Sánchez urges Brussels to take measures to cease the acquisition of properties that aren’t for residential use | Economy | EUROtoday

Spain asks Europe for concrete formulation in opposition to housing hypothesis. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, proposed this Thursday in Brussels that the Community Executive undertake “legal measures” to place a cease to the acquisition of homes that aren’t for residential use. Sánchez attended the assembly of the European Council, the primary to be held with the housing disaster on the agenda, with different calls for corresponding to enabling a selected fund for the development of protected flats. The Spanish Government has additionally requested that “levers” be put in place to behave on essentially the most confused areas, particularly in giant cities the place buy and rental costs have grown exponentially as a result of stress of tourism.

The inclusion in a gathering of EU leaders of a degree to handle the housing crises is a part of an effort by the President of the Council, António Costa, who famous it in his work program. The former Portuguese Prime Minister dedicated to this with a bunch of mayors of enormous cities on the continent, together with that of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, who’re demanding measures from group establishments to confront the disaster. And at this Thursday’s assembly, the heads of State and Government of the Union have as soon as once more dedicated to citing the problem once more subsequent 12 months, in 2026, diplomatic sources level out.

“This is a central issue for the Government of Spain, it is at the national level, and we also want it to be at the European level, because we are talking about a European problem,” Sánchez mentioned upon his arrival on the assembly of heads of State and Government of the Twenty-Seven in Brussels. “The problem of the inability to access housing for young people, and not so young people, is something shared by a Spaniard, an Italian, a Frenchman, a German… In short, any citizen who is in Europe,” he continued.

House costs have grown on common within the EU by 60.5% between 2015 and 2025, in line with Eurostat. But in Spain, the rise has been 72%, in comparison with 26.6% in France, 13.3% in Italy or 51.3% in Germany, in line with a report from the European Council revealed on the eve of the European summit.

With these figures, the talk within the European Council has been addressed, through which Costa has confused that the disaster is severe in lots of international locations, making it mandatory for the European establishments, particularly the one he presides over, as a result of it’s a method for residents to understand that they’re fascinated about their day by day issues. His agenda from the day prior to this attests to the Portuguese’s involvement on this matter, when he participated in a number of conferences (with the European Economic and Social Council and with the Committee of the Regions) through which the problem was addressed.

After Costa, the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, took the ground and defined how preparations are going for the inexpensive housing plan that she intends to current within the coming months. Then it was the flip of Sánchez and different leaders. Among those that spoke was the Prime Minister of Portugal, Luis Montenegro, the place housing has turn out to be very costly lately. The Prime Minister of Ireland, Michéal Martin, additionally spoke; that of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic; that of Latvia, Evika Silina; that of the Netherlands, Dick Schoof; and that of Greece, Kyriákos Mitsotákis.

The EU as a complete doesn’t have main powers over housing insurance policies and, consequently, neither does the Community Executive. And regardless of this, the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, appointed for the primary time an individual chargeable for housing when forming the present group Executive. This is the Danish commissioner Dan Jørgensen, as Sánchez recalled this Thursday.

Von der Leyen created the place as a part of the settlement with the European Social Democrats in alternate for supporting her on this new mandate. In the plan he’s getting ready and which he spoke about on the summit, he’ll suggest regulating the short-term leases utilized by nearly all of vacationer flats on platforms corresponding to Airbnb and others all through the EU. And that’s exactly the request that has come from the European Council, which “urges the Commission to present without delay an ambitious and comprehensive plan on affordable housing, the objective of which must be to support and complement the efforts of the Member States.”

In addition to regulation, the EU can also be going to show to the European Investment Bank, chaired by the Spanish Nadia Calviño, to search for levers. This entity has already introduced an “accessible and sustainable” housing financing plan of 10,000 million over the subsequent two years. This quantity exceeds, for instance, the deliberate funding goal within the growth of Defense tasks, one of many EU’s main priorities for the approaching years (in 2025, this goal is 3.5 billion). With this cash, introduced final March, the intention is to finance the development of 1.5 million properties.

With his proposals to veto properties that aren’t for residential use on the European degree, Sánchez goes one step additional than what the Community Executive has proposed till now. Such a regulation would have an effect on not solely vacationer properties, but additionally the funds and people, generally, who purchase housing as an funding.

Sánchez was not the one Spanish politician who spoke about housing in Brussels this Thursday. The head of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, current on the assembly of leaders of the European PP, has additionally accomplished so. The Galician politician wished to recollect “that it was the Spanish PP that convinced the European to create, for the first time, a Housing Commission in the European Parliament.” This physique, which has a rare nature, has already handed the primary part of its work. Its rapporteur, the Spanish fashionable MEP Borja Jiménez, lately offered the draft of a report, which is now topic to amendments by the remainder of the teams and which has not happy the left as a result of it focuses the answer on the development of extra homes by way of personal initiative.