The right to access affordable and quality housing

17 February 2025

The growing European housing crisis demands a people-centred response, that involves city leaders, to ensure housing policies that grant access to quality, affordable homes for all citizens.

“Our cities are at the forefront of this challenge,” says André Sobczak, Eurocities Secretary General. “Housing affordability has become a critical issue as costs surge, outpacing income growth and pushing millions of Europeans to the brink.”

As one of their ten priorities for a better Europe, mayors are calling for a greater role to shape policies that prioritise housing as a fundamental right and a cornerstone of social cohesion.

The impact of the housing crisis

Local governments already implement innovative solutions to tackle challenges such as housing shortages and soaring costs to energy inefficiency. For instance, Budapest has created a Housing Agency to provide affordable housing and renovate privately-owned apartments, while also repurposing public buildings for social housing. Dublin is creating new social housing apartments by adapting and refurbishing vacant office and commercial buildings.

In Lyon, the metropole acquired 87 properties to renovate and has transformed them into social rental products for families and students. Barcelona has taken significant steps to address its housing affordability crisis, for example reinvesting rental income from public housing into new developments. Additionally, the city leverages public land for long-term leases to housing cooperatives and non-profit developers, reducing construction costs while maintaining public ownership.

Despite these efforts, millions of people across Europe continue to face housing insecurity. In the 2024 Eurocities Pulse Mayors Survey, more than half of the 92 surveyed mayors ranked affordable housing as a top priority for the next EU budget. The housing crisis is indeed an imperative to tackle across Europe as it triggers inequality and social exclusion – the second top priority for mayors in the same survey.

Long-term investment in housing should also be complemented with transitional solutions ensuring a quick and adequate response to homelessness. Approaches such as Housing First have been proven to be efficient in providing long-term solutions to those in need.

“The EU should focus on affordable and sustainable social housing to ensure that everyone has access to safe and decent living conditions,” says Kathrin Gaál, Deputy Mayor of Vienna and Eurocities Shadow Commissioner for Housing. “We need to support local housing projects, invest in green building technologies, and make sure rent prices are fair,” she adds.

Mayors are confident that supporting cities to design holistic urban plans that incorporate affordable housing alongside public transport, green spaces and social infrastructure, would enhance resilience and lessen social inequalities in urban areas.

Affordable Housing Plan

The appointment of Dan Jørgensen, as the EU’s first-ever Commissioner for Housing, follows decades of agitation from the local level on the prominence of this issue. His portfolio, which will include overseeing the revision of state aid rules to facilitate public investment in social housing, collaborating with the European Investment Bank to create the first EU-wide investment platform for affordable and sustainable housing, and developing a European Strategy for Housing Construction, covers many of the points cities have long been calling for.

Given the cross-cutting nature of housing with other policy portfolios, the new Commissioner should work closely with cities, integrating efforts on housing, homelessness, state aid, building renovation, and short-term rentals in the planned European Affordable Housing Plan.

Cities are ready to collaborate on developing the Plan to long-term safe, decent and affordable housing in cities, with a focus on increasing investment and mobilising EU funding and EIB financing in social, public, cooperative, for-limited-profit and affordable housing projects, including housing first projects.

Invest in social and affordable housing

By increasing allocations to programmes such as the European Regional Development Fund and the InvestEU initiative, the EU can help cities access resources for both affordable housing and energy-efficient renovations. Similarly, cities suggest reviewing state aid rules ensuring investments meet social needs, providing affordable housing for all, while giving cities flexibility to address their specific challenges. Cities suggest that EU institutions expand support through, for example, flexible, long-term funding models that integrate social and sustainable housing initiatives to strengthen the annual investment gap in affordable housing. This gap, estimated to be €57 billion in 2018, is being revised by the EIB, potentially resulting five times more.

These measures not only will address the housing shortage but also will contribute to climate targets.

To address housing affordability challenges, another approach the EU could take would be to support innovative housing models, combining public-private partnerships with community-based solutions under a strong governance framework.

Let’s talk sustainable housing

Other pressing demands, from energy to the cost-of-living, compete for the attention of local budgets, which nonetheless cover over 60% of total public investment in social infrastructure and services.

The complexity of the housing crisis is being further fuelled by the surge in short-term rentals and global investors prioritising residential real estate as an asset rather than a social good. In this regard, cities call for establishing a mandatory disclosure regime for institutional real estate investors to enhance transparency and accountability.

“We need to better regulate the housing market,” says Renaud Payre, Vice-President Lyon Metropole and Eurocities Shadow Commissioner for Housing, to combat financialisaton and, in particular, tourist accommodation platforms.

But there is another pressing issue – housing renovation. Cities like Vilnius support energy-efficient building renovations with grants, loans, and a one-stop shop for residents, boosting sustainability while reducing energy costs. Most recently, Vienna, a social and affordable housing role model, expanded its efforts to tackle unaffordable energy prices by significantly investing in energy-efficient housing and providing support for vulnerable groups, including single mothers. However, making homes energy efficient and affordable for any households requires collaboration between all levels of government and stakeholders.

In this regard, municipalities are ready to collaborate to leverage the Social Climate Fund to address energy poverty effectively, by identifying vulnerable communities, implementing place-based energy efficiency measures in housing, and delivering targeted assistance to the most in need. As recommended by the Local Alliance, “Member States [should] engage with their local and regional governments as early as possible for a multilevel design of the National Social Climate Fund plans – not only for a simple information sharing or ticking the box for the consultation requirements but for meaningful and impacting integration of policies from local to national level.”

A coordinated approach

The EU institutions should adopt a cross-departmental strategy to ensure that affordable housing initiatives are integrated with broader urban goals such as energy transition, social inclusion, talent attraction and retention, and workforce development.

This local call has been taken into consideration in the design of the upcoming European Affordable Housing Plan. A Task Force dedicated to the implementation of the plan kicked off on 1 February to address the structural drivers of the crisis, and in particular to unlock public and private investments for affordable and sustainable housing, and thereby also address important housing-related aspects such as homelessness.

The European Commission will engage all the Directorate Generals related to the housing priorities, plus the European Parliament’s special committee on the housing crisis, national, regional and local authorities, the European Investment Bank and other financial institutions, the Committee of the Regions, the Economic and Social Committee.

“We have developed a rich diversity of housing solutions for our citizens firmly embedded in our urban development strategies over the years – and we are proud of this heritage,” say Gaál and Payre in a letter to Commissioner Jørgensen. “Clearly, we think that the design and elaboration of related legislation, funding and programmes of the EU will profit from an early involvement of cities and regions expertise and knowledge. Therefore, we underline our readiness to work with you and your services as equal partners in these important undertakings from day one on.”

Cities believe a Housing Alliance could serve as a multilevel governance platform, fostering collaboration across cities and regions to scale up sustainable and inclusive housing solutions for the future. Cities welcome this initiative and look forward to contribute to dialogues with all stakeholders.

“Let’s work together for a more inclusive and resilient Europe where housing is a right, not a privilege,” says Gaál.

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This article has been prepared as part of Eurocities #100daysEU campaign, which seeks to highlight 10 actions for cities that the new European Commission should be focussed on.

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