The Guardian’s view on Europe’s housing crisis: It’s time for the EU to get radical | Editorial

AThe deepening housing crisis was one of the dominant themes in last week’s Dutch elections, and it’s not hard to see why. House prices in the Netherlands have doubled in the past decade, and the cost of a new home is 16 times the average salary. Across the EU, affordability is not just a life-limiting issue in expensive property markets such as Lisbon, Madrid or Dublin. Speculative investment and chronic supply shortages also drove up prices Emerging regions Where greater and faster returns can be achieved.

In hindsight, this European pattern must be addressed through a pan-European response. Socialist MEPs take action on housing A condition For their continued support of the two-term President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Next month, Brussels will roll out its first affordable housing He planswhich will target the disruptive growth of the Airbnb-style rental market and aims to make it easier for governments to subsidize the construction of new homes.

This plan must be bold. As Dan Jørgensen, the EU’s first housing commissioner, pointed out in an interview with this newspaper last month, rising housing prices and rents constitute a modern social crisis. The inability of communities to provide decent housing for first-time buyers making their way in life, and the pricing out of key workers from areas where they contribute every day to the public good, violates the social contract in the simplest of ways. Politically, the issue has become a recruitment checkpoint for the anti-immigrant far-right, as asylum seekers and immigrants Scapegoat On the shortage that is actually a market failure.

Brussels previously honored A right to social housing for vulnerable and very low-income people, but they have generally remained outside housing policy. Jorgensen, the Danish Social Democrat, is right to point out that the crisis, which now includes large numbers of middle-income earners, needs to be viewed with “fresh eyes.” Among the options being considered is reviewing state aid rules to allow more public investment alongside private capital. The committee should also hear from mayors from across Europe, who participated pressure To exempt government spending on affordable housing from EU debt and the deficit ceiling.

As a series of reports published by The Guardian last year confirmed, the origins of Europe’s housing crisis are multiple and complex. Growth in the urban population, and increasing numbers of people living alone or in smaller family units, have played a role. The cumulative effects of the 2008 crash, the Covid pandemic, and rising construction rates Costs Private developers have been discouraged. Perhaps most importantly, the financialization of the real estate market, where housing is viewed primarily as a commodity, rather than as a basic public good, means prioritizing profit over the interests of communities.

The result is an era of housing anxiety that restricts the prospects and frustrates the aspirations of millions of people, especially young people. Being able to buy or rent a home at affordable prices is the starting point for living a fulfilling life. But nearly one in ten EU residents spend 40% or more of their disposable income on rent or mortgage. Having identified the devastating impact this is having on the social fabric, and the political risks associated with it, Brussels should be ambitious and extreme in its proposals next month.

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