International Union of Tenants
IUT
The International Union of Tenants promotes affordable rental housing and safeguards the legal interests of tenants.
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Stefan Moser (Head of Unit Energy)
17 Oct 2025 · Rental Protection
Meeting with Sonia Vila Nunez (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu)
26 Sept 2025 · Informal discussion on housing and homelessness issues in the EU
Response to Review of the State aid rules on the Services of General Economic Interest (“SGEI”)
31 Jul 2025
The International Union of Tenants (IUT) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the European Commissions consultation on State aid and Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI), particularly as they relate to affordable housing. We urge the Commission to revise the current framework to better reflect the realities of Europes housing crisis and the diversity of national housing systems. 1. Target Group Eligibility The current SGEI Decision (2012/21/EU) restricts eligibility to disadvantaged citizens or socially less advantaged groups. This narrow definition excludes a growing segment of the populationmiddle-income households and key workerswho are increasingly unable to access affordable housing. We recommend removing this restrictive clause to allow Member States, regions and/or local authorities the flexibility to define target groups based on local housing needs and market conditions. This would uphold the principle of subsidiarity and enable more inclusive housing policies. 2. Target Areas Affordability challenges are most acute in urban and economically dynamic regions. Member States, regions and/or local authorities should be empowered to define target areas using indicators such as housing cost-to-income ratios, waiting list durations, and demographic trends. This would ensure that aid is directed where it is most needed and responsive to local realities. 3. Price Regulation and Affordability Duration We support the establishment of maximum rent levels and long-term affordability requirements as conditions for aid. These should be adaptable to local contexts but ensure that housing remains affordable for at least 50 years. This is essential to prevent speculative turnover and ensure intergenerational access to affordable homes. 4. Housing Quality Standards Affordable housing must meet high standards of quality, including energy efficiency, accessibility, and broadband readiness. These standards are vital for social inclusion and environmental sustainability. However, they must be matched with adequate funding and technical support to ensure feasibility and avoid undermining project viability. 5. Type of Housing to be Financed Rental housing should be prioritised, as it offers greater flexibility and accessibility for low- and middle-income households. Both new construction and renovation should be eligible for support, particularly where upgrading existing stock is more sustainable. A balanced approach is needed to address both supply shortages and the quality of existing housing. 6. Eligible Providers We advocate for a model that includes public, non-profit, and mission-driven private providers. Public-private partnerships, such as the Dutch Energy Agreement, demonstrate how collaboration can unlock investment while maintaining affordability. However, safeguards must be in place to ensure that public funds serve social goals and are not diverted to speculative interests. 7. EU Funding and Transparency EU funding streams, including those for housing renovation and construction, must be made more accessible and tied to clear social conditionality. Transparent mechanisms should track the distribution and impact of funds to ensure they reach those in need. This will enhance accountability and public trust. Conclusion Housing must be recognised as a fundamental right and a public good. EU policy should prioritise the social function of housing over market profitability. This is essential to support economic stability, social equity, and the well-being of all citizens. The current SGEI framework does not reflect the diversity of housing systems across the EU. We call on the Commission to revise the framework to support broader eligibility, regional flexibility, and long-term affordability, while maintaining high quality and sustainability standards. By embracing these reforms, the EU can ensure that affordable housing is accessible to allsafeguarding the right to a secure and dignified home.
Read full responseResponse to European Affordable Housing Plan
28 May 2025
Across Europe, tenants face skyrocketing rents and growing insecurity. Without strong investment and regulation, particularly rent stabilization mechanisms, the housing market, especially the private rental sector, will remain unaffordable and increasingly driven by speculation. To address Europes housing crisis, the EU must better align its investment tools with the goal of long-term affordability. Three key areas are crucial: The EIB new Pan-European Investment Platform must prioritise loans and grants for not-for-profit providers, housing cooperatives, and public housing. These models offer stable, affordable homes protected from market speculation. Public money should serve the public good, supporting communities, not profit-driven projects. Current EU State aid rules under the SGEI decision framework limit housing support the most disadvantaged, hindering large public supply for middle-income households. We call for removing this restrictive definition, allowing MS to support inclusive housing strategies that reflect real needs and empower public and non-profit providers. For the next MFF, a necessary step is the creation of a Dedicated EU fund for affordable housing within Cohesion Policy. This would ensure structural funds help deliver energy-efficient, affordable homes and support territorial and social cohesion. As of now Cohesion funds can only go in energy renovation projects and social housing. Housing costs including rent, energy, and utilities should not exceed 25% of disposable income. When the 25% threshold is surpassed, many households, especially young people, single parents, and low-income tenants, are forced to renounce other essential goods and services. The current Eurostat housing costs overburden rate (40% of disposable income for housing costs) needs to be revised. Stabilize and regulate private rental sector against extortionate rent increases is essential to reduce overall rent prices, which have risen by 48% since 2014 in the EU. Tenants consistently face higher housing burdens than homeowners, yet public awareness of this reality remains low. Rent regulation has proven effective in reducing inequality and protecting tenants from displacement, speculation, and skyrocketing prices. The EU should set a binding target: by 2030, at least 30% of housing in every MS and municipality should be social or affordable. Backed by a Dedicated EU fund and national support, this would ensure fairer, more stable housing systems across Europe. A fair green deal: Energy efficiency renovations should not result in "renovictions" or disproportionate rent increases. The EC should monitor that social safeguards, like the principle of Housing Cost Neutrality, already part of the EPBD recast at article 17, are included in the next NECPs. The financialization of housing market has led to rising rents, tenant displacement, and the erosion of public and non-profit housing. To counteract this, access of corporate finance and foreign investors to European markets must be regulated. Money laundering and tax evasion by international real estate trading needs to be stopped at least at EU level. The EU should create an EU-wide real-estate transparency register; this would be a first step to de-financialize the housing market and help MS in finding effective solutions. The rapid growth of short-term rentals (STRs) has further intensified housing crisis in many European cities and touristic areas. STRs are reducing long-term rental supply and driving up rents. As entire neighbourhoods shift to tourist accommodation, residents are displaced, communities erode, and local culture is commodified. While cities have introduced licensing systems, caps on rental days, and zoning restrictions, enforcement is often weak and fragmented. The EC should strengthen enforcement and reduce bureaucracy. Urban planning, legislation and respective national tax regimes must prioritize the rights of residents.
Read full responseMeeting with Estrella Galán (Member of the European Parliament)
20 May 2025 · Housing Conference: Europe’s Housing Crisis - From Denunciation to Action
Meeting with Agnese Papadia (Cabinet of Commissioner Dan Jørgensen)
19 May 2025 · Affordable housing
Meeting with Martin Schirdewan (Member of the European Parliament)
14 May 2025 · Regulierung des Wohnungsmarkts
Meeting with Alicia Homs Ginel (Member of the European Parliament)
30 Apr 2025 · Short Term Rentals
Meeting with Stefan Moser (Head of Unit Energy)
29 Apr 2025 · Protection of tenants
Meeting with Marcos Ros Sempere (Member of the European Parliament)
10 Apr 2025 · Jury meeting - European Responsible Housing Awards
Meeting with Marcos Ros Sempere (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)
28 Jan 2025 · Meeting with International Union of Tenants
Meeting with Johan Danielsson (Member of the European Parliament) and Hyresgästföreningen / The Swedish Union of Tenants
16 Oct 2024 · Bostadspolitiska frågor i EU under mandatperioden
Meeting with Leila Chaibi (Member of the European Parliament)
16 Oct 2024 · EMPL related issues
Meeting with Evelyn Regner (Member of the European Parliament)
16 Oct 2024 · General Exchange of Views
Meeting with Irene Tinagli (Member of the European Parliament) and Eurocities
3 Oct 2024 · Meeting on housing issues
Meeting with Hanna Gedin (Member of the European Parliament)
11 Sept 2024 · Housing
Meeting with Leila Chaibi (Member of the European Parliament)
4 Sept 2024 · Housing issues
Meeting with Marcos Ros Sempere (Member of the European Parliament)
23 Jul 2024 · Meeting with the International Union of Tenants
Meeting with Kim Van Sparrentak (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Airbnb Ireland UC
20 Mar 2023 · Short-Term Rental
Response to Short-term rental initiative
6 Jan 2023
Short-term rentals, the hotelification of the housing stock and the affordable housing crisis Short-term rentals tend to reduce the inherent differences between hotels and the regular housing stock. Consequently, the hotel industry's pricing and contractual setup tend to be transferred to the housing sector. This phenomenon can be described as the "hotelification" of the housing market. The level of hotelification is best described as the proportion of professional landlords i.e., landlords with more than one object on the market. Most likely, the landlords own housing needs are met with one object while leaving additional objects available for rental on the market.In tourist-dense cities, short-term rentals tend to become professionalised as enterprises/private individuals buy several apartments from the regular stock intent on offering them as short-term leases.As a hotel room is normally sublet daily and aimed at a specific target group visitors often willing to pay more than those seeking permanent accommodation, Hotelification tend to exercise an upward pressure on rental levels. Consequently, dwellings disappear from the ordinary housing market, increasing the housing shortage for the city's population. The hotelification of the housing stock is not dependent on the platform economy as a phenomenon. However, what Airbnb and other similar platforms offer is the reduction of costs associated with the search, the control, and the contract; in short it reduces the so-called transaction costs for buyers and sellers. In recent years, cities with an extensive supply of hospitality industries have introduced local regulations to limit the negative effects of short-term rentals. To increase municipal authorities knowledge about short-term rentals and enable them to limit the scope of this, the establishment of a register is a minimum requirement. In many tourist-dense cities, landlords are required to register when advertising on platform services. Inspectors are also employed to establish collaborations with the platform services to obtain information about illegal lease practices. Hotelification practices are inherently local, and the scope varies across the EU. The impact is affected by local ownership, as well as the scope of the hospitality industry. EU Member States, and in particular cities, therefore, need to be given the freedom to require registration and licenses, to create a level playing field including also short-term subletting practices, and be allowed to monitor compliance with the license schemes. The principle of subsidiarity must be respected to enable targeted local regulation of short-term rentals. EU and the Legislation Many local regulations, aimed at limiting short-term rentals, have been criticized and appealed by the hospitality industry, effectively turning this into an issue of EU relevance. We take notice of and encourage the Commission's work on the Digital Services Act, and perceive the Commission´s work as a confirmation of the validity of our problem description a transparent and regulated platform economy is of great importance for a well-functioning housing market. The short-term rental initiative of the EU-Commission is about data-collection and data-sharing- a step in the right direction. But it lacks to address the underlying problem: The professional profit-oriented exploitation of the housing market. Short-term rentals as a service, and platforms as online intermediaries of such services, extract rental apartments from the regular market, thus exacerbating the affordable housing shortage in Europe and beyond. EU regulation needs to form part of a broader debate on the housing crisis, which has been caused by factors including the financialisation and commodification of housing and European, national, regional and local measures negatively affecting the supply of social and affordable rental housing stock.
Read full responseMeeting with Ciarán Cuffe (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)
13 Dec 2022 · EPBD
Meeting with René Repasi (Member of the European Parliament)
20 Apr 2022 · Fit-for-55
Response to Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU
16 Mar 2022
Housing cost neutrality (entailing rents, energy costs and local taxes) should be the main principle of the EPBD. As renovation costs can be passed on to the tenants in most EU Member States, renovation often contributes to the displacement of residents and the gentrification of entire quarters. Affordability in renovation means that rent increases are fully balanced by energy-savings. The model of housing cost neutrality thus combines social and climate goals in an ideal way and prevents ”renovictions” (evictions by renovation). In the rental housing sector, Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) can be a game changer. However, the IUT asks for a dialogue at level playing field taking sufficient account of tenants living in energy-inefficient housing, since the tenants concerned can hardly influence the buildings’s energy standard. This can only be done by landlords. But landlords are not affected by those standards, as costs are passed on to the tenants by rent increases. For this reason we need also legally based positive and/or negative incentives aimed at landlords. For example, a ban on rent increases for homes that do not meet the MEPS.Tenants’ participation should be mandatory when deciding about the standard and costs of renovation. Public funding should be based on projects where participation of tenants in planning and execution have been guaranteed. Public funding for the renovation of private rental housing should be combined in line with rent caps in order to prevent the capitalization of funding. IUT welcomes the provisions on the financial and regulatory framework in Article 15 EPBD and recognises the considerable efforts made at the EU level to provide financial support for building renovation through the Resilience and Reconstruction Facility, the Climate Social Fund or through regional funding. Targeted incentives like climate housing allowances for the affected tenants should be implemented and the use of the EU social climate funds shall be further explored to add on national funding to prevent energy poverty for low- and medium- income groups. The tenant unions are ready to contribute to this dialogue. The IUT calls on the EC to ensure that, in the proposed measures for improving energy efficiency the principle of subsidiarity is also respected insofar as Member States are themselves responsible for public housing. In terms of funding, the clarity as relates to Member States' responsibilities towards "providing appropriate funding, support measures and other instruments" is exemplary. Expecting EU Member States to have a long-term plan and budget for the transition to an increasingly energy-efficient and climate-neutral building stock is reasonable. Therefore, national plans based on the specific conditions provide the best opportunity to identify the measures most effective in each Member State. The revised EPBD presents several overlapping concepts with other legislation (EED, RED) while leaving it to the EC to further define in delegated acts. This makes any impact assessment almost impossible, while leaving compliance uncertain. The introduction of renovation passes risk resulting in a resource-intensive system rather than an efficient tool stimulating energy-efficiency. Regarding the EPCs the measuring should be in kwh/m², in order to allow transparency and comparability, which is not the case in the current different national systems of labelling in energy classes.Information exchange as proposed is of doubtful value for tenants unless such exchanges relate to their own dwelling and affect the tenant's costs. Unlimited information exchange could jeopardize the protection of privacy. De-carbonizing strategies should be area based, not only building based. The improvement of local energy systems, tapping local energy resources, , the fostering of ”prosumer”- models, can lead the way to entire green quarters, where housing security, affordability and health of of the residents are at the forefront
Read full responseResponse to Short-term rental initiative
12 Oct 2021
Hotelification
Short-term rentals tend to reduce the inherent differences between hotels and the regular housing stock. Consequently, the hotel industry's pricing and contractual setup tend to be transferred to the housing sector. This phenomenon can be described as the "hotelification" of the housing market.
The level of hotelification is best described as the proportion of professional landlords i.e., landlords with more than one object on the market. Most likely, the landlord’s own housing needs are met with one object while leaving additional objects available for rental on the market.
In tourist-dense cities, short-term rentals tend to become professionalised as enterprises/private individuals buy several apartments from the regular stock intent on offering them as short-term leases, e.g. Barcelona.
As a hotel room is normally sublet daily and aimed at a specific target group, visitors, often willing to pay more than those seeking permanent accommodation, hotelification tend to exercise an upward pressure on rental levels. Consequently, dwellings disappear from the ordinary housing market instead being incorporated in the hotel stock, increasing the housing shortage for the city's population.
The hotelification of the housing stock is not dependent on the platform economy as a phenomenon. However, what Airbnb and other similar platforms offer is the reduction of costs associated with the search, the control, and the contract; in short it reduces the transaction costs for buyers and sellers.
Reactions of the Touristic Cities
In recent years, cities with an extensive supply of hospitality industries have introduced local regulations to limit the negative effects of short-term rentals.
To increase municipal authorities’ knowledge about short-term rentals and enable them to limit the scope of this, the establishment of some form of register is a minimum requirement. In many tourist-dense cities, landlords are required to register when advertising on platform services. Inspectors are also employed to establish collaborations with the platform services, to obtain information about illegal lease practices.
EU and the Legislation
Many local regulations, aimed at limiting short-term rentals, have been criticized and appealed by the hospitality industry, effectively turning this into an issue of EU relevance. The E-Commerce Directive and the Services Directive, both dating before the platform economy arose, have been the subject of criticism in connection with local responses.
The E-Commerce Directive: prohibits the systematic monitoring of operator websites to provide authorities with information. On the other hand, Airbnb and other platforms when prompted does act on suspicion of specific illegal conduct pertaining to lease practices on the platforms.
The Services Directive: requires licensing practices to be limited to only the ones which are necessary, proportionate, and non-discriminatory. Quantitative restrictions are not allowed, i.e., measures aimed at limiting the number of dwellings being subject to short-term subletting practices.
We take notice of and encourage the Commission's ongoing work on the Digital Services Act, and perceive the Commission´s work as a confirmation of the validity of our problem description pertaining to the above directives – a transparent and regulated platform economy is of great importance for a well-functioning housing market
The Road Ahead
Hotelification practices are inherently local, and the scope varies across the EU. The impact is affected by local ownership, as well as the scope of the hospitality industry.
EU Member States, and in particular cities, therefore, need to be given the freedom to require registration and licenses, to create a level playing field including also short-term subletting practices, and be allowed to monitor compliance with the license schemes. The E-Commerce Directive and the Services Directive are in dire need of modernisation to enable local regulation
Read full response25 Jun 2019
Housing policy is a national competency
The currently applicable EU State aid rules, in particular recital 11 of the applicable Commission Decision, by enforcing the single market rules on the housing sector, force Member States to limit access to social and affordable housing solely to socially disadvantaged groups while the needs of other groups in need have been largely neglected. Such application of legislation denies the fact that housing alternatives are not readily available for low and middle-income groups due to possible market failures in the housing sector .
Consequently, defining the mission and the role of social and affordable housing is a task that must remain under the exclusive competence of the EU Member States, including the setting of criteria for allocation of social and affordable housing to people in need.
EU and EFTA Member States should not, as a result of applicable State aid legislation, find themselves with limited alternatives when struggling with segregation, ghettoization and the promotion of social cohesion and urban mix. A wide diversity of social and affordable housing ought to be dictated by local and regional needs. Social and affordable housing should be accessible to large parts of the population, not only to a limited target group. Consequently, the rules relating to Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI) need to be adapted accordingly .
Subsidiarity should be strictly enforced in the housing sector.
Read full responseMeeting with Günther Oettinger (Commissioner)
18 Mar 2019 · Social housing
Meeting with Helena Braun (Cabinet of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans) and Eurocities and
29 Nov 2017 · Discussion on affordable housing in EU
Meeting with Christian Linder (Cabinet of Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič)
3 May 2017 · Energy Union, Housing, tenants' and investment issues
Meeting with Christian Linder (Cabinet of Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič)
28 Aug 2015 · Energy Poverty
Meeting with Christian Linder (Cabinet of Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič)
16 Dec 2014 · Energy Union, Energy Efficiency, Housing and Tenants