Joint statement - Towards a European Affordable Housing Plan that is fair and sustainable

In the past 15 years, house prices in the EU increased by nearly 58% and rents by 28%. The knee-jerk reaction to this could be to ‘build, build, build’ – but the predominant way of building cities is heavily unsustainable. 

Reaching energy, climate, and circularity goals while also ensuring affordable, accessible, and healthy housing are put against one another too often. ACR+ joined other organisations from the environmental and social sectors to call for an integrated and long-term solutions in a joint statement.

Signatories call on EU policy makers to support measures that aim at making sustainable, citizen-led, and affordable and social non-profit housing a significant portion of the housing stock. To address these issues, they recommend that the European Affordable Housing Plan:

1. Be grounded in a principle of reinvesting in and expanding social housing as an essential public infrastructure.
2. Promote housing affordability through a complementary mix of diverse housing models and tenure types, as well as better regulation of the private rental market.
3. Leverage the potential of vacant and underoccupied buildings and spaces to avoid wasting already built square footage and revitalise neighbourhoods while creating new homes.
4. Promote high-quality, circular, energy efficient and decarbonised buildings through an ambitious and fast implementation of building policies rooted in community ownership, with strong social safeguards to protect and support vulnerable households in new and existing dwellings.
5. Assess existing EU policies that may undermine affordable and sustainable housing goals and align broader EU policy frameworks with the goal of ensuring affordable, accessible and adequate housing for all.