Italy's Government and Rental Operators Revolt Against the EU's New Short-Term Rental Rules

Italy has become the sharpest flashpoint in Europe’s reaction to the EU Affordable Housing Act, the framework unveiled on 9 September 2026 by Housing Commissioner Dan Jorgensen. The measure lets municipalities restrict tourist rentals and second-home purchases in housing-stress zones, defined as areas where property prices run to more than eight times average local income.

Rome has moved quickly into open confrontation with Brussels. Tommaso Foti, the Minister for European Affairs, Cohesion Policies and the PNRR, is leading the government’s push to contest the framework and shield Italy from binding constraints, arguing that the rule amounts to Brussels dictating national housing policy. The country’s main real estate and short-term rental bodies have lined up behind that position with near-unanimous criticism.

FIMAA called the regulation unacceptable and damaging to property rights and contractual freedom, objecting in particular to the housing-stress mechanism that would let municipalities declare emergency status. AIGAB, which represents rental managers, countered the regulation’s premises with sector data. FIAIP argued that the housing crisis has far deeper causes than short lets. All three dispute any proven link between short-term rentals and rising long-term rents.

Why this matters for operators

The framework is not binding on rental caps themselves. It sets conditions municipalities must satisfy before restricting, designates no cities, mandates no day limits, and carries a five-year sunset on any restriction unless it is renewed. Even so, its arrival is already triggering national pushback that could delay or soften how it is applied on the ground.

For operators, the significance is twofold. The pushback shows that implementation will be contested market by market rather than uniform across the bloc. It is also arming the industry with comparative evidence that restrictions do not deliver affordability. Operators are pointing to Barcelona, where rents rose 72 percent per square metre alongside a licensing freeze in place since 2014, and to the French Basque region, where only 5 percent of 6,000 units pulled from the short-let market returned to long-term rental.

The numbers behind the dispute

Metric	Figure
Active STR listings with CIN (Italy, Aug 2026)	510,000
STR share of EU housing stock	1.2%
STR share of Italy’s housing stock	Under 2% of 35M+ units
Property management companies / employees (Italy)	45,000 / 150,000
Barcelona rent change since 2014 licensing freeze	+72% per square metre
Basque region STR units returned to long-term market	5% of 6,000 removed

The industry’s argument rests on scale. If short lets account for barely over 1 percent of European housing and under 2 percent of Italy’s more than 35 million residential units, operators contend, they cannot be the primary driver of an affordability crisis, and restricting them will not fix it while putting 150,000 Italian jobs at risk.