Our media outlet “Europe à Contre-Courant” is launching a short series entitled “Living in Europe”. The aim is to offer a concrete overview of everyday life in the European Union through topics such as housing, energy, work, health and transport. In each episode, we will draw on residents’ experiences to show how European and national policy choices have a very tangible impact on how people live, travel, heat their homes and, ultimately, what it really means to live in Europe.
The housing crisis in Europe is one of the major indicators of inequality. In Paris, Athens, Berlin and Bucharest, housing is no longer just a question of comfort: it is often the dividing line between a stable life and a slide into precarity. In 2026, more than one in ten households in the EU spend over 40% of their income on housing, to the detriment of the rest of their budget. Camps, evictions, tourist rentals and endless queues for social housing have become the visible signs of this crisis in almost every EU country.
In response, the European Commission has appointed its first-ever Commissioner for Housing and launched a European Affordable Housing Plan. It aims to support the construction of around 650,000 additional homes per year over the next decade, mobilising nearly €150 billion in investment each year. In this article, I offer an overview of the challenges posed by this housing crisis in Europe.
France: a crisis that has become structural
In France, housing has become a permanent social emergency. There are approximately four million people who are homeless or poorly housed, including more than 350,000 rough sleepers. Public housing is becoming increasingly scarce, private-sector rents are skyrocketing, and new construction has fallen to an all-time low.
In the capital, street camps and overcrowded emergency shelters symbolise the collapse of a model long praised for its social policy. Tourist rentals, particularly through Airbnb, are taking up more and more space, exacerbating the shortage for low-income residents. At every level of the market, the divide is widening: between landlords and tenants, and between wealthy cities and forgotten suburbs.
Spain: the postcard that drives residents away
In Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, discontent is growing. Tourist frenzy and the financialisation of housing have caused rents to rise by more than 30% in five years in the most sought-after neighbourhoods, to the point where it has become impossible for a large proportion of residents to live in the city centre. The “showcase city” attracts investors and visitors but drives its own residents away from city centres and well-served areas.
Young Spaniards are among the most affected: they are among those who leave their parents’ homes the latest in Europe, unable to rent or buy at an affordable price. Many move from one shared flat to another, doing odd jobs and working on precarious contracts, while the share of their income spent on housing is skyrocketing in large cities. Citizen groups are organising, calling for rent caps and denouncing speculation fuelled by mass tourism.
Faced with this pressure, some municipalities have taken drastic measures. Barcelona has decided to gradually phase out all tourist apartment licences: more than 10,000 properties currently rented on platforms such as Airbnb must be withdrawn from the tourist market by 2028 a decision upheld by the Spanish Constitutional Court in 2025. At the same time, several cities are now imposing social housing quotas on every new property development and stepping up checks on illegal rentals, with heavy fines for platforms that do not comply with the rules.
This anger has also spilled out onto the streets. In the spring of 2025, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in more than 40 Spanish cities to denounce the housing crisis, the “Airbnbisation” of neighbourhoods and the transformation of their cities into tourist playgrounds. In Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga and the Balearic Islands, protesters chanted slogans such as “Your holidays, our misery” and “Airbnb out of our neighbourhoods”, sometimes staging spectacular actions targeting tourist terraces and apartments. Spain has thus become one of the European epicentres of protest against a model of tourism and housing that, in the eyes of residents, sacrifices the right to remain in their own homes.
Greece: the long shadow of the 2015 crisis
In Greece, a decade of austerity has profoundly transformed the housing landscape. Crisis-related budget cuts froze social housing construction, and many over‑indebted families lost their homes during the financial crisis. Even today, housing continues to weigh heavily on household budgets: nearly 30% of Greek households spend more than 40% of their income on housing—one of the highest levels in the European Union.
In Athens, the massive conversion of housing into short-term rentals has exacerbated tensions. In 2024, the number of beds available in short-term rentals even exceeded that of traditional hotels, forcing the authorities to impose a one-year moratorium on new registrations in several central and popular neighbourhoods, then to extend this ban beyond 2025. Another telling indicator: nearly eight out of ten young Greeks between the ages of 20 and 29 still live with their parents, such is the difficulty of accessing independent housing.
Young workers are thus facing the same difficulties their parents experienced at the height of the crisis: insecurity, overcrowding and the constant fear of eviction. Housing remains a direct indicator of the scars left by the supervision of European institutions and austerity measures, which continue to shape daily life long after the return of growth.
Italy: between inaccessible cities and abandoned provinces
In Italy, the housing crisis becomes clear when you look at who is paying the heaviest price. Those most affected are young adults on low incomes and households renting in large cities. In major cities such as Rome, Milan and Florence, as well as university towns, rents have risen sharply, while the salaries of those under 30 remain well below the national average. Nearly one in five tenants spends more than 40% of their income on housing, which puts them in a state of severe cost overburden and makes them extremely vulnerable to rent increases or income shocks.
This pressure is compounded by a deep territorial divide. On the one hand, there are urban centres such as Rome, Milan and Florence, which have become inaccessible without inherited wealth or high incomes; on the other, there are villages and small towns where thousands of homes remain empty due to a lack of jobs and services. In this landscape, poor households who are tenants are particularly vulnerable: they are heavily over-represented among those living in absolute poverty.
In practical terms, for many families, paying rent means turning down the heating, foregoing healthcare or limiting travel. Housing then becomes the core of the feeling of downward mobility: people work, sometimes with a degree, but are unable to leave their parents’ home or settle in a big city. Young Italians, even those with degrees, find themselves caught between an expensive rental market and a model based on family ownership, which protects part of the population but leaves others behind.
Romania: low prices, high effort
In Romania, there is less talk of a “housing crisis” than in France or Spain, but tensions are certainly present, especially for tenants in large cities. From a Western perspective, rents seem low, but they weigh heavily on Romanian incomes. In the capital, Bucharest, and in Cluj-Napoca, the average rent in 2024 is around €10/m², which is similar to some Western European cities, while the median salary is much lower. Nearly three in ten tenants are in a situation of “cost overburden” (spending more than 40% of their income on housing), one of the highest rates in the EU.
The crisis stems from several combined factors. On the one hand, Romania’s major cities concentrate skilled jobs, services and universities. Large cities attract tech companies, expatriates and investors, driving up rents and prices per square metre. On the other hand, part of the country is becoming depopulated. In small towns and rural areas, there is plenty of housing available but few jobs, little transport and few public services. As a result, those who can move find themselves stuck in a tight urban market, while those who remain in the periphery live in cheaper housing, but often of poor quality or with poor connections (water, heating, transport).
This tension has gradually become a political issue. For several years now, tenant collectives and housing rights associations have been organising “marches for housing” in Bucharest, Cluj and Brasov, protesting against rent increases, energy cuts and evictions, particularly in Roma neighbourhoods. They are calling for rent caps, an end to evictions without alternative housing solutions, and an increase in the currently very limited social housing stock. The government has launched targeted programmes for affordable housing for young workers, with a scheme run by the National Housing Agency aiming to provide several thousand additional homes, but the scale of the need remains much greater.
Bulgaria: the euro accelerating the property bubble
On January 1, 2026, Bulgaria officially joined the eurozone. This prospect had already triggered a property boom: house prices rose by around 15% year‑on‑year in 2025, one of the strongest increases in the EU. Investors anticipated a market revaluation and price convergence with its eurozone neighbours.
But for Bulgarian households, the consequences are severe: rents catching up with those in other Central European countries, stagnant wages, and easier access to credit for the wealthiest, but not for others. In Sofia, an entire generation fears becoming lifelong tenants, even as the country aligns monetarily with its partners. The euro, a symbol of integration, risks becoming a factor of exclusion.
Orbán’s Hungary: family policy and property inflation
In Hungary, Viktor Orbán has made housing a tool of his pro-family and pro-birth policy. His CSOK scheme subsidises married couples with children to buy or build their own homes. Nearly 230,000 families have benefited from this public assistance.
But the effects are double-edged. By artificially boosting demand without creating new supply, prices have skyrocketed. Those who do not meet the criteria—particularly single people, couples without children and minorities—are finding it even more difficult to access housing. In Budapest, the price per square metre has doubled since 2015. Housing has become an ideological tool: a reward for “deserving” families and a barrier for everyone else.
Berlin: European capital of housing tensions
In Berlin, the housing crisis is very evident in rents and on the streets. In ten years, the rent charged to new tenants has almost doubled: it averages around €15–16/m², compared to around €7/m² for older contracts, and easily exceeds €18–20/m² in central neighbourhoods. In other words, for the same type of flat, a new household can pay twice as much as its neighbour, pushing those on modest incomes out of the city centre. The city did try to freeze rents with the famous Mietendeckel, but the Constitutional Court overturned it, and thousands of tenants had to repay rent reductions in the midst of the Covid crisis.
At the same time, former working-class neighbourhoods in East Berlin, particularly along the former Berlin Wall, have been transformed by private developments, offices and new buildings, often purchased by large property groups or foreign investors. Families who lived there have been pushed out to the suburbs. This massive gentrification has sparked an equally massive backlash: in 2021, nearly 59% of Berliners voted in favour of expropriating large property owners (Deutsche Wohnen, Vonovia, etc.), and the “Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen” campaign continues to organise demonstrations, symbolic actions and political pressure to take back tens of thousands of homes from private owners.
Berlin has thus become the symbol of a Europe where some residents are no longer content to demand rent controls, but are calling for housing to once again become a common good, managed in the interests of tenants rather than landlords.
Housing crisis in Europe: is the European Union finally taking action?
Faced with this social emergency, Brussels has finally started to move. At the end of 2025, the European Commission launched a European Affordable Housing Plan, backed by funding from the European Investment Bank and cohesion funds. The aim is to build around one million affordable homes and carry out extensive renovation of the existing housing stock to reduce energy poverty.
Europe is also taking action through other means: supporting cities that regulate tourist rentals, coordinating with Member States on tackling homelessness, and integrating housing into the social policies of the Green Deal and the Just Transition.
But the shift remains tentative. The EU has no direct authority to regulate rents or impose the construction of social housing in response to the housing crisis in Europe. It proposes frameworks and funds without imposing constraints. The broad guidelines remain in the hands of national governments, including those, such as Hungary, that exploit housing policy for political ends.
Yet this is precisely where the European promise is being tested. The roof, that mundane yet vital place, has become the real-life test of whether Europe is capable of guaranteeing everyone a dignified life. If the institutions manage to make housing a real pillar of social reconstruction, then perhaps Europe will once again speak to citizens in their daily lives: not through interest rates and deficit rules, but through rents, bills and the simple, essential possibility of having somewhere to live.
FAQ on the Housing Crisis in Europe
Is there really a housing crisis in Europe?
Yes, there is clearly a housing crisis in Europe. We see it in the rapid rise in rents, the growing proportion of households spending more than 40% of their income on housing, the increase in homelessness and the waiting lists for social housing in Europe. The housing crisis in Europe does not only affect a few 'expensive' capital cities: it affects most large cities and an increasing number of medium-sized towns, where the housing stock has not kept pace with the increase in demand. We talk about a housing crisis in the EU because this phenomenon is now widespread, long-lasting and has social and political effects (downgrading, anger, abstention, protest voting) across the continent.
How can the housing crisis in the EU be explained when the European housing stock continues to grow?
The housing crisis in the EU is not only due to the total number of homes in Europe, but also to their distribution, their use and people's incomes. In many countries, construction is still ongoing, but often it is expensive, poorly located (far from jobs and transport) or invested as a financial asset rather than affordable housing. At the same time, wages have not kept pace with rising prices and rents, which is fuelling the housing crisis in Europe even where new properties are being built. Added to this are financialisation (funds, platforms), the conversion of housing into tourist rentals and the chronic lack of social housing in Europe, which leaves low-income households and young people without affordable solutions.
Why are rents so high in many European countries, and what are the specific characteristics of rents in Europe's major cities?
Rents in Europe are particularly high in large cities because everything is concentrated there: jobs, universities, public services, culture, transport. Demand is skyrocketing, but the supply of affordable housing in the European Union is not keeping pace, especially in the rental market. In most countries, social housing in Europe is undersized and tenant protections are limited or weakened, leaving the field open to very high rents. The housing crisis in Europe is therefore primarily an urban crisis: city centres are being gentrified, working-class neighbourhoods are being pushed to the outskirts, and newcomers (young people, migrants, families in precarious situations) are faced with rents that take up a huge chunk of their budget.
Why is the European Commission now concerned about the housing crisis in Europe?
For a long time, housing was considered an almost exclusively national competence, but the housing crisis in Europe has ultimately become a European political issue. The European Commission is concerned because the cost of housing is weighing on social cohesion, worker mobility, the fight against poverty and even the ecological transition (renovation, energy poverty). The EU housing crisis is also fuelling mistrust of institutions, the rise of protest votes and the perception that Europe is incapable of protecting the most vulnerable. That is why the European Commission has put the issue on the agenda, incorporating it into the European Semester, the Green Deal and social strategies.
Can the European Housing Commission finance a major plan to build social housing in Europe and affordable housing in the European Union?
The European Commission cannot, on its own, launch a mandatory "Marshall Plan" for everyone, as the main responsibility remains in the hands of states and cities. However, it can direct part of European funds (EIB, cohesion funds, social funds, recovery plan) towards affordable housing and social housing. This is the whole point of the European housing plan: to help finance hundreds of thousands of additional homes, encourage renovation and public housing, and relax certain state aid rules to support affordable housing. The housing crisis in Europe will not be solved by Brussels alone, but without this European housing plan and without coordination at EU level, the most vulnerable Member States risk falling further and further behind, with rents becoming increasingly unaffordable for low-income households.
Sources :
- Eurostat – "Housing in Europe – 2025 edition" Interactive
overview of housing in the EU (cost, overcrowding, occupancy status, differences between countries).
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/fr/web/interactive-publications/housing-2025- Eurostat
– "Housing cost overburden more prevalent in cities" Statistical
note on the proportion of the population spending more than 40% of their income on housing, with a focus on cities/rural areas.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/fr/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20230202-1
- FEANTSA – "Tenth Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe 2025" Reference
report on homelessness and housing exclusion in EU countries (figures, profiles, trends).
https://www.feantsa.org/files/Themes/Overview/2025/Rapport_Europe_2025_EN4.pdf
- European Commission – "The European Affordable Housing Plan" Official
presentation of the European Affordable Housing Plan (objectives, tools, role of states and cities).
https://housing.ec.europa.eu/european-affordable-housing-plan_en
- ELTI & EAPB – "Promotional Banks Commit €375bn to EU Affordable Housing Plan Press
release on the commitment of European public banks to finance the Housing Plan (amounts, types of projects).
https://www.eltia.eu/index.php/news/elti-and-eapb-endorses-eu-commissions-affordable-housing-plan-with-collective-financing-of-3
- "The State of Housing in the EU 2025 – Trends in Housing in Europe" Summary
study on major housing trends in the EU (prices, accessibility, public policies).
https://stateofhousing.eu/The_State_of_Housing_in_the_EU_2025.pdf
