Brussels: The European Commission opened a Union-wide consultation on 1 July 2026 to strip away the rules that slow housing construction, launching the first step toward a Housing Simplification Package aimed at easing Europe’s affordable housing crisis. The call for evidence invites governments, builders, financiers and civil society to say which regulations add cost, delay and paperwork without protecting anyone.

Housing has climbed to the top of the EU’s social agenda as rents and prices outpace wages across much of the continent. Dan Jørgensen, the commissioner responsible, argues that Europe cannot house its people unless it lets construction and renovation move faster.

“To build better, more and faster, the building sector needs simpler rules. We can’t combat the housing crisis without speeding up construction and renovation. We need to avoid unnecessary paperwork, costs and delays,” Jørgensen said, adding that the package would deliver more homes “without lowering our environmental and social protection standards.”

The consultation runs until 30 September 2026 and deliberately casts a wide net. The Commission wants evidence from national, regional and local authorities as well as the housing, construction and finance sectors, reflecting how planning, permits and building codes sit across many layers of government.

Officials insist simplification will not mean deregulation. The promised package, due in 2027, is meant to cut red tape while keeping the energy, safety and social safeguards that shape modern building. That balance matters politically, because tenants’ groups fear any loosening could be used to weaken protections rather than speed up supply.

The exercise flows from the wider European Affordable Housing Plan, which the Commission presented in December 2025 as its first dedicated blueprint for the sector. That plan bundles several tools together:

• A Pan-European Investment Platform to pool public and private money for new homes.
• An Affordable Housing Act, promised for 2026, addressing pressures from short-term rentals.
• More than 43 billion euro mobilised for housing under the 2021 to 2027 budget.
• A further 10 billion euro from the EU budget in 2026 and 2027, with partner institutions targeting 375 billion euro by 2029.

The numbers underline how far the Union has travelled on a policy area it long treated as a purely national matter. The EU has no direct competence to build houses, so Brussels is leaning on money, state-aid flexibility and regulatory simplification to move a market it cannot command.

Construction groups have welcomed the focus on paperwork, pointing to permitting timelines that can stretch for years and environmental assessments that overlap across national and EU layers. They argue that faster approvals, not lower standards, offer the quickest route to more affordable housing.

Critics counter that cheap credit and land supply matter more than forms, and that simplification risks becoming a slogan unless it reaches the local rules where most delays occur. The Commission acknowledges it can only influence, not dictate, how member states plan their cities.

Stakeholders can submit views through the Commission’s call for evidence, part of the broader European Affordable Housing Plan. With responses due by the autumn, the shape of Europe’s housing rules for the next decade is now up for debate.