Access to Affordable and Quality Housing for All People

The resource "Access to Affordable and Quality Housing for All People" is a comprehensive report published by ESPON EGTC. The authors include Franziska Sielker, Selim Banabak, Marlene Gerhalter, and various contributors from multiple institutions. This European Research Project aims to address the pressing issues surrounding housing affordability and quality across Europe.

Affordable housing has become a critical issue in contemporary policymaking, with rising housing prices and stagnating incomes creating a growing unaffordability crisis. The ESPON HOUSE4ALL project investigates local variations in housing prices and affordability, employing a web-scraping-based approach to map these dynamics across Europe. This report highlights the regional geography of housing unaffordability and provides a foundation for future research and policy evaluation.

The project reveals that severe housing affordability challenges affect many parts of Europe, particularly urban centers and popular tourist areas. Homeownership is especially unaffordable in regions like Central and Eastern Europe, where purchasing a modest home could require more than 30 years of mortgage repayments on a single income. The report also notes that rental affordability varies significantly across countries, with mid-sized and larger units being particularly unaffordable in areas with high homeownership rates.

Various factors contribute to housing unaffordability, including demographic changes, demand pressures, and supply rigidities. Population growth and urbanization intensify competition for housing, driving up prices. Supply constraints such as high construction costs and land availability further exacerbate these issues. Additionally, housing is increasingly viewed as an investment asset, which has led to price speculation and, in some cases, a disconnect between housing costs and local incomes.

The report outlines the diversity of housing policies across Europe, highlighting the need for a comparative overview of how these policies are implemented. A European Housing Policy Compendium was developed to provide insights into the varied governance structures and policy frameworks across different countries. The findings indicate that countries with strong non-profit housing sectors tend to offer more affordable housing options.

The affordability mapping exercise conducted in the project provides valuable insights into the spatial disparities in housing prices and affordability across Europe. The data collected through web scraping indicates that many urban areas face severe affordability challenges, particularly for larger properties. In contrast, rural regions tend to offer more affordable housing options, albeit with significant variations.

The report emphasizes the urgent need for renewed focus on affordable rental housing and the importance of EU-level involvement in addressing the housing crisis. The European Union has increasingly recognized housing affordability as a shared challenge and is establishing frameworks to support affordable housing initiatives. Funding schemes, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, are vital in enabling large-scale investments in affordable and energy-efficient housing.

Continued monitoring of housing affordability trends is essential for effective policymaking. The project calls for the development of additional affordability indicators and encourages linking housing data to other socio-economic factors to provide a comprehensive understanding of the housing landscape. The report highlights the need for innovative approaches to housing policy that can address the diverse challenges faced by different regions and population groups across Europe.