Europe's Proposed Airbnb Rules: What the EU Housing Law Could Mean for Monthly Rentals

Europe's proposed Airbnb rules would let cities limit short-term rentals in housing-stressed areas. Here's the timeline, and what it means if you rent by the month.

Old town Dubrovnik, Croatia. Photo credit: Miranda Miller

If you rent apartments by the month in Europe, the news out of Brussels this week matters for where you'll be staying in a few years, not for the trip you're booking now.

The European Commission on Sept. 9 proposed an Affordable Housing Act that would let cities restrict Airbnb-style rentals in neighbourhoods where locals can no longer afford to live. It is a proposal, so nothing changes at the door of your Lisbon or Florence apartment in 2026, but this is a development to keep an eye on.

Here’s what the proposal would do. A city could declare part of town an "area under housing stress" based on public data, chiefly home prices measured against local incomes and how fast that gap has widened. Inside those areas, it could limit short-term rentals that take homes off the long-term market.

The Commission's summary says a city would first have to show the damage has been going on for at least three years, and any limits must be targeted and proportionate rather than a blanket ban.

Reporting on the leaked draft suggests caps on the number of licenses and letting existing operators keep going, rather than shutting them down overnight.

The Commission's reasoning is blunt: house prices across the EU rose 64.9 percent between 2015 and 2025 and rents 21.8 percent.

Airbnb's reply was equally blunt. The act, it said, "will not add a single home to the long term rental market, while adding regulatory uncertainty for hosts across European cities."

What happens next: The proposal now goes to the European Parliament and national governments, and that process took about two years for the EU’s last short-term rental law, adopted in 2024 and applied from May 2026. Expect a final vote no earlier than 2027 and real effects on the ground closer to 2028.

Barcelona, Amsterdam and Lisbon already limit short-term lets under their own laws. What this gives them is a stronger legal footing when hosts and platforms sue.

So what changes for you? Slowly, the supply of licensed one-month apartments in the most popular central neighbourhoods keeps shrinking, and more of what’s left ends up run by companies rather than the retired couple downstairs.

The places least exposed are the ones that were never someone’s home: licensed aparthotels, serviced apartments and colivings built for the purpose, which run as hospitality businesses and aren’t what this law is aimed at.

A coliving with a month minimum and a shared workspace is also a different way to spend three months in a city than an apartment in a building where nobody knows your name. For a lot of middle-aged readers, that’s the more appealing option anyway.

The things worth watching this fall are whether the three-year rule survives (cities want it shorter, platforms want it longer) and whether existing licensed apartments get to stay in business. Those two details decide how fast the apartments you’re used to booking disappear.

The full legal text and the exact numbers for a housing-stress designation have not yet been published in a form we could check.

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Sources:

• Euronews, “EU moves to curb Airbnb-style rentals to boost long-term housing,” Sept. 9, 2026

• The Sofia Globe, “European Commission proposes Affordable Housing Act,” Sept. 9, 2026

• European Commission press release IP/26/1792, “New EU rules to help local authorities tackle the housing crisis,” Sept. 9, 2026

• Skift, “Europe Prepares New Law to Support Cities’ Airbnb Crackdowns,” Sept. 4, 2026

• ShortTermRentalz, “EU draft outlines framework for local STR caps,” Sept. 7, 2026