On 9 September 2026, the European Commission adopted the Affordable Housing Act, a proposal that would give cities a clear legal basis to restrict short-term lets in areas classified as “under housing stress.” For Berlin owners, very little changes, Berlin has regulated holiday lets since 2014. What changes is the legal footing: rules like Berlin’s become harder to challenge, and the direction of travel across Europe is now unambiguous.

What the Affordable Housing Act proposes

The Commission approved the Act on Wednesday 9 September, introducing unified rules for determining when an area is facing “housing stress” and giving local officials firmer backing to act on short-term rentals. Two things sit at the core of it.

First, a common methodology for assessing housing stress: measured through parameters such as the ratio between local house prices and incomes, population dynamics, and projected housing supply and demand. Until now, each member state has defined this differently. Berlin has its own framework; Lisbon has another.

Second, common procedural requirements: justification, proportionality, transparency and review. A local authority wanting to restrict short-term lets must demonstrate that those lets have measurably reduced affordable housing availability over the previous three years. It cuts both ways: cities get legal cover, but they also have to show their work.

Two clarifications worth holding onto, because early coverage blurred them:

• The Act does not ban anything. It does not regulate rents, harmonise housing policy, or require authorities to impose restrictions. Housing policy remains national, regional and local. It is a legal umbrella, not a mandate. Eureporter
• Renting out your own home is protected. The proposal targets commercial multi-property operators running several units as holiday lets, not people occasionally letting their main residence.

The scale behind the political pressure: short-term rental activity across four major platforms grew 93 percent between 2018 and 2024, and 2024 EU data shows nearly 10 percent of city residents spend more than 40 percent of their disposable income on housing. Ribera framed it plainly, when the market fails on something as fundamental as a home, “public authorities have a responsibility to act”.

Berlin got here first

f you own property here, the Act will feel familiar. Berlin’s Zweckentfremdungsverbot-Gesetz (ZwVbG – the “prohibition on misuse of residential space”) has been in force since May 2014 and already does most of what Brussels is now formalising:

• Letting residential space to holiday guests requires a Genehmigung (permit) from your district’s Wohnungsamt.
• Every listing must display a Registriernummer (registration number), publicly visible, on Airbnb or anywhere else.
• A Nebenwohnung (secondary residence) can generally be let as a holiday flat for a maximum of 90 days per year.
• A Hauptwohnung (primary residence, your genuine centre of life) can be let during your absences, provided its character as a primary home is untouched.
• Non-compliance carries fines reaching six figures.

Berlin also moved ahead of this. In March 2026 the Senate adopted an amendment aligning the ZwVbG with the EU’s short-term rental data-sharing regulation, on the reasoning that short-term and illegal holiday letting continues to withdraw urgently needed apartments from the market. That EU regulation has applied since 20 May 2026 – platforms now hand over letting data to authorities. Enforcement, in other words, is already sharper than it was a year ago.

Why the timing lands the way it does?

The announcement arrived days after a bleak read on the German rental market. The Deutsche Mieterbund’s Rent Report 2026 found that 29 percent of residents fear they will not be able to afford their rent in future, and 58 percent saw rent and utility costs rise over the previous 12 months. Half begin a flat search expecting to fail. The Mieterbund’s president described housing sliding into a driver of poverty and social decline, with the welfare state absorbing what the housing market is not delivering. IamExpat

The supply picture underneath is worse. Social housing units in Germany have fallen from 2.3 million in 2007 to 1.05 million in 2024 – the result of decades of sell-offs by federal, state and local authorities, compounded by Sozialbindung (social-binding) contracts expiring. Those contracts typically run 10 to 15 years; when they lapse, tenants may stay, but the rent resets to market rate

Meanwhile Germany’s Mietpreisbremse (rent brake), which caps rents at 10 percent above the Mietspiegel-set limit in stressed areas, still does not cover units built after 2014, furnished lets, or short-term lets. That gap is precisely where the short-term market has expanded.

What this means if you own in Berlin

If you hold a long-term rental: nothing here affects you directly, and the structural pressure arguably strengthens your position. Demand for quality long-term stock is not softening.

If you run a furnished or mid-term let: this is the segment to watch. It currently sits outside the Mietpreisbremse, which makes it a natural target for the next round of German legislation rather than the EU one.

If you operate a genuine holiday flat: confirm your Genehmigung is current and your Registriernummer appears on every listing. With platform data now flowing to the districts, the era of quiet non-compliance is over.

If you own more than one unit let short-term: you are the profile both Brussels and the Berlin Senate have in mind. Worth modelling what a conversion to long-term or mid-term letting would do to your yield before the decision is made for you.

When could this become law?

The Act now enters the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure: three parliamentary readings, during which details will shift, followed by a vote. If adopted, it takes effect 20 days later, with a review scheduled at five years. Realistically, that is a multi-year process, but Berlin’s own rules are in force today, and those are the ones that govern your property this year.

Considering what these shifts mean for your Berlin property?

Your Home Berlin manages apartments for international owners across the city compliance, tenant placement, and long-term letting strategy handled end to end.

Book a consultation and we’ll walk through the numbers on your specific unit.