Finland criticises EU´s proposal on Affordable Housing, seeks changes

The Finnish government criticised the European Commission proposal for a Regulation on affordable housing (Affordable Housing Act) and called for changes to the proposal.

The government on Thursday submitted a Union communication to Parliament where it outlined its position concerning the Commission proposal, said the Ministry of the Environment in a press release.

It sought changes as the draft proposal is considered to significantly restrict the competence of the Member States by virtue of internal market regulation.

The European Commission published its proposal for the Affordable Housing Act on 9 September 2026. The act would create a framework for measures by the Member States to safeguard housing affordability and availability. The proposal is part of the European Affordable Housing Plan published by the Commission on 16 December 2025. A Europe communication on this was submitted to Parliament on 17 April 2026.

The aim of the Commission proposal is to clarify the conditions based on which the Member States could safeguard housing affordability and availability in accordance with the EU internal market rules. The proposal would create a common framework for assessing such measures. The regulation could apply to measures by authorities of the Member States that restrict short-term accommodation rental services (such as Airbnb) or acquisition and use of dwellings for purposes other than permanent residence.

The Commission proposal is targeted to areas where housing demand exceeds the supply and the affordability and availability of housing has suffered from this. These include large cities and tourist destinations. The competent authorities should be able to provide evidence of such housing pressure before introducing any restrictive measures.

The government emphasises that housing policy falls within the national competence of the Member States. Housing and the housing market are very much local in nature and their development is influenced by earlier housing policy decisions. These decisions have long-term impacts that are reflected in the housing stock, urban structure and systems concerning housing.

The government considers that the Commission proposal is not proportionate. Through the internal market competence it addresses matters that would be much more effectively regulated locally and without EU-level regulation.

It considers that the proposal should specify in more detail how the areas affected by housing pressures would be defined in practice, as this is one of the elements that will determine the significance of the proposal. Too rough NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) division would not recognise local differences in the housing market because there may be both cities suffering from housing shortage and areas with an abundant supply of housing within the same region. This could make it difficult to target the measures to areas where the need is the greatest.

“The housing market situations and problems related to housing vary a great deal in different parts of the large EU area. It simply does not make any sense to try to regulate the housing market of Oulu or Espoo with the same rules as the market of Barcelona or Amsterdam. The Commission’s proposal does not solve the problems that it aims to address,” said Minister of Climate and the Environment Sari Multala in the press release.

The Union Communication will be referred to the Grand Committee of Parliament for consideration.

In the EU a national Parliament can give a reasoned opinion to the Presidents of the European Parliament, Council and Commission of the reasons based on which it considers that the proposal does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity. The reasoned opinion must be submitted within eight weeks from the publication of the proposal concerning a legislative act in all official languages of the European Union.

The deadline for submitting the opinion on this proposal is 17 November.