On Friday 24 April, the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU will submit draft Council conclusions on housing to the Social Affairs Working Party, with a focus on “demographic change and policy orientation”.
In this context, the draft text lists various findings on housing shortages and difficulties in accessing housing, with accessibility to housing being “further undermined where housing is increasingly treated as a speculative asset rather than a social good”, writes the Presidency.
“In a number of areas, housing shortages are exacerbated by prolonged vacancy and by the conversion of housing stock to short-term rental use, which can intensify displacement pressures and contribute to gentrification”, the draft text also points out.
The provisional conclusions also include “the adverse effects of climate change”, which have “a range of direct and indirect implications for housing, including its design, construction, renovation and maintenance, thereby requiring the adaptation of housing policies to ensure a sustainable and resilient built environment”.
It also highlights the cost of green construction, which can also have an impact on accessibility. “At the same time, environmental requirements and criteria stemming from green public procurement rules can significantly affect the costs of constructing affordable housing. While these requirements are essential to support sustainability objectives, they may increase upfront investment costs. Therefore, it is important to take this aspect into account as one of the factors influencing housing affordability, investments and supply”.
Another finding is that the consequences of the housing crisis are felt particularly acutely by certain population groups, such as young people and students, low-income households, single-parent families and families with children, as well as people in vulnerable situations, including victims of gender-based violence, the elderly and persons with disabilities living in precarious housing.
“Furthermore, impacts of the housing crisis include rising homelessness, inadequate and insecure housing. While the housing crisis disproportionately affects the above mentioned groups, it is also increasingly impacting middle-income households”.
Inadequate housing has a disproportionately negative impact on women and girls, particularly because of their low incomes, rising poverty rates, greater prevalence of single-parent families and unequal access to property and housing rights, reflecting wider structural inequalities, the Presidency writes.
Among the remedies, the document suggests that the EU27 should “take into consideration the dynamic interplay between demographic trends and housing needs. [And] also take into account the housing needs of those who can no longer find housing in the constrained regular housing market, regardless of their age, including persons in vulnerable situations”.
The mobilisation of public and private investment needs to be promoted and, where appropriate, the use of mechanisms such as the future pan-European investment platform. Particular attention needs to be paid to areas facing strong housing pressure where demand constantly outstrips supply – the so-called “crisis areas” – in order to better adapt housing supply to local needs.
It is also necessary to “monitor indicators of unmet housing needs including homelessness, overcrowding, housing deprivation and housing cost overburden”.
In addition, robust, high-quality data, broken down by gender, socio-economic characteristics and other relevant factors, is essential for designing targeted and coherent housing policies.
Member States could still “consider the implications of the current framework of sector classification of social housing entities and their liabilities as a part of general government debt for providing affordable and social housing”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)