Recommendations

• Author: Zuzanna Kowalik - Piotr Lewandowski - Egidijus Barcevicius - Dovydas Caturianas - Jakub Sokolowski
• Pages: 49-50

Policies to e nsure access to aff ordable housing

49 PE 652.729

RECOMMENDATIONS

The analysis abo ve, based on desk research and expert interviews, has informed a number of

reco mmen dation s for po licy ma ker s and s takeholde rs at lo cal, n atio nal and E U levels :

• Evidence shows that countries with well-structured and highly developed so cial hous ing

systems offer their citizens accessible and affordable housing. At the same time, evidence

indicates that demand-side spending policies are often counterproductive, in that they tend to

inflate local housing prices instead of improving the affordability of housing for households. It

is r eco mmended, therefor e, tha t local and n ational governments re-priori tise s upply-si de

housing measures (e.g. the development of affordable public housing, support for housing

associations and cooperatives). The available EU financial instruments (ESIF, EIB and others)

should also be used to support supply-side affordable housing projects. This may be especially

important in the context of the COVID-19 pand emic, wh ich ma y well be f ollowed b y a fin ancial

crisis . Governmen t-funded and administered investment in increasing social housing stock

may pro vide a viable recovery scenario for countries vulnerable to a housing crisis. The

propos ed recovery instrument 'Next Generation EU', offering EUR 750 billion t o be channelled

to Member St ates, represents a great oppo rtunity to inv est in s upply-side ho us ing measures

and at t he same time a lleviate the effects of th e pandemic;

• Support for recurrent immovable property taxes (e.g. annual taxes on a certain value of

property, or taxes on secondar y proper ty) should be encouraged among Member States.

Evidence indicates that recur rent immovable proper ty taxes is an effective inst rument to

increase local housing supply, improv e affordability and alleviate the negative effects of

speculation in housing markets;

• Our analysis shows that data on speculative investing in European housing markets is not

sys tem atically m onit ored at Eur opean level, a nd there is a lack of qua ntitative evidence about

the financialisation of European housing markets (e.g. the level of foreign investments in

European real estate by private funds/p ersons, rates of secondary property ownership and

landlordism, etc.) that could a llow for the ensuing p roblems to be better addressed. European

and na tion al st atistics offices sh ould , therefo re, con sider the pos sibilit y of systemat ically

monit oring specu lative activities in their housing markets;

• It is also recommended that a single defini tion of hom elessnes s in t he EU s hou ld be

developed, which would enable the s ystematic comparison and as sessment of the extent of

homelessn ess across different EU countries. Homel essness rates should t hen be

systemat ically moni tored at EU level via institutions such as Eurostat;

• According to some stakeholders, the current limitation of social housing to "disadvantaged

citizens or socially less advantaged groups", u nder the t erms of the current SGEI package,

restrict s the pro vision of social and afford able hou sing to a very lim ited tar get group. It is

therefor e recommended that the Europea n Commission consider the possibility of not

linki ng the current exemption for social housing under the S GEI Decis ion to a specific

target group. This would facilitate support for the provision of social and affordable housing

for wider groups of the population (e.g. lower-m iddle class es) who se housing needs are not

met b y priv ate ho using ma rket. It wou ld also encou rage more socially diver se communities

and h elp ta ckle t he problem of s ocial segregatio n;