Europe & Compliance
A structured compliance pathway — not a compliance claim
Floating residential development touches building law, marine engineering, environmental law and planning law at the same time. DONSÖ's position is that this is the hard part of the business, and that it must be answered explicitly rather than assumed.
01 / The European context
The supply gap is documented. The delivery method is not settled.
The European Commission states that Europe needs to build more than two million homes each year to meet current demand — around 650,000 more each year than the 1.6 million built today. It also reports that house prices have risen around 60% since 2013 and that social housing represents only 6–7% of EU housing stock.
Those figures describe a supply problem. They do not say anything about floating housing, and nothing on this page should be read as an endorsement of DONSÖ by any institution.
Policy instruments we are following
- Affordable Housing Act — presented by the European Commission in September 2026.
- Pan-European Housing Investment Platform — announced by the Commission as coming in 2026, bringing together the EIB Group, the Council of Europe Development Bank, the EBRD and national and regional promotional banks. The Commission identifies an annual investment gap of around €150 billion.
- European Housing Alliance — launched in May 2026.
- New European Bauhaus — design quality, sustainability and inclusion principles.
No EU funding has been applied for, awarded or confirmed, and no eligibility assessment has been carried out. Public funding may be relevant to a future project, but any route requires a specific call, an eligible applicant, an eligible-cost opinion and a state-aid assessment. DONSÖ makes no claim to be eligible for any programme named above.
02 / Compliance roadmap
Fourteen questions that decide whether a project is buildable
Each line is a piece of work with a named discipline attached. None of them is closed. This roadmap is the scope a paid feasibility study would begin to work through, and it is the reason a feasibility study is the right first commercial step.
| Requirement | What must be established | Who must validate it | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal classification of the units | Whether a unit is treated as a building, a vessel or something else determines which rules, taxes, registration and financing apply. | Legal counsel with the municipality and relevant authorities | Not yet validated |
| Applicable Swedish building requirements | Boverket's building regulations replaced BBR and EKS, and the transition period for the older rules ended on 1 July 2026. The applicable requirements must be established for this building type. | Building control and a qualified designer | Not yet validated |
| Eurocodes and structural verification | Structural design and verification against the Eurocode system as applied in Sweden, including load combinations relevant to a floating structure. | Structural engineer | Not yet validated |
| Stability, buoyancy and freeboard | Intact and damaged stability, reserve displacement, compartmentation and freeboard under design load and water-level cases. | Naval architect or marine engineer | Not yet validated |
| Mooring and marine loads | Wind, wave, current, ice and water-level design cases; anchor or pile selection; redundancy and inspection regime. | Marine engineer, following hydrographic and geotechnical survey | Not yet validated |
| Fire safety and evacuation | Fire strategy, compartmentation, travel distances, escape routes to shore, rescue access by land and water, and firefighting water supply. | Fire engineer with the local fire and rescue service | Not yet validated |
| Accessibility | Step-free route from shore to a defined share of homes and common areas, and evacuation assistance for people who cannot self-evacuate. | Architect and building control | Not yet validated |
| Energy performance | Energy model and performance targets under the Swedish implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, and an all-electric, zero-emission direction. | Energy engineer | Not yet validated |
| Potable water and wastewater | Supply capacity, freeze protection, wastewater collection and discharge permissions, and connection terms from the local utility. | Utility provider and environmental authority | Not yet validated |
| Electrical safety | Shore connection, distribution, earthing and protection appropriate to a floating installation in a marine environment. | Electrical engineer and certified installer | Not yet validated |
| Materials, corrosion and durability | Material selection, corrosion protection, design life, inspection access and component replaceability. | Materials and marine engineering, with supplier data | Not yet validated |
| Environmental assessment | Effects on water quality, seabed, ecology and navigation; shoreline protection rules; and the environmental permitting route. | Environmental consultant and the County Administrative Board | Not yet validated |
| Insurance and lender requirements | What an insurer and a lender need in order to cover and finance the structure, including construction standard, survey regime and asset security. | Insurer and lending institution | Not yet validated |
| Local planning and water-use permissions | Planning designation for the water area, rights to use the water area, and any lease or agreement with the water owner. Boverket's guidance notes that the water-area designation in a detailed plan is intended for open water and minor facilities, so the planning route for residential use must be established case by case. | Municipality, water owner and legal counsel | Not yet validated |
DONSÖ is designed for a structured European compliance pathway. Compliance requirements are to be validated with qualified engineering and regulatory partners, and project-specific permitting will be required in every case. Nothing in this system is certified, type-approved or approved by any authority.
03 / Sources
Where these statements come from
- European Commission — Affordable housing. Supply gap, price development, social housing share, Affordable Housing Act and European Housing Alliance.
- European Commission — Pan-European Housing Investment Platform. Platform scope, participating institutions and the stated annual investment gap.
- Boverket — Om Boverkets nya byggregler. New building regulations replacing BBR and EKS; transition period for the older rules ended 1 July 2026.
- Boverket — Användning av vattenområde. Guidance on the water-area designation in a detailed plan.
- Statistics Sweden (SCB) — Priser för nyproducerade bostäder, 2024, published 17 February 2026. Average total production price 51,846 SEK per m² of dwelling area in multi-dwelling buildings — the reference used throughout this site.
Sources last checked 16 September 2026. Where a page has been updated since, the source prevails over the summary given here.