Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan. People living in these — and many other European cities — share the same burden: they spend most of their salary on rent.
In the last decade, the housing crisis has become a central issue for the European Union and its member states. According to the European Commission, one in 10 Europeans is unable to pay their rent or mortgage on time, while home prices across the bloc have climbed 60% since 2015.
Residing in acceptable conditions should not be a luxury for a few: housing should be considered a human right, Dan Jørgensen, European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, told The Parliament. Nonetheless, data suggests that access to affordable housing in the EU is increasingly unattainable. In 2024, 16.9% of people lived in overcrowded homes, according to Eurostat, with peaks of 41%, 39% and 34% in Romania, Latvia and Bulgaria, respectively.
The issue has taken center stage in national political debates. In the Netherlands, the centrist party D66 won last year's parliamentary elections by promising to address a national shortage of 400,000 homes, while populists such as the Freedom Party in the Netherlands and Chega in Portugal have exploited the housing crisis as a central issue of their campaigns.
This article is part of The Parliament's special policy report "Addressing Europe's housing crisis"
The Commission has responded to the emergency by launching a European Affordable Housing Plan aimed at sharing know-how between member states. Jørgensen — the first commissioner designated specifically for housing, alongside energy — also claimed that the next long-term EU budget would enhance tailored investments to local priorities through the new National and Regional Partnership Plans.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Under the next Multiannual Financial Framework, with the new NRPPs, there is a shift toward stronger national control in managing funds. Do you see a risk that this could undermine the role of local authorities, especially regions and cities?
The EU is already strongly engaged in supporting affordable housing. More than €43 billion of EU funding is currently being invested in housing through cohesion policy, InvestEU, NextGenerationEU and other programs, with additional resources expected in 2026 and 2027.
We will build on this experience for the next MFF, where housing will be, for the first time, a priority of the EU budget. With the NRPPs, our aim is to ensure maximum flexibility so that investments can be tailored to local priorities and reforms. Cities will have a key role to play in designing and implementing the plans.
We have also revised state aid rules to enable more investments into affordable housing, and we aim to attract more public and private capital through the Pan-European Investment Platform for Affordable and Sustainable Housing, bringing together the European Investment Bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank, national promotional banks and private investors. There is a lot of funding available out there. National and regional promotional banks, for example, aim to invest €375 billion for housing until 2029.
The plan refers to best practices from member states. What national models are realistically transferable to the EU level?
The housing markets across the EU are all different. This means that in our plan we do not point to a silver bullet that can magically solve the crisis across the whole EU.
We are looking with great interest at national practices that aim [to increase the] supply of homes, models that stimulate community land trusts, revolving funds and ways to address homelessness like the housing-first model. But solutions must be adjusted to local circumstances.
At the EU level, we are focusing on the areas where we can bring added value such as easing state aid rules, improving the single market for construction services, investments, as well as the regulation of short-term rentals.
But let me be clear: With the European Affordable Housing Plan, we don't want to dictate to our member states what they should or should not be doing. Rather, we want to foster the exchange of good practices among them. This is why we are forming a new European Housing Alliance which will unite all levels of government.
What should citizens realistically expect to see change in the next one to two years under the new housing plan?
The housing crisis doesn't wait; we have to act fast. Before putting forward the Affordable Housing Plan, we gave member states the opportunity to double the use of Cohesion Funds for housing, and we put in motion a review of state aid rules to support not only social but also affordable housing. Later this year, I will present the Affordable Housing Act, which will include an EU framework providing the possibility to local authorities to tackle the negative impacts of short-term rentals in areas under housing stress.
But if we want our citizens to see concrete changes, action is required at all levels of governance. European, national, regional and local decision-makers must all act. Brussels won't be able to solve this crisis alone, and our plan is just the beginning of a collective effort to make that change happen.
Where do you see the most urgent need for intervention?
The housing crisis shows itself in many different ways. In the biggest cities and popular tourist destinations, such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris or Barcelona, rapidly rising prices, limited supply and pressure from short-term rentals and speculation are generally the biggest challenges. This is why our plan seeks to expand supply, address short-term rentals and accelerate possibilities for affordable and social housing.
However, we cannot forget that in many places the housing crisis is also about the quality of homes. Many Europeans live with a leaking roof, bad insulation or in overcrowded homes — which is absolutely unacceptable. This also has severe health and social consequences. A home is not just a roof over your head. It is a place of safety, warmth and dignity. We must ensure that all Europeans have a place to call home, which allows them to live a decent and fulfilling life.
Regarding short-term rentals, what resistance are you facing from large platforms like Airbnb?
I want us to give local authorities the right tools to address the negative impacts of short-term rentals while preserving the benefits. We will help them identify areas under housing stress and set out measures they can take. There are various ways to do it, [such as setting] a maximum number of nights rented per year, or [limiting] rentals to the summer season while renting to students for the rest of the year. Local authorities could also temporarily halt new short-term rentals approvals in central neighborhoods and require approval from operators who want to rent out places commercially for touristic purposes.
I am not going to ban short-term rentals. We are not blaming them for causing the housing crisis. It's much more complex than that. Short-term rentals also have benefits for our society in terms of tourism, an incentive to invest in renovation, and additional revenue for families. But in specific areas, they can also aggravate the housing crisis.
Short-term rentals have seen very rapid growth over the past five or six years, nearly doubling between 2018 [and] 2024. This has contributed to limiting the supply of affordable housing for local residents in stressed areas, especially in highly popular destinations where they can represent as much as 20% of the housing stock. We cannot allow the local population in certain cities and tourist centers [to be] pushed out of the housing market. This is why I am determined to do something about it.
Would you consider specific EU-level instruments, such as guarantees or earmarked funds, to support affordable student housing?
Lack of affordable housing prevents young people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, from taking up education, traineeship, apprenticeships and employment opportunities. It delays family formation.
Students and apprentices are particularly exposed to high housing costs, which may discourage them from pursuing studies, participating in mobility programs such as Erasmus+ or completing their education.
The Commission will support efforts to build more student housing. Also, we plan to present a pilot scheme under the Erasmus+ program to increase the availability of affordable and innovative housing solutions for mobile students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We also want to help students, trainees and apprentices to find housing on the private rental market. For this, together with the EIB, we are assessing the feasibility of a guarantee scheme to reduce or even eliminate the need for a security deposit.
The involvement of the EIB and national promotional banks is central to mobilizing investment. How do you balance the need for private capital with the risk of further financialization of housing?
Investment in housing is good. The problem is when housing is treated as just another commodity, like gold, only to seek short-term profit.
We need to better understand the role of financialization and speculation in the housing crisis. Data is limited for now. The lack of transparency constrains the capacity of public authorities to monitor market developments and take effective action.
We will promote greater transparency in the residential property market by working with public authorities to shed light on property ownership and transactions in real estate and identify speculative patterns. At the same time, we need alternative investment models that put people first, and profit second.
The Commission is pursuing a broader simplification and deregulation agenda across several policy areas. How do you simplify procedures without lowering environmental, social or quality standards?
Housing supply — construction and renovation — faces unnecessary red tape and regulatory burdens. Most of these rules come from national, regional and local levels. At the same time, many of them exist for good reasons: to preserve our safety and quality of life, and protect our environment and cultural heritage.
Still, simplification does not mean deregulation. Our environmental and social protection standards must remain in place. But we can achieve the same goals in a faster, more efficient way.
The Commission will come forward with a simplification package. We will focus on what is concretely needed to accelerate permitting and planning and reduce costs, while respecting our policy goals. We will [also] support member states in looking at how they can contribute to efficient processes.
Housing affordability is becoming a central campaign issue across Europe. How can the EU shape the narrative to prevent housing from becoming a divisive weapon in the same way migration has?
Housing affordability is one of the issues that affects the daily lives of our citizens the most. So, it is only natural that it is becoming a prominent topic in electoral campaigns. From my perspective, I see housing first and foremost as a human right.
Too often today it is treated purely as a commodity and the result is a deep social crisis across Europe. The mere fact that we are taking action [at] the EU level is a new development. It shows we are serious about it, but also realistic.
If we fail to deliver solutions to the housing crisis in the coming years, we risk leaving a political vacuum — one that could be filled by extremist forces that have no credible answers to this crisis. This is why the time to act is now. All together, all levels, across our Union.
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