EU housing commissioner admits expats put 'pressure' on housing market

The European commissioner for energy and housing, Dan Jørgensen, has acknowledged that expats, despite being "positive" for societies, also come with "some challenges connected," as they "can cause pressure on the housing market."

In an interview with the Catalan News Agency (ACN) in Brussels, Jørgensen said that "sometimes, even if something is positive, it can have some challenges connected to it, and this is one of those examples that when you get a lot of new citizens from outside to work in your city, then that can cause pressure on the housing market."

Barcelona has been at the center of the expats and the housing crisis for some time now.

Jørgensen defended that the European Commission needs to "take into consideration" the situation of newcomers working in the city whenever it proposes new measures.

However, he believes that the matter is not regarding expats but finding a way to "fundamentally manage to increase the number of houses," as if this problem is not tackled, then authorities "will not get to the core of the problem, because the problem is that there's not a balance between supply and demand."

The commissioner backs that "dealing with short-term rentals is one way of hopefully getting closer to finding that balance" between supply and demand.

For him, "it's fine to make money in the housing market, but it cannot be at the expense of the public good." Jørgensen refers to big and private investors who use the housing market to "make money." Although he acknowledges that he does not have "the silver bullet" on how to solve this.

'Serious crisis'

When asked if Barcelona, or Spain, is part of the overall problem, the commissioner said that "there is no doubt" as many cities experience this issue.

"Spain is indeed one of the member states that we are thinking about when we are saying that we do have a serious crisis," he added.

The EU Council, where all leaders of the 27 Member States of the European Union meet, will address the housing issue across the union in an upcoming gathering. The problem was added to the agenda after Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni and other mayors across the EU joined forces to pressure the Council.

Jørgensen celebrates the decision, and he looks "forward to getting this steer" from the different leaders because "it really is necessary that we step up our efforts and that we acknowledge that this is a common European problem," he told ACN.

Short-term rentals

After Spain approved a rent-cap law across the nation, but only in effect in those areas that requested the measure be implemented, many landlords looked for alternatives to surpass the price limit.

Since early 2024, Catalonia has applied price caps in towns deemed to be ‘tense housing zones’, and the regulation, which sets minimum and maximum prices apartments can be rented for, is in effect in areas where more than 90% of Catalan residents live, including Barcelona. 

But for those landlords, aside from selling, many changed their offers from long-term rent contracts to short-term ones, going from 32 days to 11 months. This has caused many cities, including Barcelona, to see an increase of short-term rents and a decrease of long-term rent options.

"Where, of course, it becomes a problem is when these short-term rentals, in fact, crowd out ordinary housing. So ordinary people were living in their homes, but now, because of the short-term rentals, they're no longer able to live there," Jørgensen said.

The issue is especially in visited and touristic cities, so for him, "over-tourism would also be a consequence of this."

"We will be putting forward proposals from the EU on how to deal with this problem," he said, before saying that the proposed legislation will not interfere with member states' right to set up rent measures, as it is a national competency. However, the commission will tackle issues to ensure that the stock of housing increases.

"That is the only thing that we know for sure will bring down the prices."