The Affordable Housing Act is about to be introduced. For a short-term rental platform like Airbnb, the housing agenda should […]
The Affordable Housing Act is about to be introduced. For a short-term rental platform like Airbnb, the housing agenda should be a competitive tool.
In this episode of the Liberal Europe Podcast, Ricardo Silvestre (Movimento Liberal Social) continues a conversation about the upcoming Affordable Housing Act, this time with George Mavros, the Head Government Affairs & Public Policy Campaigns EU institutions at Airbnb.
This podcast, as well as previous episodes, is available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcast, Stitcher and Spotify.
As George mentioned, you can know more about the work that Airbnb is doing by following their news section, and you can also see the report “Airbnb in the EU” for 2026
This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with Movimento Liberal Social and Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.
Ricardo: Welcome to the Liberal Europe podcast. I’m your host, Ricardo Silvestre, and thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Continuing our dive into the upcoming Affordable Housing Act, and after the conversation on public financing in the previous episode, we will now focus on the regulatory outlook for short-term rentals. As the proposed legislation sets out specific guidance for digital platforms that provide this service, we’re going to explore how to make the housing agenda a competitive tool with George Mavros, Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy Campaigns for the EU institutions at Airbnb. We’re also going to discuss how to relieve pressure on high-density urban areas with the use of a diversified short-term rental model. But now, without further ado, it’s my pleasure to bring you George Mavros
George: Thank you for having me.
Ricardo: Oh, it’s great to have you. We are going to go into all things Airbnb, but also the Affordable Housing Act. But before, introduce yourself to our listeners. What is your position and the work that you do at Airbnb?
George: Sure. My name is George Mavros — actually, Yorgos in Greek, George for convenience. I am based in Brussels. I am the Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Airbnb in the EU. My job consists of engaging with the European institutions — the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Council — on policy areas and all issues that concern our hosts, guests, and the communities they live in.
Ricardo: Fantastic. So you’re the right person to go into exactly the topic of the conversation today, because it connects to all those stakeholders in what is called the Affordable Housing Act. Airbnb has been very keen on the housing crisis. You have that stated position, which is: it’s a real crisis. And you also urge the European Union lawmakers to steer away from token policies, and instead tackle the root causes of the problem. So tell me, what is the reading from your organisation regarding the debate about creating this Act? Are we on the right track? Are we missing something?
George: I think, first of all, it’s important to acknowledge that the European Commission is right to treat housing as a key policy priority. Housing has become a critical concern for European citizens across member states. We see this in polls, in elections; it has become a talking point in political campaigns. So the European Commission is rightly grappling with the issue. The actual question is: what are the policy choices we can make at the EU level so we can effectively address the real concerns felt by our fellow European citizens? In doing so, we need to look at what is happening on the ground. The housing crisis has soared over the course of the last years — not to say decades. Both the European Commission and national governments have pinpointed the reasons: very high construction costs, few permits, many empty dwellings. Effectively, we do not build enough. European Commission data shows that we need over 2 million houses per year just to meet demand by 2035. And we do not renovate enough in order to put back to the market the empty dwellings I mentioned. Again, referring to Commission data, we have around 20% of empty housing stock in Europe, which is obviously a very significant percentage. These are some of the key drivers of the supply challenges we face. This is why we put the onus on the supply side — the challenges that need to be addressed by the European Commission, but also by European countries as well, if we want to find an effective solution to the problem of housing availability.
Ricardo: Let’s go a little bit into the Affordable Housing Act. We were talking about the debate regarding the need for bigger investment in this field, and you just made a very good diagnosis of the situation. Being connected to this process, tell us: are we going in the right direction? Do you think this Affordable Housing Act will answer some of the needs you just described?
George: There are still many unknowns. We haven’t seen a text. There were some documents by the European Commission and public consultations, so we can feel where they’re heading. What is encouraging, at least as far as I am concerned, is that the Commission and the Housing Task Force are doing an incredibly tough but incredible job. It seems to me they consider housing not only through the social lens, but also through an industrial policy and competitive lens. I think this is encouraging and very important, because ultimately, if we need affordable houses, we need to build more. And if we want to build more, we need to support our construction sector as well. The way of assessing this question seems encouraging, but obviously, we need to see the details. Now, when it comes to areas where I’m slightly more concerned — or where I think we might have some blind spots — I see three areas. First, you are referring to the Affordable Housing Act. This is a piece of legislation coming most likely in September. But at the same time, the European Commission has announced a simplification housing agenda, which will come from 2027 onwards. I personally find this division a bit artificial. It seems to me that we should have grappled with all these issues at the same time, and not sequenced the approach. If we just focus on the Affordable Housing Act right now, we might just process scarcity and try to manage the existing scarcity, instead of, at the same time, trying to create abundance, which is the actual answer to the problem. If my wish could come true, I would handle both the Affordable Housing Act and the simplification package at the same time, because these are two sides of the same coin. The second point, which I think is a missed opportunity, is technology. Particularly when it comes to housing, technology is a missing piece. According to the European Investment Bank, 75% of construction companies do not innovate at all. And yet, construction technology is developing rapidly. I’m referring to off-site manufacturing, new software, artificial intelligence. All these tools, processes, and technologies actually help us both to conceive and build houses. They decrease both time and prices when it comes to costs. This is the missing piece. If we boost and support these new technologies — in a sector not yet dominated by other trading partners like China or the US — I think it ties very well with our priorities on the digital single market. So we could have spent a bit more time boosting that part and having a bit more meat on the bone in the housing agenda. And if I may add another point that we miss in the public discussion right now: the need for flexible housing for Europeans. Most of us, at some point in time, will experience a situation where we need flexible housing. Short-term rentals are part of the solution. When I’m referring to flexible housing, I’m talking about medical stays, student stays, business trips. In that context, short-term rentals are actually a solution to use cases many of us will experience over the course of our lives.
Ricardo: Those are all fascinating points. Let me have a couple of follow-ups. On the flexible housing, I would add teachers. For example, in my country, there is a discussion that rages every time we have teachers being placed all over Portugal. It’s like: all right, what about flexible housing? George, let me go into point two about technology regarding not only construction, I imagine, but everything associated. Where do you add sustainability, particularly regarding the carbon footprint of all these processes? Is this something that also runs in the back of your head?
George: Absolutely. And before jumping on this question, I just want to draw on your example of teachers, which is a very meaningful example, particularly for countries — I know you’re based in Portugal, I’m currently based in Greece. We do face this type of challenge, particularly in touristic hotspots. I’d like to mention a recent example I was very happy to be involved in. As you know, in Greece, we have many islands, and we do get a lot of tourists during the summer season, which creates some challenges for essential workers like doctors. A couple of weeks ago, we announced a partnership between the Greek government and Airbnb.org to support the stays of doctors in the islands. We do have that type of programme across Europe, mainly supported by our nonprofit organisation, Airbnb.org, to support teachers and essential workers like doctors in busy areas during summertime so they can find accommodation and can be part of the community. This is one of the most interesting projects I’ve been part of since I joined Airbnb. Now, coming back to your question on sustainability — if we look at what happened this summer with heat waves in many European countries that hadn’t experienced them before — technology can play a critical role here. This is one of the main reasons I’ve mentioned it. It’s not just about bringing down costs. It’s about making sure the houses of tomorrow answer to the needs of Europeans. And I would argue that short-term rentals are a way for many of our hosts to have the necessary resources to invest in their houses, invest in their apartments, and make sure they’re energy efficient — that they respond to the increasing needs we have, be it during summertime or winter.
Ricardo: That is such a great point. Recovery and resilience plans normally do have a line item for that kind of intervention in the home. So this is something for people listening to us — having their own house that they can transform into a short-term rental — to think about. Let’s talk about short-term rentals. I have a two-sided question, but this is the bait for your input: the social-political aspect of short-term rentals, and then how that causes community resistance. Tell us about specific positive policies, particularly for high-density cities. How can we find the right balance between the expectations from communities and people having the freedom to have their own house in the market if they want to for short-term rentals?
George: Absolutely. You are based in Lisbon. I am based in Brussels.
Ricardo: I’m laughing — sorry, George, let me interrupt. I’m laughing, but for our listeners, I’m not laughing at you. I’m just laughing at the fact that you mentioned it, because in Lisbon, it is this raging debate going on. Please continue.
George: As someone currently living in Brussels but who was born and grew up in downtown Athens, I do have a lot of sympathy for this argument, and I do understand the actual problem you have just described. It seems to me the actual problem you are highlighting is over-tourism. Over-tourism is the big concern of many communities who both benefit from the economic upside of being a host to guests and tourists, but at the same time need to deal with the negative externalities. If over-tourism is the actual challenge, then the answer should, in my opinion, be dispersion. Dispersion of tourists. Dispersion can take three forms. First, within a city, it’s a dispersion between very popular neighbourhoods and less popular neighbourhoods. Something we as Airbnb experienced during the Winter Olympic Games in Milano this year — thanks to short-term rentals, and the spatial distribution of them, people could move around Milano much more easily than one can with hotels. You cannot necessarily build a hotel in an area that doesn’t attract tourists — there’s no business case — but you can leverage short-term rentals. The second form of dispersion is from hubs and hotspots to smaller towns or villages in the vicinity. In 2025, when it comes to Airbnb stays, we saw for the first time more stays outside of city centres than within city centres. People want to experience something different, so they’ve mostly booked outside city centres. This doesn’t mean that Lisbon, Barcelona, or Athens will not be popular — the Acropolis will still be climbed — but there is a market trend on our platform: people tend to have different expectations. And the third form of dispersion is throughout the year. If you want to visit Athens, it’s a pity to just focus on June to September. Athens is a great city to visit in November, December, or January. If we spread out tourism across the year, even for popular destinations, we can really alleviate the challenge over-tourism has. And as I’ve said, I totally understand the frustration of communities around over-tourism. But what we have seen is: if we just target short-term rentals, we do not address either over-tourism or housing supply. There are cautionary tales. Barcelona and Amsterdam adopted very restrictive measures on short-term rentals. But after a long period of time, we saw that it didn’t meaningfully improve the livelihood of local communities. This is probably why some other cities, like Lisbon, that had moratoria and restrictive measures, reversed these policies and became more permissive on short-term rentals — because they saw that not only did it not improve the situation on the ground, but it had a meaningful economic impact on the hosts and the local community.
Ricardo: Very good. If I can add something on your first two points — spatial distribution and the question of hubs — the other thing I also believe helped was the ride-sharing apps, because public transportation sometimes is not as good as it should be. That was something that also helped the decentralisation you mentioned. As we’re getting into the end of our time together, you just mentioned a minute ago that if you had the power of a magic wand, tell us one or two final messages where you think work still has to be done, not only by Airbnb, but also by local communities and local governments.
George: I’m hopeful that I will not need a magic wand for that. I’m quite optimistic that this broader housing agenda of the European Union and the European Commission — and I’m quite reassured by the discussions I’ve been having with the Housing Task Force, the dedicated service within the Commission that is the powerhouse behind the strategy — will use this housing agenda as a competitiveness tool to support the European economy overall, to support critical economic sectors. In doing so, we need to adopt, as I’ve said, an abundance mindset and not a scarcity mindset. If we just want to manage scarcity, each and every one of us will be worse off. If I had a magic wand right now, I think what we would need to bring to Europe is the YIMBY movement — Yes In My Backyard — a progressive movement initiated in the US that tackles housing issues by advocating for more supply-side measures, easing permitting, and supporting cities to allow more houses that bring more taxes and create more infrastructure. And we can also leverage our single market. I mentioned technology and how the European Union can boost construction technology. But we can also, at the EU level, leverage our significant financial resources to support local communities in building the houses we desperately need.
Ricardo: Very insightful conversation. For people to know more and to get interested — even activated — on this particular topic, tell us where can people follow the work done by Airbnb?
George: Sure. The easiest way is to just Google Airbnb newsroom. It’s news.airbnb.com. This is where we publish the data we have, some of the great partnerships we have with local communities, and so on.
Ricardo: Very good. I’m going to put the link in the podcast show notes. I’ve been talking with George Mavros, Head of Public Policy at Airbnb in the EU. George, this was very illuminating. Thank you so much for coming to the podcast, and I’m going to ask you to come again after the Affordable Housing Act is out so we can continue this conversation.
George: Thanks for having me.