Urban Challenges and Housing Solutions:
Europe is facing a housing crisis, characterized by a lack of access to affordable & social housing, contributing to an increase in the number of homeless people.
Euros that’s house price index shows that, even before the 2022 inflation surge, house prices were already up by 8.8% in the euro area and by 9.2% in the EU during the third quarter of 2021, compared with the same quarter of 2020. From 2010 until the first quarter of 2021, rents increased by 15.3% and house prices by 30.9%. This situation Is particularly marked in urban areas where the financialization of housing is contributing to driving prices up.
According to the World Bank, in 2022, almost three-quarters of the EU population will live in cities, towns, and suburbs, with a considerable diversity of realities between access to housing in peripheral towns and in major metropolitan areas such as Lyon, or Madrid.
In 2020, the European Commission proposed its strategy for a “renovation wave”. The main the objective of this initiative is to trigger massive renovation in Europe to improve energy performance and contribute toward achieving climate neutrality. A key pillar of this strategy is the legislative proposal for revision of the “Energy Performance of Building Directive” (EPBD), including a proposal for the establishment of mandatory energy performance standards for the residential sector.
For FEANTSA, this initiative could provide an unprecedented opportunity to support low-income groups in the energy transition thereby addressing housing exclusion. The Renovation Wave and EPBD underline several occasions the attention to be given to tackling energy poverty and worst-performing buildings but, beyond the narrative, do not yet propose adequate dedicated funding or concrete mechanisms to address the social impacts risks such as gentrification, rent increases, and renovictions.
The New European Bauhaus – another European Commission initiative – is aiming to foster cross-sectoral cooperation towards a green transition that will impact buildings towards sustainability, inclusion, and beauty. This presents opportunities for cities willing to address the issues of vacancies and affordable housing. As an example, the EUI-Innovative Actions autumn 2022[1] call for proposals has focused on the New European Bauhaus and how to support cities to generate innovative solutions in particular in the following areas:
-Regenerating urban spaces
-Adapting and transforming buildings for affordable housing solutions
-Construction and renovation in a spirit of circularity and carbon neutrality
-Preserving and transforming cultural heritage.
There is no recent and clear overview of vacancies in Europe. In 2014, about 11 million homes were estimated to be unoccupied, with an average above 20% in Mediterranean countries. 2022 OECD data reveals a diversity of realities, between countries but also between rural and urban areas. OECD’s data shows that in most countries, empty dwellings are most common in rural rather than urban areas. However “the share of dwellings in urban areas is less than 60% of the total dwelling stock in Sweden (58%), Slovenia (56%), Romania (55%), Austria (54%) and Latvia (51%).
There is a difference between ‘natural’ and ‘problematic structural’ vacancies. Defined as ‘problematic’ vacancies are empty dwellings that are likely to remain vacant for longer periods of time (over 6 months). Causes for such long-term vacancies vary but include over-optimistic pricing, dwellings unfit for habitation (reluctance to invest in refurbishment), inherited dwellings, owners are not able to deal with the dwelling e.g. due to health reasons, change of occupants, voluntarily out of the market (investment).
Vacant housing at the city level can be the source of local difficulties, by fostering conditions for vandalism, deterioration, and lack of security.
This report is based on a mix of primary data collection (interviews, online peer exchange) and secondary data (desk research, internal documents provided by cities, and statistical analysis). It was based on an open call to towns and cities.