With affordable housing on the agenda for the European Summit on Thursday 23 October, the aim being to provide political guidance to the Commission and the Council of the EU, the President of the European Council, António Costa, met the President of the Committee of the Regions, Kata Tüttő, and the outgoing and incoming Presidents of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Oliver Röpke and Séamus Boland, on Wednesday 22 October.
On the same day, the Secretariat-General of the Council of the EU also published a study on the situation of households in the EU to provide input for possible discussions at the European Council.
“While this is an area that remains primarily under the jurisdiction of national, regional, and local authorities, it is crucial that we, as European leaders, come together to discuss how the European Union can complement these efforts”, commented the President of the European Council.
The housing crisis has “a dangerous triple impact: it affects the fundamental rights of citizens, negatively impacts competitiveness, and undermines trust in our democratic institutions”, he added.
According to Kata Tüttő, it is “clear for all of us that the affordable housing crisis has today grown to an overall social and economic emergency”.
It will require long-term intervention and investment. “What is quite clear now is that the increase in wages does not match up with the increase in the price of rent and housing”. It is therefore necessary to act “in synchrony, which means all levels of governance have to be synchronised and have to use all their tools to face this challenge”.
“We need massive investments: private investments, massive public investments in affordable housing”, both for building new homes and for energy renovation.
We also need “interventions on regulations, [with] a better toolbox, a freer hand for the national and the local level to intervene to release pressure between the short-term rental and the long-term rental, to reduce pressure on the stress zones where overtourism is hollowing out the cities, to limit speculation on the housing market, to limit housing being considered as an investment tool, as an asset”.
“Poverty and the eradication of poverty is very much one of my priorities. And to me, you cannot get out of poverty if you can’t even have an affordable home”, said the new president of the EESC.
“It’s for the sake of Europe. It’s for the sake of our economy. It’s for the sake of everything we value in Europe that we can at least deliver that basic fundamental right to people who are really and truly worried on a daily basis”.
According to the Council of the EU study, more than 2/3 of EU residents own their home: 51.7% live in houses and 47.7% in apartments.
Urban areas, where the majority of Europeans live, have a higher proportion of apartments: 72% of urban residents live in multi-unit buildings, compared with 82% of rural residents living in houses.
Housing prices have also rocketed, rising by 60.5% in Europe between 2015 and 2025. As a result, the proportion of the household budget devoted to housing has increased considerably, particularly in urban centres.
This growing affordability gap has been exacerbated by a series of external shocks, including the global pandemic, geopolitical instability, waves of migration and the energy crisis, according to the document.
Link to the study: https://aeur.eu/f/j2y
Link to the draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/j2w (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)