The European Commission is set to unveil a package of measures aimed at tackling the housing crisis across Europe.
According to a draft of the proposals, EU fiscal rules could be relaxed to allow for greater public spending on affordable housing, and not just social housing.
The proposals are also expected to address the impact of short-term rentals on the housing market.
The commission will tread lightly with these proposals, aware that housing has not normally been an EU competence and how member states will be wary of any measures which impinge on national law.
However, governments across the union are facing growing political resentment over the unaffordability of homes, a rental sector that is now out of reach for younger voters, and an increase in homelessness.
Officials now say that 650,000 units are needed every year across the EU to make up the shortfall caused by soaring construction costs and disrupted supply chains.
Among the measures is a revision of state aid rules to allow greater flexibility in public spending for what are termed affordable homes, and not just social housing.
There will be proposals to reduce the administrative burden in the construction sector, to make raw materials cheaper and more available, and to share best practice in new technologies around house building, an issue understood to be of interest to the Irish Government.