Residential focus: What are the hot topics across the globe?

US Federal:

Senate has passed the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to the Housing Act of 2025; this is to be voted on in the House. The key features include:

Housing Supply Expansion

• Whole-Home Repairs Act: This grants loans for essential home repairs
• Build More Housing Near Transit Act: This incentivizes housing near public transit
• Housing Supply Frameworks Act: This will guide zoning and land-use reform

Program Modernization

• Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD): This lifts the cap on RAD conversions
• Moving to Work (MTW) Program: This fully authorizes MTW and mandates evaluation

Financial Tools

• Community Investment and Prosperity Act: The Act raises bank investment caps for affordable housing
• Innovation Fund: This provides flexible funding for local housing initiatives

Regulatory Streamlining

• BUILD Housing Act: This Act simplifies environmental reviews for housing projects

Tenant & Homelessness Support

• This will strengthen oversight of housing counseling.
• It will incentivize programs that improve outcomes for homeless individuals.

California

Key changes in California are included in the SB 79 “Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act” which will:

• Increase Housing Near Transit: It legalizes and streamlines the development of multifamily housing within proximity to major public transit stops
• Combat the Affordability Crisis: It targets the root causes of California’s housing shortage by unlocking land near transit for higher-density housing
• Promote Sustainable Growth: It encourages transit-oriented development to reduce traffic congestion, boost transit ridership, and lower carbon emissions.

Also in California, the Abundance Agenda Housing and Infrastructure Reform Package will:

• Provide an exemption from CEQA for Urban Infill Housing
• Provide expedited review for projects nearly meeting the requirements
• Provide for streamlined approval timelines

New York City

In addition to electing a new Mayor this November, NYC voters will have the ability to dramatically change the development process if a handful of ballot proposals are approved. These questions have the support of the real estate industry and championed by Mayor Eric Adams, whose Charter Revision Commission have made these recommendations.

Among other things, these ballot measures would expedite the zoning and planning process for City-funded affordable housing projects and force City Council districts that contributed the lowest number of housing units to allow for more housing production. The most controversial ballot measure creates an appeals board for affordable housing projects that were rejected or modified by the City Council, undercutting the existing process of “member’s deference” whereby council members follow the local representative vote.

These ballot measures could be influenced by turn-out for the Mayoral election; since they are not the focus of the November election, some all or of these proposals could still be passed with significantly less votes than cast for Mayor. Historically significant ballot measures (for example term limits) have been passed during City wide elections as those who are supportive have paid attention to them when voting while others have not.

Germany

As planned before the summer break the construction turbo law has been passed by the German parliament (Bundestag). The federal government has fulfilled its coalition agreement commitment to initiate this project within the first 100 days. The amendments to the German Building Code (Baugesetzbuch,“BauGB”) are intended to combat the shortage of affordable housing, particularly in urban areas. Despite the new cabinet, the “construction turbo provision”, which was conceived under the previous “Ampel” coalition, is being incorporated into the Building Code with only a few changes. The adoption of this law by the cabinet is a welcome move given the beleaguered construction industry and the massive shortage of living space. However, it is also based on the realization that local authorities are no longer in a position to meet the urgent demand for housing by drawing up or amending development plans as these procedures simply take too long.

As for next steps, the federal government plans to tackle the announced reform of the Federal Building Code (BauGB) later this year. According to the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, the amendment is already in preparation: “It is absolutely clear that building regulations must be structurally and permanently streamlined and geared toward speed and efficiency. A temporary exception like the construction turbo can only be an interim solution," stated a press release on October 8, 2025.

At the same time, work is also being done on Building Type E, allowing developers to deviate from high building standards with legal certainty and to minimize costs. Together with the promotion of the EH55 standard to activate the construction backlog, this could provide a strong stimulus for the construction industry.

Italy

The Italian government has launched the "Piano Casa Italia", an initiative to address housing challenges, promote family growth, and support young people in accessing affordable housing.

Key Objectives

• Affordable Housing: to provide homes at controlled prices, especially for young couples and middle-income families (with an annual income of between €30,000 and €60,000).
• Social Housing Reform: to revamp the social housing system to support those who do not qualify for public housing, but cannot afford market prices.
• Support for Families: to reinforce the role of housing in enabling family formation and increasing birth rates.
• Public-Private Partnerships (PPP): to encourage collaboration between government, private investors, and the Third Sector to finance and manage housing projects.

Main Measures

• Guarantee Fund of Consap – Concessionaria Servizi Assicurativi Pubblici S.p.A.: Consap is a private company wholly owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance which manages the public insurance services. According to the Piano Casa Italia the guarantee fund established by Consap to provide a public guarantee in favour of banks which grant first home mortgages to certain categories (young couples, single-parent families with young children, young people under 36 and families with 3 or more children in difficult economic conditions) will be extended until 2027.
• Initial Funding: €660 million has been allocated, though industry experts estimate at least €15 billion is needed over 10 years.
• New Housing Models: promotion of co-housing, intergenerational housing, and senior housing.
• National Housing Database: creation of a centralized system to map housing needs and available properties.
• New housing agencies (“Aziende Casa”): housing agencies are regional or provincial residential building authorities responsible for managing public housing for individuals in difficult economic circumstances. The Piano Casa Italia provides for the establishment of semi-private housing agencies with flexible and efficient management structures.

Challenges & next steps

• The Piano Casa Italia is still awaiting a formal DPCM (Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers) to define its operational framework.
• Implementation is expected to be included in the 2026 Budget Law, to be passed by the end of 2025.
• Stakeholders have expressed concerns about the adequacy of funding and the need for concrete legislative action.

New Consolidated Building Act

A new bill for the reorganization and simplification of the regulations on buildings and constructions is under discussion in Italy. The proposals completely rewrite the categories of intervention, administrative regimes and amnesty procedures. The reform aims at making the building sector more efficient and promoting urban regeneration, ensuring safety, transparency and certainty of timelines.

Main Measures:

• Procedural simplification for the transformation of buildings.
• Self-certification and silent consent in administrative procedures (i.e. for the various building titles, which should be reduced to three, CILA (“comunicazione inizio lavori asseverata”), SCIA (“segnalazione certificata di inizio attività”) and the building permit.
• Complete digitisation of the national building stock to provide a “Building Record” for every property which would be a record of historical information, authorisations, interventions and updates.
• A new procedure to rectify building non-conformities.

UK

Following the summer recess, the Labour-led UK government has been pressing ahead with its agenda for reform in the residential property sector.  The Renter’s Rights Act is due to receive Royal Assent in the coming weeks, bringing about the biggest changes to the short-term tenancy sector that we have seen in nearly 40 years. Limited fixed-term occupation under Assured Shorthold Tenancies will be a thing of the past. Instead, tenants will be entitled to keep occupying their properties under rolling periodic tenancies unless and until the landlord can satisfy specific grounds for possession (such as an intention to occupy, sell or redevelop, or because of specific tenant defaults).  Additionally, the practice of raising rents through bidding wars between prospective tenants will be outlawed, as will discrimination against potential tenants on the basis that they are in receipt of housing benefits or because they have children.

At the other end of the spectrum, more sections of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 will come into force.  That is a piece of legislation focussed primarily on long leases of 21 years or more, many of which are granted for an initial term of more than 125 years for a premium and at a low rent.  If fully enacted (though it is currently subject to a current Judicial Review challenge), it will make it easier for leaseholders to acquire the freehold and will fundamentally affect the amount of money a landlord will be able to collect in return for that freehold purchase or when granting 990 year lease extensions.

Autumn is also conference season for the main UK political parties, and the majority of those parties have outlined plans to empower leaseholders and to disincentivise what the Green Party have described in general as “landlordism”.  The Labour Party is pressing on with plans for an additional Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill, introducing measures intended to promote the adoption of commonhold as a form of shared property ownership, at the expense of the traditional leasehold structure.   The Chancellor of the Exchequer has raised the possibility of a Capital Gains Tax on high-value primary residences and an overhaul of the Stamp Duty Land Tax regime.  On the other hand, the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pledged to abolish SDLT on primary residences altogether, in a move that would cost the state huge amounts of tax revenue but which is intended to promote outright home ownership.  The Liberal Democrats have proposed further reforms to the short-term tenancy regime including a minimum 3 year term for all tenants.  Turning back to the Green Party, they have pledged that if they were in power they would gradually abolish private landlords altogether, transferring rental properties into social ownership. They would prohibit buy-to-let mortgages and increase taxes on rental income.

Some of those parties are much closer to power than others, but the direction of travel is clear, with the traditional landlord-and-tenant model of property ownership and occupation being phased out, and tenant rights promoted by successive governments.

One particular focus at the moment is how to kick-start the delivery of housing in London, which has dropped dramatically in recent years. There are rumours abound as to how this is to be achieved, ranging from changes in physical requirements, reductions in affordable housing expectations, or the suspension of CIL. Clarity is expected in the next few weeks as to what is planned.

Across the globe, governments are trying to address the housing shortage with innovative and varied solutions. Global headwinds, rising populations, rising interest rates and material and labour costs are creating significant challenges for the construction and development industries. It is hoped that the governments’ various initiatives will benefit the industry and provide solutions at a time when the speedy delivery of housing is more relevant than ever.

Authored by Loryn Arkow, Ross Moskowitz, Hannah Quarterman, Tim Reid, Sabine Adams, Damian Sternberg, Alberto Carrara, Stella Bliss, and Ingrid Stables.