Housing simplification package

The Council of Gas Detection and Environmental Monitoring (CoGDEM EU) wishes to submit the attached joint position paper (published earlier this year together with all co-signatories) on the forthcoming Housing Simplification Package.

Harghita County Build Wood Initiative as a Good Practice When preparing the Housing Simplification Package, it is worth considering Harghita County Build Wood Initiative, the institutional basis of which dates back more than a decade.

Filed in Hungarian · English published by the European Commission

Lviv Agglomeration welcomes the European Commission's initiative to improve housing supply and affordability. Lviv Agglomeration brings together 13 municipalities with a population of around 1.1 million people. Our experience shows that housing policy cannot be effectively addressed within the administrative borders of one city.

The EU's regulatory framework for environment and land use (SEA/EIA Directives, the Nature Restoration Law, and the Soil Monitoring Law) was designed with legitimate environmental goals in mind. However, as currently drafted and implemented, these frameworks impose overlapping assessments, rigid principles, and disproportionate administrative burdens on the construction sector.

The House of the Dutch Provinces (HNP), het Interprovinciaal Overleg (IPO) and the Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten (VNG) call for a targeted European simplification agenda for affordable housing. Simplifying and clarifying EU legislation can increase investment capacity, shorten procedures and facilitate innovative solutions.

Construction products are currently governed by a complex framework of product, energy, chemicals, waste, procurement and sustainability legislation. While each framework pursues legitimate objectives, their interaction often creates duplication, inconsistent requirements and legal uncertainty.

Positionspapier zum EU-Plan für erschwinglichen Wohnraum Der Mangel an bezahlbarem Wohnraum ist eine der drängendsten sozialen Fragen des 21. Jahrhunderts. Deshalb müssen die gesetzlichen Rahmenbedingungen für das Bauwesen wieder so gestaltet werden, dass Neu- und Bestandsbauten den Bedarf an bezahlbarem Wohnraum decken können.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

Opening of the attached position paper · the full paper is on the Commission’s record (source link above)

The principal delays experienced by our members arise from national administrative procedures and regulatory barriers rather than from EU environmental legislation. 2. Have national authorities added extra steps on top of what an EU directive actually requires? Yes.

In order to ensure an effective enforcement of the "Housing First" Principle, enshrined in the European Affordable Housing Plan as well as the "Think Small First" concept from the SME Relief Package, the Services Directive 2006/123 should immediately be amended as follows; * Licenses for housing construction and renovation should not take more than 3 months, including all permits and formalities.

We welcome this initiative as a valuable contribution to the European housing debate. By articulating a coherent framework at EU level, it offers Member States a broader reference point for aligning national housing policy with shared European values, particularly regarding access to affordable and adequate housing.

SoHoNet welcomes the European Commission's initiative to identify regulatory barriers to affordable housing. Our experience in Brussels shows that housing supply is often constrained less by EU legislation itself than by fragmented implementation across different levels of government. The priority is therefore not deregulation, but greater coherence, proportionality and predictability. 1.

We are a company innovating in the built environment-offsite/modular construction, digital/BIM permitting, circular and low-carbon materials, and energy retrofit-established in Bulgaria (EU) with R&D in Israel. We see the single market both as an EU actor and a non-EU innovator scaling into it. We welcome the Package.

It is true that the EU is addressing the issue of housing. However, it is important not to further complicate the already over-regulated construction of housing in most countries. Priority should be given to new construction methods with serial and, above all, fast construction times. For some state or cooperative contracting authorities, technical and sub-lot awards are still mandatory.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

Our target is to build fast and affordable. The way to build is in every country different. By using factory made solutions ( concrete or wood element solutions ) it is possible to speed up the building time and secure the quality of made construction and apartments.

The EC should come up with a Code of Administrative Best Practices on housing, given that competences on the matter mainly lie with regional and local authorities. For example, local authorities should grant a 3-month deadline and a positive administrative silence to small housing projects of less than 5 million in investment, such as renovating a building or changing the use of a given property.

1. The Invisible Digital Chokepoint of Physical Housing European Affordable Housing Plan (EAHP) properly targets the administrative complexity, multi-level regulatory layering, and low productivity paralyzing the construction ecosystem. However, a significant blind spot remains: modern industrial construction is no longer just a localized matter of brick and mortar.

Feedback on: Housing supply and affordability (regulatory simplification) As Director of a Portuguese real estate company focused on the acquisition, renovation, and rental of affordable residential housing, I welcome the European Commissions effort to simplify the rules around housing development. Our work is centred on creating decent, affordable homes for working people and families.

Please find attached, and also linked below, the EAPB's position paper on Housing Simplification and Finance. It identifies the EU legislation that National Promotional Banks and Institutions (NPBIs), the leading public financiers of social and affordable housing in Europe, consider most relevant, and sets out a number of proposals for improvement. https://eapb.eu/component/attachments/attachments.html?id=3829

The current housing affordability crisis across Europe is fundamentally a supply-side challenge that requires structural reforms rather than isolated interventions. While demographic changes, urbanisation, financing conditions, and construction costs all contribute to rising housing prices, one of the most significant barriers to increasing housing supply remains the cumulative regulatory burden affecting housing…

One of the most significant examples of the impact of European legislation on housing supply in France is the implementation of the Energy Performance Diagnostic (EPD), in the context of the European objectives of decarbonising the building stock and achieving climate neutrality.

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

The initiative correctly identifies that administrative complexity and fragmented regulation contribute to delays, uncertainty and increased housing costs. However, based on my experience contributing to Estonias BIM-based digital building permitting ecosystem, chairing the EU BIM Task Group, serving on the Board of Directors of buildingSMART International, and supporting European initiatives on digital construction…

The Housing Simplification Package should not only address regulatory simplification, but also the simplification of compliance demonstration. With recognised technical documentation, digital construction databases and rule-based configurators with algorythms based on technical standards can help designers and contractors demonstrate compliance more efficiently while maintaining responsibility, safety and quality.