In December 2025, PPMI | Part of the Verian Group has completed a major study for the European Parliament's Special Committee on the Housing Crisis in the EU (HOUS): Mapping the housing needs in the EU, assessing the impacts of scarcity and providing an overview of relevant EU legislation.
The study arrived at a pivotal moment. With the appointment of the first-ever European Commissioner for Housing, the forthcoming EU Affordable Housing Plan, and the HOUS Special Committee itself, housing has become a defining policy priority - yet robust, cross-cutting evidence on the scale and drivers of the challenge has been scarce. This study fills that gap.
What the study found
The EU's housing crisis is deeply uneven. Southern and Eastern Europe face high overcrowding and substandard conditions; Western and Northern Europe struggle with soaring prices and constrained supply. Across all contexts, the burden falls hardest on vulnerable groups - low-income families, migrants, young people, and persons with disabilities.
The crisis is driven by converging pressures: ageing populations, urbanisation, migration, and the rise of short-term rentals on the demand side; limited land, high construction costs, and labour shortages on the supply side. Cutting across both supply and demand is the financialisation of housing, which has turned a social good into a financial asset, fuelling price inflation and eroding affordable supply. The consequences reach beyond housing itself, affecting health, labour mobility, educational outcomes, and social inclusion.
EU legislation and funding - including the EPBD, EED, RRF, and Cohesion Policy - have improved housing quality and energy efficiency, but their impact remains uneven due to differences in national capacity and implementation.
Policy recommendations
The study sets out recommendations across three pillars: strengthening EU legislation (embedding social targets in building renovation strategies, updating State aid rules, and developing EU guidance on tenant rights); mobilising finance at scale (expanding the European Affordable Housing Initiative, strategically deploying Cohesion Policy and the Social Climate Fund, and innovating with revolving funds and social bonds); and building enabling conditions (harmonising EU housing data through a proposed EU Housing Data Hub, agreeing on a common definition of "affordable housing", and building local capacity).
PPMI | Part of the Verian Group team
The study was led by Alina Makarevičienė and carried out together with Greta Skubiejūtė, Agnė Zakaravičiūtė, and Justinas Jočys, with the support of the Policy Department for Transport, Employment and Social Affairs, Directorate-General for Cohesion, Agriculture and Social Policies (CASP).
Full study and executive summary (available in six languages) on the European Parliament Think Tank:
