AFFORDABLE, SUSTAINABLE AND DECENT HOUSING FOR ALL
Everyone deserves an affordable, sustainable and decent home. This is not a privilege, it is a fundamental human right. And yet across Europe, people are facing a deep housing crisis, struggling to pay their bills whilst speculators buy up entire buildings and landlords evict their tenants on a whim. Families are being forced to spend almost half their income just to keep a roof over their heads, while millions of young people are locked out of the housing market altogether.
Since 2010, house prices in the EU have risen by 55.4% and rents by 26.7%. In many cities prices are increasing 10–20%
annually, completely outpacing wages and inflation. Homelessness is on the rise. On any given night, 1.3 million people in the EU have no shelter, almost 400,000 of them children. Energy poverty affects 47.5 million Europeans, forcing them to choose between heating and eating - including nearly 24 million workers. Meanwhile, over 100.000 deaths annually are caused by inadequate housing and millions more are affected by mould, dangerous pollutants or unsafe structures.
This housing crisis is not an accident. It is the result of political choices that put profits before people. In real terms, this means deregulation and poor regulatory oversight that empowers speculators, governments that structurally underinvest in social housing, and EU rules that too often treat homes as financial commodities instead of considering them as people homes.
We have seen before what happens when homes are treated as commodities, stripped of their social value. The subprime crisis of 2007–2008, born out of a housing bubble, left thousands of buildings unfinished and pushed the entire EU economy to the brink. And while new construction is sometimes needed, most of the homes Europe requires already exist. Renovating and repurposing them must come first – or we will concrete over our last green spaces and undermine the very environment we rely on.
Enough is enough. Housing must be enforced as a fundamental human right across the European Union. Because this is about more than walls and roofs – it is about dignity, fairness, and the possibility of building a life. Our vision is clear:
We fight for a Europe where no one is left homeless, where rents are fair, whe re young and old alike can live in safe, healthy homes heated and powered by renewable energy. Homes must be for people, not profit.
