Over the last decade, across almost every city in Europe, house prices have soared.
Since 2015, on average, house prices in the EU have risen by 53 percent. This lack of affordable and accessible housing and rental accommodation, which intertwines with the ever increasing energy poverty rates, is further exacerbating social inequalities.
In 2024, almost 10 percent of households within cities are spending 40 percent or over of their disposable income on housing costs including rent, and energy bills.
This puts financial strain on households who struggle to afford other necessities such as groceries, education, clothing and transport.
In response to this growing crisis, the European Commission has appointed its first ever commissioner for housing and will soon present its first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan (EAHP), expected to be published by the end of this year.
This makes sense, as the climate and housing crisis are intrinsically interlinked.
With a housing stock that consumes vast amounts of energy, households face enormous financial strain from rising rents, mortgage payments, and soaring energy costs, while these inefficient buildings also make a significant contribution to climate change.
The EAHP is a pivotal opportunity to address a multitude of interconnected challenges. It can address the housing shortages across Europe’s cities as well as providing energy efficient, climate resilient homes that can drastically reduce the EU’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, while providing healthier, more affordable, more comfortable living environments for all.
It can ensure better insulated, warmer homes during the winter and cooler, better ventilated homes more adaptable to the rising temperatures that Europe is now experiencing, in the summer.
This requires breaking down the silos between housing, energy, and social policy.
The EAHP should be designed to align with and reinforce other EU-level initiatives, including the Citizen Energy Package, the Electrification Action Plan, Heating and Cooling Strategy and the first EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, among others.
Strengthening housing expertise within these frameworks would help ensure that technical assistance and funding address the root causes of energy poverty, not just its symptoms.
The EU’s legislative framework already contains powerful instruments for this task.
The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) sets a public sector requirement and a renovation requirement for public buildings, with explicit provisions to benefit energy poor, low-income households and vulnerable groups, especially if living in social housing.
The recast of the EU Performance Buildings Directive (EPBD) focuses on the renovation of worst-performing buildings and introduces social safeguards against displacement and rent hikes post-renovation works.
To maximise their impact, these directives must be implemented without loopholes or with minimal to no exemptions, and coupled with targeted financing to ensure compliance is socially fair.
While it is crucial to recognise the importance of new sustainable construction in the provision of affordable housing, increasing the housing supply should generally follow the actual housing needs rather than the housing demand, as the latter could lead to speculative practices and increased prices.
There also needs to be a stronger focus on defining and identifying vacant properties that can be repurposed for housing.
Analysis from Feantsa on the 2021 census data reveals there are 47.5 million empty homes across the EU, yet these figures vary from country to country, with figures due to differing definitions and the lack of a single, recent, comprehensive EU-wide overview of housing vacancy.
Repurposing these vacant properties can reduce the land space needed for new housing, while also reducing construction costs, materials needed and GHG emissions.
Of course, to achieve this will require expanding and upskilling renovation and construction sectors. This will require sufficient direct jobs, fair wages, inclusive recruitment, and decent and safe working conditions to enhance the attractiveness of the sector.
This will also enable targeted measures to address gender imbalances, attract young people into the sector, and protect workers’ rights, including the right to unionise.
Overall, the European Affordable Housing Plan can be a critical vehicle to mobilise resources, strike complementarity with existing EU legislations and catalyse the systemic change needed for decent, affordable, energy-efficient, and healthy housing across the EU.
Mónica Vidal is a senior built environment campaigner at CAN Europe and campaign lead for the Build Better Lives campaign. She primarily campaigns for heating and cooling to become accessible, efficient and affordable for all. She also worked for Spanish NGO ECODES, advocating for ambitious policies to decarbonise Spain’s building sector, while also helping to lift households out of energy poverty.
Mónica Vidal is a senior built environment campaigner at CAN Europe and campaign lead for the Build Better Lives campaign. She primarily campaigns for heating and cooling to become accessible, efficient and affordable for all. She also worked for Spanish NGO ECODES, advocating for ambitious policies to decarbonise Spain’s building sector, while also helping to lift households out of energy poverty.