“To deal with the housing problem in the European Union we should build 10 million houses”: This was noted by the Spanish MEP of the European People’s Party (EPP), Borja Larath Jimenez, rapporteur of the special committee on the housing crisis in the EU, during his communication with Greek journalists, in the context of information on the housing crisis in Greece and the EU, which was organized by the Office of the European Parliament in Athens. The online meeting was also attended by Maria Zacharia, MEP of Freedom of Navigation, permanent member of the special committee and Yiannis Maniatis, MEP of PaSoK and vice-president of the group of European Socialists, substitute member of the special committee.
This is the European Parliament’s first report on the housing crisis in the EU and the fact that it was approved, on March 10, by the plenary session of the House, with a large majority (367 votes in favor, 84 abstentions and 166 against) shows that the issue is a major problem that concerns all EU member states.
2010, a turning point for the housing crisis in the EU
Since 2010, rent prices in EU member states have increased by 30% and house purchase prices by 60%. “This is not a problem that concerns only Greece”, stressed Borja Larath, obviously aware of the acuteness of the problem in our country, “but the entire European continent”. 10% of Europeans spend more than 40% of their income on their housing needs. There is a huge shortage of housing supply, which has been made worse by the fact that in the last five years, 20% fewer building permits have been issued in the EU for the construction of houses.
Proposals of the special committee around four axes
The lack of housing, as the Spanish MEP pointed out, has significant social effects in the EU, in terms of the aggravation of the demographic problem, competitiveness, the economy and ultimately, the future of Europe. To deal with housing, the report of the special committee of the European Parliament formulates packages of measures around four issues:
- First, the importance of municipalities and regions. The EU and Member States should provide incentives to municipalities and regions to promote the construction, renovation and re-use of housing within their areas, as well as simplify licensing procedures. “We are dealing with 27 member countries, with different conditions in each one,” stressed Borja Larath, “so municipalities and regions have a decisive role.”
- A second issue is the need to increase the supply of affordable housing: Sufficient resources should be made available to local and regional authorities to help Member States in their housing policies, even in areas that are not considered attractive.
- The third issue concerns the need to increase investment and offer cooperative, social and non-profit housing models. To achieve this, the authors of the report call for a joint regulatory review by the Commission and the European Court of Auditors of EU legislation that may hinder the supply of affordable housing.
- Fourth issue, tax incentives: Member States should adopt an efficient and incentive-based tax system for housing policies.
In addition, the Spanish MEP pointed to the lack of a fully trained workforce in the construction sector, and called for incentives to attract and train such a workforce. Larath agreed with Vima’s point that this trained workforce is directly linked to immigration as well. With regard to short-term rentals, improvement steps have been taken, but, as the report points out, there are still regulatory gaps that should be addressed. Eurostat should also support the effort to deal with the Demographics, because “we need”, as Larath said, “more specialized data to decipher the size of the housing problem in the EU”.
The importance of the separate portfolio for housing and the responsible commissioner
However, the fact that the EU acquired after the European elections of 2024, a commissioner for housing, Dan Jorgensen, Danish energy commissioner, who also took over the portfolio for Housing, is considered positive. As the socialist MEP Yiannis Maniatis revealed, when Jørgensen congratulated him on taking up his duties, he told him: “I know exactly what we need. Give me money.”
The PASoK MEP referred to the fruitful debate on Housing, in almost all wings of the European Parliament, while he noted the very positive experience of social housing, which has been gained in countries such as Austria and the Netherlands. Speaking about Greece, he pointed out that it is in a more difficult position compared to other EU countries, as well as that, while rent prices in Europe have increased by 15% in the last 15 years, in our country, in the last five years alone, they have increased by 45% – the corresponding increases were also in house prices.
Proposals of the European Socialists
The socialist MEP also recognized a structural change: “Until now, houses were built for larger families, but in Europe, household sizes are now smaller, so we have to see how we will adapt the housing stock to the new data.” It should be noted that the average citizen in the average European household spends 20% of his income on housing, while in Greece, the corresponding percentage exceeds 35%.
An interesting and largely unknown point made by Maniatis was that 80% of the EU’s building stock is completely unsuitable for housing the millions of Europeans with disabilities. With reference to the proposals of the European Socialists to deal with the problem, Maniatis emphasized, among other things, that total European funding of 300 billion euros is proposed, of which 100 billion are direct grants for social housing, while it is also proposed to exclude public investment in housing from the Stability Pact.
The idea of social reciprocity
On the occasion of social housing, it is recalled that from 2022, the Mitsotakis government formulated the idea of ”social compensation”, as a model of utilizing public land or real estate, in order to build housing with private participation, in exchange for part of the apartments or the farm. Sources at “Vima” say that the concept of social compensation still remains unclear for many engineers. There are also supporters of the idea, while many consider it correct as a concept, but difficult to implement.
According to Maria Zacharia, MEP of Plefsis Eleftherias, who is an independent MEP and does not belong to a political group of MEPs, neither the policy of the Greek government, nor the policy of the EU to deal with the housing issue, have an effect. “Housing is no longer treated as a social good, it is now treated as an investment asset. I consider that the EU has a huge responsibility for the current housing crisis, because it moved in the logic of the complete liberalization of the market and not of social protection”, he emphasized.
The MEP raised with the special committee of the European Parliament on the housing crisis, of which she is a member, issues such as the mass purchases of houses by funds or the Golden Visa program, with which, as she said, the committee did not deal at all – something Borja Larath also confirmed, in a related question she accepted. Giannis Maniatis was clear in his position in favor of the abolition of the Golden Visa program in the islands and Thrace.
