Housing Europe’s Post

Housing agenda is at the cusp. 🎯 Now is the moment to speak up and shape where and how we live. Public, cooperative, and social housing providers have done their homework. On October 15, we will propose 20 concrete actions to form the work of the designated 🇪🇺 Energy and Housing Commissioner, Dan Jørgensen. There are a few seats left for Housing Europe's debate at the European Parliament, hosted by MEP Marcos Ros Sempere. 🔗 Register by midday on October 7 - https://lnkd.in/emjb5jDh What is at stake? 🟠 Across our Union, families are being priced out of their homes. 🟠 Young adults from big or touristic cities are forced to leave their hometowns because they can't afford housing where they work. 🟠 Our elderly struggle to age in place with dignity, lacking access to essential services. 🟠 More than one out of ten Europeans can't keep their homes warm, and energy demands for cooling are set to rise. 🟠 New housing construction is also under threat: building permits at the beginning of 2024 plummeted by 32% compared to two years ago, reaching a 9-year low. 🟥 Meanwhile, speculative housing markets and limited public resources are leaving nearly 1.3 million people in the EU without a place to call home, even as thousands of prime location homes remain vacant. 🟢 Housing Europe says: It's finally time for change. We are bringing together public, cooperative, and social housing providers with tenant organisations and social services from across Europe for the event. Kim van Sparrentak Ruth Paserman Ruth Owen Barbara Steenbergen Bent Madsen Sorcha Edwards International Union of Tenants (IUT) FEANTSA European Investment Bank (EIB) Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament The Greens/EFA in the European Parliament

👉Interesting to see how Europe housing #reform is managing the #housing crisis and discussing #affordable housing plans. See their housing paradigm 👇 #leadership #europe #innovation #infrastructure #EU #social #urbanplanning

"Working on housing will be about values, investments, rules, and knowledge." This is the promise of Dan Jørgensen, the EU’s designated Commissioner for Energy and Housing, underscoring his commitment to addressing Europe’s pressing housing crisis. As a first takeaway from his hearing at the European Parliament, Dan Jørgensen repeatedly said that he would strongly rely on a dialogue before the launch of the first EU Affordable Housing Plan. We count on this as this plan is expected to mobilise a pan-European investment, re-skill the workforce, enhance knowledge-sharing, and ❗ reform State Aid to stimulate social housing investments. 🟥 MEP questions highlighted the urgency Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany) pressed on how Jorgensen planned to close the €57 billion investment gap in affordable housing, asking for commitment on conditionality criteria and measures to curb housing speculation. The EU would rely on the upcoming EIB platform for investment, more Cohesion Funds, and State Aid rules revision. ⛑️ Reform of State Aid rules by 2025 is what Brigitte van den Berg (Renew Europe, Netherlands) called for. The Commissioner-to-be committed to starting this reform process as soon as possible together with Executive Vice-President Ribeira. 🆚 The EU & 27 countries' housing systems? Dan Jørgensen striked a balance between EU and national responsibilities, with the proposed Affordable Housing Plan serving as the EU’s first strategic blueprint for housing development. The issue of financialisation was a concern, and Jørgensen noted "the housing market failure" adding that many solutions are national efforts, such as for instance mandating that a portion of new developments is allocated to social housing. ⛱️ Addressing short-term rentals, many MEPs also voiced concerns about the impact of short-term rentals (holiday homes) on housing availability and affordability. Leila Chaibi (The Left, France) pointed out the strain vacation homes put on rental prices, while Gordan Bosanac (Greens/EFA, Croatia) called for innovative financial mechanisms to provide direct funding for cities affected by them. ❓ While Jørgensen agreed that short-term lets lead to price increases that drive residents out of their communities and more needs to be done, we would be looking more closely at how the EU can show more teeth and regulate effectively so that the market is less squeezed. The vulnerable households took centre stage 👍 Jørgensen emphasised housing as a matter of social justice. ❗ Yet, we heard less about the tip of the housing crisis iceberg - the homeless - even though the Commissioner acknowledged that progress is insufficient. He still pointed out that more best practices and in some cases extending funding for social housing could help. Housing Europe would like to go to the root of the problem. Our 20 actions for a New Housing Paradigm are still spot-on. https://lnkd.in/dh4dJuwm

How can governments make smarter use of public support for housing? 🧠 One of the solutions might already be here: cost-rental housing. In a piece for the Irish Independent, Sorcha Edwards, Secretary-General of Housing Europe, who also was a member of Ireland’s Housing Commission tasked with advising the government, explained how cost-rental hosuing could help ease housing crises and save public money. Right now, government schemes like housing assisting payments pour money into the private rental market, covering rising rents that outstrip affordability. But with a stronger cost-rental sector, the State would pay only the true cost of providing housing—not inflated market rates. And it works: 🇫🇮 Finland, 🇳🇱 the Netherlands, and 🇦🇹 Austria have shown how cost-rental can create affordable, stable homes while making the best of public spending. 🔍 Our Research Observatory has written a report about the nitty-gritty of the model - https://lnkd.in/gZdXZXve As Professor Michelle Norris, a fellow Housing Commission member and a co-writer of our #Housing2030 report, highlighted: “Sometimes in the national debate on housing there is a huge focus on the current minister, the current government and current policy statements, but problems have built up in our system of housing delivery, planning and the finance of housing over decades. Addressing them requires long-term commitments.” It is time to shift the conversation beyond today’s policies and focus on building a system for tomorrow. https://lnkd.in/eptBhHnM

🏘️ 'Neither major party has a credible plan to meet housing demand' Gideon Salutin and Niamh O Regan on the need to build council housing to tackle the housing crisis in City AM 👇 https://lnkd.in/eRE87RpJ 📉 The UK's social housing stock has been dwindling since the 1980s Read our report, kindly funded by Nuffield Foundation, for more on how the government can support the growth of social housing 👇 https://lnkd.in/dvZGwq-T 🏠 And for more on how to boost the supply of affordable housing, read our paper on planning reform, kindly funded by Nuffield Foundation 👇 https://lnkd.in/dxaNAvFX

Canada, Europe, Ireland, and the US are all facing a housing crisis that is affecting the less privileged. With housing, employment, healthcare, and education being the four basic necessities of human lives, it is imperative that governments take active care of their citizens. However, some countries have delegated housing development entirely to the private sector, leading to an unprecedented housing crisis. The rising real estate prices are making it increasingly difficult for the less privileged to afford a roof over their heads. It is time for governments to step in and take action to ensure that everyone has access to affordable housing. Check out this article for more on the importance of maintaining low-cost housing for social stability. #housingcrisis #AffordableHousing #SocialStability

🌟 Building a Better Future: Addressing Portugal’s Housing Shortage in 2024 🌟 Portugal is grappling with a housing crisis that has left thousands of families struggling to find affordable options for purchase or rent. This challenge has prompted bold initiatives and innovative policies to tackle the growing problem. Key Developments In 2024, the government launched the “Construir Portugal” strategy, aiming to stimulate construction, rehabilitation, and urban renewal. The goal? To double public housing stock from 26,000 to 59,000 units by 2030—a significant leap that underscores the urgency of addressing the crisis. New fiscal incentives, such as exemptions from IMT (Property Transfer Tax) and Stamp Duty, are designed to help young people purchase their first homes. Additionally, housing cooperatives are being promoted as a sustainable, community-driven solution to increase access to affordable housing. The Challenges Ahead While these initiatives signal progress, significant hurdles remain. Rising construction costs, regulatory complexities, and limited land availability continue to slow progress. As the OECD and World Bank emphasize, innovative approaches like public-private partnerships and land-use reforms are critical to creating a more sustainable housing system. A Collective Effort Portugal’s housing crisis requires ongoing collaboration between government entities, private sector stakeholders, and civil society. By embracing long-term strategies and fostering innovative solutions, the country can pave the way for a more equitable and inclusive housing future. Sources: Idealista News. (2024). Advances and setbacks in housing: crisis, public policies, and new supports. Diário de Notícias. (2024). Promoting housing cooperatives as a solution to the housing crisis. OECD. (2023). Better Housing Policies for Inclusive Growth. World Bank. (2023). Affordable Housing in Europe: Trends and Challenges.

The new ALP Albanese Federal Government Housing Minister, Minister O'Neil, has encountered the reality of Australia's worst affordable housing crisis in history within her first six weeks in office with despair, however, with "no scalable plan" to solve the chronic shortage of affordable housing across Australia. Despite over 500,000 Australians being on the official waiting list for social dwellings, the government still needs to implement a scalable plan to address the chronic shortage; unofficially, waiting lists for social housing across Australia could be in the millions of rental-stressed tenants. Meanwhile, the Government of Singapore has built over 40,000 new social dwellings during the current ALP Albanese Federal Government term, highlighting a stark contrast. With rental stress rising and hundreds of thousands of Australians allocating a significant portion of their income towards rent, sustainable solutions are crucial to alleviate the housing crisis. Tomorrow, I attend the NSW Housing Now! forum at Parramatta, where the Premier of NSW, Chris Minns, will deliver the keynote address. It's going to be interesting to hear his update on his State Government plan to scale up to solve Sydney's worst shortfall of affordable rental accommodation in history, especially with a mass exodus of Millennials and tradies from NSW. To hear if a scalable plan is in place, even worse is the plight of Sydney's Essential Workers. Tens of thousands travel 3 to 5 hours per day commuting to jobs because of the lack of affordable rental accommodation with easy access to their jobs from Sydney's vast thousands of billions of dollars of Public-Funded Railway Infrastructure, which is mostly surrounded by single-detached dwellings. It's unfair to expect Sydney's tens of thousands of Essential workers, especially nurses, teachers, healthcare, aged care, and transportation Workers, to spend up to five hours per day commuting to their jobs. This level of commuting to stressful jobs. It is not sustainable; it's soul-destroying commuting daily. The Thrive Alliance consortia members have over 100,000 major CLT urban projects worldwide in the sustainability of CLT with up to 40,000 inclusive quality residential grade mid-rise apartments capability into the Australian market per year. A fast-track solution, fast-to-market solution in advanced modular construction platforms built from Renewable plantation forest trees into CLT with dwellings that meet EU standards for energy efficiency. Our capability presentation, sponsored by BusinessNSW to various State government agencies, took place last year at the Adelaide Oval Hotel. Built in CLT on advanced modular construction platforms in less than 12 months, it showcased a fast-to-market solution instead of the usual 2.5 years in slow, inefficient custom construction methods. #AffordableHousing #Australia #HousingCrisis #advancedmodular #residentialgrade #midrise #ThriveAlliance

I was pleased to join with colleagues from Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, CIH Scotland and Shelter Scotland this morning to highlight the open letter (together with the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)) we have sent to the First Minister calling on the Scottish Government to change course if it really wants to effectively tackle the housing emergency. It also includes a plan of action to support this. The coalition makes clear that we have no desire for new groups or strategies and draws upon our knowledge and expert understanding across the whole sector to set out the priority areas that must be addressed: building more homes, prioritising government-subsidised social homes and investing in helping people keep the homes they have. In light of the Minister's statement on the Housing Emergency in Parliament this afternoon, whilst welcoming Housing as a National Outcome and the potential of the Housing Investment Taskforce, we remain highly concerned at the pace for effecting the change Scotland’s population needs. This is against the backdrop of a quarter of Scotland’s population facing some kind of housing need, a 24% drop in new starts and completions of homes across tenures in 2023 2023 and challenges across the regulatory environment impacting the delivery of homes. It also follows worrying evidence collected from Homes for Scotland members showing that 1000s of homes across tenures are stalled across the country due to budget restrictions. Given the scale of the issue and the strong interdependencies across the whole housing sector, it is imperative that we move forward together, challenging the status quo to find new ways of doing things in order to avoid the same outcomes, or indeed no outcomes at all. This afternoon's Ministerial statement will underwhelm those who are leading in the supply of our social, affordable and private homes, and who were expecting a tone of urgency reflective of Scotland's current housing situation.  https://lnkd.in/eA_xSwXd

With the affordable housing industry on its knees, The Labour Party #budget was enough to get off the floor, crouch and see the scale of the challenge ahead. Our thoughts are: A mix of encouraging strategic moves in the right direction, but with insufficient ambition to make the big difference we know we need. We welcome the proposed changes to Right to Buy, reducing the discount and removing it from new homes and starving it into practical obsolescence is the right way to go.  5 year rent settlement for the sector, with a 1% annual increase is welcomed, but again probably insufficient to make a dramatic difference to the ambitions of Housing Associations build programmes, given their challenges elsewhere. £500m top up for the Affordable Homes programme is welcomed, but at £250k per home only equates to 2,000 more new affordable homes. £1bn for fire remediation on social housing is useful and necessary in helping to work through this ongoing challenge. £3.4bn to kickstart the Warm Homes Plan to help improve the performance of existing homes is welcomed. £230m for homelessness and rough sleeping is positive, but again won’t go far enough. 300 new planners is great, but at roughly 1 per council it is the tip of the iceberg. We need to use this as an opportunity to inject talent in design and development expertise into the planning system, and support the likes of PUBLIC PRACTICE already doing this good work. Rachel Reeves mantra was Invest, Invest, Invest. We know that investing in affordable housing brings positive economic and social benefit (https://lnkd.in/etUiZ-V2). We also know it takes longer than a parliament to build the homes and get a return. Our call for long term, sustained, central funding for affordable housing remains louder than ever. Many in affordable housing were waiting on the budget and are now waiting on the spending review next spring. #AA4AH #RachelReeves MHCLG Digital Rt Hon Rachel Reeves @ Luke Tozer Alex Ely Félicie Krikler Chloë PhelpsAnnalie RichesJay MortonSimon Bayliss Architects’ Journal Richard Waite Labour Housing Group