls the crucial role of public procurement in the construction sector, which represents a substantial share of the sector’s activity; points out that the complexity of public procurement has increased over time making it more difficult for municipalities to contract public construction; calls on the Commission to materially simplify EU procurement legislation; calls on public authorities to effectively regulate subcontracting, ensuring that public funds support companies that provide high-quality social working conditions and respect industry standards; calls on the Commission to reflect on the inclusion of social and environmental standards in the upcoming revision of the Public Procurement Directive and to ensure transparency regarding subcontractors and the extent of subcontracted work; notes that the introduction of additional criteria in public procurement procedures could increase the complexity of the procurement process, affecting competition among bidders and prices; stresses that careful design of such criteria is important to ensure alignment with the objective of facilitating the building of more affordable housing; believes that the European Strategy for Housing Construction should ensure that public contracts are not awarded to companies convicted of corruption or human rights violations; calls on the Member States to adapt their procurement rules to help the public sector avoid engaging with contractors that do not have the proven ability or expertise required;

Supporting public, cooperative, non-profit and limited-profit housing supply

36. Acknowledges that the availability and allocation of public, social, cooperative, non-profit and limited-profit housing can contribute to ensuring affordability, stability and social cohesion, and increasing the housing supply for groups such as low-income households, young people, students, the elderly, persons with disabilities and essential workers; underlines the importance of providing an adequate share of these housing models; calls on public authorities to ensure targeted support for these housing models, as they provide long-term affordability, stability and community value; calls on the Member States to put in place mechanisms enabling local authorities to consider rehabilitating, adding additional floors to or converting the attics of already existing public buildings, and rehabilitating and repurposing unused public building stock, especially that located in historic centres and suburbs, into public or social housing, where relevant, while preserving the architectural or heritage value of historical buildings; highlights the need to explore the potential of collaborative housing solutions, including cooperative, non-profit, limited-profit and community-led housing models managed by local organisations, in order to promote decent, affordable and sustainable housing options and to strengthen community engagement;

37. Notes the role of public housing solutions within a broader housing strategy, and considers that the EU should safeguard Member States’ existing successful models of public housing distribution and national common practices in their housing policies; stresses that public housing can contribute to addressing situations of substandard housing and exclusion affecting vulnerable groups; underlines the importance of favouring projects aimed at enhancing inclusive neighbourhoods with opportunities for all; acknowledges the maintenance costs of public housing stock, and therefore encourages efficient and effective processes aimed at reducing the budgetary burden for public administrations and citizens; considers it key to ensure that transparent and objective eligibility criteria are laid down in the allocation of social housing, reflecting local housing conditions, while guaranteeing the efficient and proportional use of public resources; underlines that in public housing, ensuring affordable accommodation depends not only on construction costs but also on the sustainability of management and service provisions; highlights the key role of skilled housing actors in maintaining quality and affordability over time; calls for public funding to support part of the management and service costs, thereby making accommodation more affordable for residents;

38. Considers that social economy entities can make a significant contribution to increasing the supply of affordable and social housing, especially when committing to this mission in the long term, and can complement the role of private entities; notes the importance of public-private cooperation mechanisms, including limited-profit public-private partnerships, which can focus on the management of affordable housing and contribute to a balanced market across the Union; considers it essential to mobilise private investment with social objectives through social economy entities, which embody a sustainable social economy model complementary to the market, thereby strengthening territorial cohesion; highlights that affordable and social housing projects funded by actors operating under cooperative, limited-profit, or non-profit models support the objective of improving housing affordability for local communities; recalls that the eligibility criteria for access to public funding should allow the participation of social economy entities, which channel investment towards general interest objectives and can dedicate a predominant share of their activity to the long-term management of affordable housing;

39. Welcomes Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s September 2025 announcement of a legal initiative on short-term rentals to tackle the remaining regulatory gaps; calls on the Commission to provide additional information and data on outstanding issues, as well as on the suitability of EU intervention; believes that the aim of such initiative should be to ensure a fair balance between tourism development and housing affordability and that this initiative should set common objectives at EU level while leaving Member States, regions and local authorities the flexibility to design and implement measures adapted to their specific territorial realities and housing markets; calls on the Commission to conduct a comprehensive, data- and evidence-based impact assessment of the effects of the proliferation of short-term rentals on housing prices and affordability, availability and tenure security, both in macro and micro real estate markets, following the full implementation of Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on short-term rentals, and with particular attention to its impact on long-term rental stock; acknowledges that Member States have until 20 May 2026 to implement the regulation; recognises the potential difficulties related to system interoperability, as well as the challenges faced by microenterprises and SMEs in meeting the obligations of this regulation; recognises the differentiated impact that the proliferation of short-term rentals can have on territories depending on their characteristics; acknowledges the lack of legal clarity as regards the compliance of certain national and local legislation with EU law; calls on the Commission to clarify through guidelines the framework in which public authorities can operate; calls on public authorities to ask digital platforms to remove illegal listings for tourist apartments; takes the view that more data is needed, but is concerned that an excessive burden could hinder small businesses, such as sustainable and rural tourism businesses; believes that local authorities, associations and the relevant stakeholders should be consulted about any future actions, as they are best placed to determine the measures needed, including in stressed areas, and that these actions must not deter tourism; calls for it to be ensured that the proliferation of short-term rentals does not threaten the social fabric, affordability and long-term liveability of cities;

40. Recalls that the judgment of the Court of Justice in Joined Cases C-724/18 and C-727/18 stated that a legitimate public interest may exist for establishing mechanisms to regulate short-term rentals at the national, regional or local level, provided that the measures adopted are necessary, adequate and proportionate; calls for a balanced approach that reconciles the right to private property ownership, legal certainty for owners, and sustainable tourism with the need to preserve the availability of housing and liveability in historic city centres; considers that certain measures could help urban centres regain their residential functions, such as adequate and proportionate licensing systems, increased transparency regarding large-scale foreign property acquisitions in order to monitor housing availability, authorisations from neighbours’ associations or the main owner, or safety, quality and consumer protection standards, ensuring that those policies are proportionate and tailored to the specific circumstances; underlines that measures are needed to safeguard housing for residents and preserve the diversity and vitality of urban communities; calls for tourism activities and their positive impacts on local economies to be balanced with the preservation of housing availability for local residents and strategic and essential workers in the long-term;

Securing funding and easing investments

Private investment

41. Urges the mobilisation of private investment, as it is important to complement public efforts in addressing shortages of decent, sustainable and affordable housing, and as the public sector alone cannot address the current lack of liquidity in the market; recognises the strategic role of the private sector, cooperatives and listed real estate companies in addressing the EU’s housing crisis by unlocking access to capital, delivering large-scale affordable and social housing, and supporting innovation in construction and sustainability; calls on the Commission to examine the impact of overseas real estate purchases; notes that market-based housing solutions remain an effective way to sustainably expand supply and highlights the importance of an investment-friendly regulatory environment in this regard; calls for the Member States and the EU institutions to enable the conditions to attract and mobilise long-term, responsible, reliable and stable private investment for the construction, repurposing and renovation of housing for low- and middle-income households; calls for the completion of the Savings and Investments Union as a way to enhance the availability of private capital across borders; underlines the leveraging effects that small amounts of public funds can achieve on the market; calls on the Member States to explore dedicated housing investment vehicles to channel private savings into affordable housing projects; highlights the need to implement performance-based funding and accountability for local authorities, linking incentives to housing delivery targets; calls for the creation of a social impact index to measure and define the additionality generated by investments in social and affordable housing, with the aim of attracting greater investment in the sector;

42. Highlights the increasing difficulty in access to housing finance, as low- and middle-income households face growing difficulties in obtaining credit for housing, including for home ownership; calls on the Commission and the Member States to further explore policies aimed at ensuring fair and sustainable access to housing finance, particularly for first-time and low- and middle-income buyers; underlines the need for macroprudential and supervisory authorities, including the European Systemic Risk Board and the European Central Bank, to take into account systemic risks in their monitoring frameworks and risk assessments; notes that the Capital Requirements Directive allows Member States to introduce systemic risk buffers for certain exposures and that some opted to introduce systemic risk buffers for certain exposures secured by residential property, which increase the financing costs for commercial real estate; calls on the European Banking Authority to make full use of the flexibilities under its guidelines to support mortgages on residential property, while ensuring financial stability; calls on the Member States to carefully assess the appropriateness of the level of systemic risk buffers for exposures collateralised by residential property; supports the possibility provided in the Capital Requirements Regulation to allow for preferential prudential treatment of exposures relating to land acquisition, development and construction, thereby facilitating access to financing for housing development; calls on the Commission and the Member States to enhance transparency in real estate transactions and monitor interconnections between real estate funds and banks and other institutional investors, in order to identify potential contagion channels and safeguard financial stability; welcomes, in this regard, the review of the EU securitisation framework presented by the Commission on 17 June 2025 with the aim of freeing up banks’ balance sheets and enhancing banks’ lending capacity; calls on the Commission to assess the impact of the Capital Requirements Regulation on small construction companies, in order to ensure that loans for residential projects are dealt with in a proportional manner, reflecting the fact that lower systemic risk projects are often pre-sold, insured or guaranteed by public authorities;

43. Stresses the importance of safeguarding financial stability and ensuring that financial instruments contribute to housing affordability; underlines the role of the Stability and Growth Pact in ensuring financial stability in the EU, which is a prerequisite for the proliferation of housing; stresses that both the general escape clause and the national escape clause should remain an exceptional and temporary tool; underlines that any public investment in housing must remain consistent with the Union’s fiscal rules;

Public and private cooperation

44. Calls for stronger and more transparent mechanisms for cooperation in housing policy between the public and the private sector, in order to mobilise additional financial resources through European co-financing frameworks that combine public investment with the capacity and innovation of private and public actors; underlines that such partnerships can multiply the impact of public resources and accelerate the development of quality and affordable housing; calls on public authorities to ensure that such partnerships are aligned with the public interest and long-term affordability objectives; calls on public authorities to leverage private sector expertise by offering targeted long-term incentives, where appropriate, to companies and stakeholders involved in genuine affordable housing projects, including investments by local authorities and regional administrations, such as in infrastructure development in urban, suburban, rural and depopulated areas; highlights the role that national promotional banks and institutions can play in this regard; encourages the Commission to ensure that the Renovation Wave and the European Affordable Housing Plan generate real investment opportunities, facilitating responsible and transparent public-private partnerships in large-scale urban renewal and infrastructure development projects; emphasises that government assistance measures should be designed to complement private investment, in order to avoid crowding out and ensure long-term financial stability, while ensuring that support measures do not overburden taxpayers or distort markets;

Public funding

45. Advocates a strategic, responsible and efficient deployment of investments in the housing sector, through the use of dedicated EU funds, enabling greater housing investment by consolidating and earmarking currently dispersed funding across multiple programmes, such as the cohesion policy funds, InvestEU or NextGenerationEU, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility and underlines the role of the EIB and national promotional banks and institutions, where feasible, ensuring that Member State competences are respected; calls on the Commission to issue recommendations on a dedicated financial mechanisms to provide long-term maturity loans by Member States for financing urgent housing projects; encourages the Member States to reallocate unused resources from their national Recovery and Resilience Plans to financial instruments in order to allow social, public, cooperative and affordable housing units to be built and renovated, provided that local and regional authorities are entrusted with managing these funds; encourages the Commission and the Member States to include efficient, transparent, inclusive and fair allocation mechanisms for beneficiaries of EU funds and financial instruments, such as local and regional authorities, ensuring economic, social and territorial cohesion; points out that uneven economic development in different regions in Europe and subsequent economic intra-EU migration contributes significantly to the pressure on housing prices; underlines, in this regard, the importance of EU cohesion policy with regard to regional development now and in the future; calls for a simplified, digital one-stop platform to allow local and regional authorities direct access to EU housing funds; calls for EU funding schemes to be designed with simplified procedures, including pre-financing and grant mechanisms, to ensure equal access for smaller economies and municipalities with limited administrative capacity and to accelerate social and affordable housing investment; supports national efforts on housing ownership, which could enable households to build assets that can be passed down; urges the Member States to apply flexibility to the design and implementation of funding schemes for new housing, allowing for an equitable mixed use of public and private housing; recommends a stronger InvestEU programme for the 2028-2034 period to increase the volume of guarantees backed by the EU budget for decent, sustainable and affordable housing projects; calls on the Commission to reinforce dedicated housing structures and further explore the added value of creating a European housing agency, which would collect and analyse relevant data provided by national statistical institutes, Eurostat and Eurofound, in order to support the sharing of best practices, provide technical assistance and guidance to Member States and regional and local authorities, and support capacity building at all levels in order to maximise synergies and cooperation between various institutions;

46. Emphasises the important role that cohesion policy plays in boosting economic, social and territorial cohesion within the EU, reducing disparities between regions, and avoiding fragmentation and distortion within the single market; considers that its potential to support urban and rural development challenges could be further strengthened; calls on the Member States to use the available flexibility to allow for the inclusion of housing objectives within the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, and the Just Transition Fund; calls for stronger financial support to local, regional and urban authorities for the development of decent, sustainable and affordable public housing, while encouraging Member States to ensure that EU funding is used efficiently and transparently across all national, regional and local levels of governance; stresses that such investments must be tied to long-term affordability, ensuring lasting benefits for communities; stresses that public support for housing projects should be tied to urban and regional development strategies based on good governance; calls for EU investments to respect compliance with accessibility measures for elderly people and persons with disabilities, and for them to be used as a tool to strengthen social cohesion; calls on the Commission to encourage Member States to submit a national housing gap analysis and a national housing supply plan, accompanied by permitting milestones and funding alignment measures; urges the Member States to adopt multi-annual social housing delivery targets, including in relation to infrastructure and services; calls for special attention to be paid to construction and rehabilitation projects in areas affected by and that might face natural disasters and catastrophes, emphasising the importance of adaptation and spatial planning, including the effective use of the European Regional Development Fund and ESF+ to finance support measures; stresses the importance of ensuring that the European Regional Development Fund and InvestEU provide adequate instruments to upgrade existing housing stock;

47. Endorses the role that the EIB plays in catalysing public funding and private financing for the affordable housing sector; supports the EIB Group’s Action Plan for Affordable Housing and its intention to collaborate with the Commission to address the shared challenges in enabling access to finance for affordable housing, including stimulating investment in innovative construction to reduce costs and construction time; supports the establishment of a pan-European investment platform, together with NPBIs , aimed at increasing funding for decent, sustainable and affordable housing and supporting the Member States to develop enabling policy frameworks where needed, while maintaining the EIB’s role as an investment bank and safeguarding its triple-A status; highlights the key role that the EIB can play in cooperation with NPBs, the Council of Europe Development Bank and international financial institutions in providing investment that supports social cohesion for the supply of decent, sustainable and affordable housing; reaffirms that this should be developed on the basis of an open architecture model, ensuring the meaningful and effective participation of NPBIs; calls on the Commission to promote the work of NPBIs through the exchange of good practice and the swift implementation of the European Affordable Housing Plan, drawing on their long-standing expertise and regional connections in the financing of affordable and social housing; welcomes the types of projects financed, such as development of affordable housing for key professions, student accommodation and residences for the elderly; underlines that EIB-backed investments must prioritise long-term affordability; supports the establishment of the ‘More homes. Better homes’ online portal as a building block for the pan-European investment platform; believes that NPBIs should be involved in the development of any relevant portal or tool at the EU level from the start; calls for the EIB to explore the establishment of a European funding platform aimed at increasing funding and securitisation for decent, sustainable and affordable housing; welcomes the EIB’s new housing one-stop-shop portal to provide housing advice and foster innovation in the construction sector; calls on the EIB to expand both access to low-interest, long-term loans backed by EU guarantees and the scale and geographic reach of its housing-related financing, taking into account not only energy-efficiency and sustainability criteria but also local community needs and priorities as well as the renovation of housing stock across Europe; points out that the increasing demand for housing must be met by measures aimed at boosting the supply of social, decent, sustainable and affordable housing;

48. Calls on the Commission to analyse housing price dynamics, including available evidence of potentially abusive speculation, and, on the basis of this analysis, to call on the Member States for possible appropriate measures; stresses the importance of safeguarding financial stability and ensuring that financial instruments contribute to ensuring decent, sustainable and affordable housing for all; calls on the Commission and the Member States to enhance transparency in real estate transactions, including through improved data collection and possible EU-level tools; calls on the Commission and the Member States to exchange data and best practice on combating abusive financialisation practices and speculative purchases, reducing the likelihood of destabilising local housing markets; calls on the Member States to adopt measures to incentivise bringing vacant and derelict homes back into use, as this is essential to increasing supply, safeguarding affordability, and revitalising communities; stresses that public investment in housing should serve the public interest and deliver long-term value; welcomes public ownership models where housing remains publicly managed, which could be useful in certain contexts to prevent abusive financialisation practices, underlining that housing projects that pass into private hands are also legitimate; stresses that Member States should be free to choose how to manage these projects in line with their national policies;

Supporting housing demand

Young people

49. Emphasises the need to pay particular attention to younger and future generations, especially in areas with low rates of economic independence and where young people take longer to leave their family home; notes that young people are increasingly dependent on the rental market as their main form of housing tenure, and therefore calls for stronger tenant and property rights and protections to ensure stability and affordability for younger generations; calls on the Commission to investigate and promote regional and local best practices regarding housing initiatives for young people, with simplified procedures, including first-time buyer schemes; calls on the Member States and local authorities to promote measures enabling young people to access housing credit, including incentives such as reduced transaction rates for young buyers and first-time buyers; calls for exemptions from transaction taxes for first-time buyers who occupy the property for a certain period; supports the provision of low-interest loans for young people and first-time buyers; underlines that providing affordable housing for young people entering the labour market could be recognised as a strategic dimension of social policies; calls for the Member States to integrate youth housing needs in their national reform programmes under the European Semester; calls on the Member States to adapt planning laws to allow young people to build affordable dwellings on family land, enabling rural and intergenerational housing solutions; calls on the Member States to adopt dedicated incentives, including in the use of EU funds, for the construction and renovation of affordable and social housing for young people; calls for the consideration of incentives for small property owners who lease housing to families or young people on long-term contracts, particularly in areas with escalating housing costs that are driven by market forces, such as tax incentives or support measures for tenants; suggests that other financial incentives for property owners can also reduce prices, while increasing the number of houses available for renting; highlights the importance of simplifying administrative and transaction-related procedures, including additional and housing-related costs, to enhance transparency, predictability and affordability, particularly for young people and first-time buyers across the EU;

Low- and middle-income households

53. Calls on the Member States to tackle the difficulties in access to housing for low- and middle- income households, with special attention to strategic and essential workers, including healthcare workers teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, social and care workers, and other key public service employees, while ensuring balanced contractual frameworks that protect both vulnerable tenants and small landlords; calls on the Member States to establish service housing models paying particular attention to strategic and essential workers as best practice; calls for support across all affordable housing options, including rental, public, cooperative, limited-profit, and non-profit models, ensuring long-term affordability, and stable, secure tenancy arrangements in this regard; urges the Member States to review and, where necessary, revise their affordability criteria so that they genuinely reflect the cost of living and ensure effective access to decent, sustainable and affordable housing for low- and middle-income households;

54. Welcomes the Commission’s consultation, launched on 5 June 2025 and takes note of the revision of the State aid rules for services of general economic interest (SGEI), to facilitate the provision of decent, sustainable and affordable housing in a faster and more efficient way, while allowing greater flexibility to facilitate national investments; underlines that Member States, in line with the principle of subsidiarity, should have the discretionary power to support this according to their local, regional or national needs; underlines the importance of an ex ante impact assessment on a country-by-country basis of any proposed changes to the SGEI rules; stresses that any revision of State aid rules should not come at the cost of Member States’ investments in social housing, but could allow greater flexibility to facilitate public investment in housing, while respecting the diversity of national markets; acknowledges the risks that should be considered, including potential private and public crowding out, displacement of investment from social housing, compatibility with EU case-law, and the integrity of the single market; recalls the original purpose of SGEI and the fact that expanding the scope to include broader target groups does not divert resources from the most vulnerable groups; is concerned that broadening the social housing target group under these rules risks exacerbating market distortions and undermining fair competition; highlights that it is essential to maintain a careful balance between addressing social housing needs and preserving competitive, efficient housing markets for all service providers, both public and private, in the provision of affordable housing; underlines the need to ensure that any future framework relating to affordable housing remains open, allowing both public and private operators to participate, thereby preserving a level playing field and preventing undue market exclusion;

Families