Brussels – Revising the European plan for sustainable construction (Affordable Housing Plan) and changing the approach: to tackle the housing crisis in Europe, we need incentives and guarantees for property owners, not new constraints and restrictions. This is the position of Confedilizia and Forza Italia, which emerged on the sidelines of the meeting “Housing at the heart of Europe”, organised at the European Parliament on the initiative of MEP Marco Falcone, in collaboration with the property owners’ association.
“We will continue to criticise the Affordable Housing Act; we have done so from the draft stage right up to the day of its publication. It is a misguided measure, just like the approach taken by the European Commission: the solution to promoting access to housing is not to impose further constraints or restrictions, but to provide more incentives and guarantees,” stated the president of Confedilizia, Giorgio Spaziani Testa.
According to the association, the path to follow should be the one already taken by the Italian government, through greater protections for landlords, faster and more certain timelines for evictions, and significant tax relief on rents, particularly for rent-controlled properties. “This is the path to success: not to achieve miracles, but to bring about an improvement in the housing situation,” added Spaziani Testa, describing the European approach, by contrast, as “fundamentally flawed” and ineffective in the light of experiences in other countries.
Along the same lines, MEP Marco Falcone called for the “plan to be withdrawn and revised,” objecting in particular to the emphasis placed on short-term lettings, which he considered a marginal aspect of the housing crisis. “We need to increase the supply of properties, defend property rights and not penalise those who make a property available,” he argued.
Forza Italia Senator Roberto Rosso has criticised the decision to act “through a European regulation, which is immediately applicable,” rather than through a recommendation or a directive. He highlighted the parliamentary opposition to the measure, citing the opposing views expressed in Italy, Germany, and France, and arguing that “the proposed restrictions could go so far as to limit the sale of properties in areas identified as being under housing pressure.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
