Resource context and provenance
This resource is a web page published by the European Commission and attributed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It presents an extract from the President’s State of the Union speech delivered in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, focusing specifically on Europe’s housing crisis and the policy response proposed at EU level.
Housing as a social and competitiveness issue
The speech frames housing as more than physical shelter, describing it as tied to safety, warmth, belonging, and family life. It argues that, for many people across Europe, housing has increasingly become a source of anxiety associated with debt and uncertainty. The crisis is presented not only as an economic challenge but as a broader social crisis that “tears at Europe’s social fabric,” weakens cohesion, and threatens competitiveness.
Key market indicators cited
The extract includes two headline data points intended to illustrate both rising costs and constrained supply. First, it states that house prices are up by more than 20% since 2015. Second, it states that building permits are down by over 20% over five years. Together, these figures are used to support the claim that access to affordable housing is worsening while new housing delivery is slowing.
Distributional impacts on everyday life
The speech highlights how affordability pressures affect different groups and undermine access to essential services. It states that nurses, teachers, and firefighters cannot afford to live where they serve, suggesting increasing spatial mismatch between key workers and high-cost areas. It also notes that students are dropping out because they cannot pay rent, and that young people are delaying starting families due to housing costs. These examples are presented as evidence that the housing crisis is shaping educational trajectories, demographic choices, and local labour markets.
European Affordable Housing Plan and related measures
The President announces that the European Commission will present the first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan later in the year, following input from Members of the European Parliament. The plan is described as aiming to make housing more affordable, more sustainable, and of better quality, and as a “European effort” anchored in local realities. The extract calls for a “radical overhaul” of the approach to housing and points to several policy levers: revising State aid rules to enable housing support measures, making it easier to build new homes and student residences, and proposing a legal initiative on short-term rentals to address remaining issues.
Governance and political framing
The speech calls for collaboration among lawmakers, stakeholders, and society, and announces that the first EU Housing Summit will be convened to keep housing at the top of the EU agenda. It connects the policy agenda to principles of dignity and fairness and references the European Pillar of Social Rights, which recognised housing as a social right in Europe, framing the proposed actions as steps to turn that promise into reality.