The soaring cost of housing across Europe has been likened to a “new pandemic” sweeping the continent, with the mayor of Barcelona and 16 other city leaders urging the EU to unleash billions in funding to tackle the crisis.
Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona, described the housing crisis as an “unprecedented internal threat” to the bloc, warning that failure to address it adequately could lead people to question whether democracies are capable of solving their biggest problems.
House prices across the EU have soared by 48% between 2010 and 2023, according to Eurostat, while rents increased 22% over the same period. By 2023, nearly one in 10 people were spending 40% or more of their disposable income on housing, including 29% of the population in Greece, 15% in Denmark and 13% in Germany.
The Mayors for Housing alliance, which represents more than 20 million people across 17 cities, has been calling on the EU to do more to address what they describe as a “social emergency”: the rocketing costs of property and rents, which they say have fuelled inequality, strained the social fabric and, in some cases, contributed to support for the far right.
In October, the alliance welcomed the fact that housing policy – an area the EU has traditionally stayed out of – was firmly on the bloc’s agenda. However, they are now urging the EU to launch an affordable housing fund, similar to the Covid-era NextGenerationEU programme, to help mobilise at least €300bn a year in public and private investment to bolster social and affordable housing.
Collboni warned that failure to address the housing crisis could risk ceding ground to populists who are seeking to exploit public discontent by scapegoating rather than offering workable solutions.
“We cannot remain stuck in the rhetoric of defending democracy, inclusive societies and equal opportunities if people’s standard of living is getting worse,” he said. “If even with a stable job and a stable salary people cannot live with a minimum level of normalcy, then the discourse falls apart.”