Housing
Access to affordable and adequate housing is a major concern in many Member States, in their cities and regions, compounded by the crises of recent years. People facing housing affordability problems are at risk of exclusion, insecurity about having to leave one’s home, being unable to afford other things due to high housing costs and having to remain in housing unsuitable for their needs. With rising living costs comes exposure to energy poverty for lower-income families who are unable to afford keeping their homes adequately warm or to meet rent or mortgage payments. At the same time, homelessness is on the rise in a large majority of Member States.
Latest
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1 October 2025
15 September 2025
Wealth inequality across EU Member States has important implications for access to education, healthcare and housing, as well as for people’s ability to actively participate in society.
This article summarises some of the main findings from the recently published report Unequal wealth: Exploring socioeconomic disparities across the EU. It maps wealth inequalities across EU Member States by drawing on data from the European Central Bank’s Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), covering the period between 2010 and 2021.
December 2025
Europe is faced with a housing crisis that affects people of all ages, however younger people are disproportionately impacted. Many young adults are unable to afford their own home, often having to remain living in their parental home. This crisis has wide-reaching consequences, influencing opportunities for education and employment, household composition and formation, and both current and future well-being.
This report examines the housing situation across the EU, with a specific focus on young people. It addresses the following key questions: What are the main housing challenges facing the EU population, and how have they evolved over time? What gaps exist between current housing conditions and individuals’ desired living situations, especially among younger people? Finally, what policy measures could help alleviate the housing crisis, especially from a youth-centered perspective?
About Housing
Learn more about this topic and its relevance for EU policy making.
Highlights for Housing
This is a selection of the most important outputs for this topic.
1 October 2025
Housing affordability: Approaches to measurement and key data insights – Background paper
21 May 2024
Becoming adults: Young people in a post-pandemic world
During the pandemic, many young people had to change their plans for the future. While at the end of 2023 young people’s labour market situation was more favourable than it had been in recent years, many obstacles remained on their route to independence, such as the rising cost of living and inability to move out of the parental home. This report explores young people’s wishes and plans for the future – and the well-being outcomes related to these plans – in the context of the current labour market and housing situation and progress on the implementation of the EU’s reinforced Youth Guarantee.
28 February 2024
European Child Guarantee: Housing
30 May 2023
Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe
Unaffordable housing is a matter of great concern in the EU. It leads to homelessness, housing insecurity, financial strain and inadequate housing. It also prevents young people from leaving their family home. These problems affect people’s health and well-being, embody unequal living conditions and opportunities, and result in healthcare costs, reduced productivity and environmental damage. Private tenants have faced particularly large housing cost increases, and owners with mortgages are vulnerable to interest rate increases. In addition, many owners without mortgages, especially in post-communist and southern European countries, experience poverty and housing inadequacy. The cost-of-living crisis affects people in all tenancies. Social housing and rent subsidies support many, but capacity differs across and within countries, and these measures exclude certain groups in vulnerable situations and fail to reach everyone who is entitled to them. Three quarters of Member States have Housing First initiatives – providing housing for homeless people – but these mostly operate on a small scale. This report maps housing problems in the EU and the policies that address them, drawing on Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents.
Experts on Housing
Researchers at Eurofound provide expert insights and can be contacted for questions or media requests.
Marie Hyland
Research officerMarie Hyland joined Eurofound as a research officer in the Social Policies unit in 2023. Her research focuses on issues related to housing, the social implications of the green transition and the socioeconomic situations of vulnerable groups. Prior to joining Eurofound, Marie spent several years as an economist at the World Bank, where her research covered women’s employment and economic empowerment, private sector development and the economics of climate change. Marie holds a PhD in Economics from Trinity College Dublin. During her PhD studies, she was a visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Maryland.
Sanna Nivakoski
Research officerSanna Nivakoski is a research officer in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. Before joining Eurofound in 2021, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at University College Dublin's Geary Institute for Public Policy, the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She has worked in many research areas in microeconomics, including retirement income and wealth, pension saving, intergenerational transfers and the financial impact of widowhood. Sanna holds a PhD in Economics from Trinity College Dublin.
Hans Dubois
Senior research managerHans Dubois is a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. His research topics include housing, over-indebtedness, healthcare, long-term care, social benefits, retirement, and quality of life in the local area. Prior to joining Eurofound, he was Assistant Professor at Kozminski University (Warsaw). He completed a PhD in Business Administration and Management at Bocconi University (Milan), after working as a research officer at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (Madrid).
All content for Housing
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