EU proposes legal framework to let cities restrict Airbnb rentals amid housing crisis

Across Europe's most visited cities, the tension between tourism and the right to affordable housing has reached a legislative threshold. The European Commission has proposed a framework that would grant municipalities explicit legal authority to restrict short-term rental platforms like Airbnb in neighborhoods where housing scarcity has become measurable and documented. It is a recognition, long in coming, that the invisible hand of the market does not always reach the front door of the ordinary resident — and that the law may need to do what economics has not.