Our demands
Learn more about our demands: what are our objectives and goals, on which analysis and data did we base them and what are the policies and laws that we propose on EU level and ask you to sign.
Our Objectives
We, the citizens of Europe, demand access to housing that is affordable, sustainable and fair.We see and feel it every day: workers who can no longer afford the city they build, young people who cannot leave their parents' home, tenants pushed out of their neighbourhoods after renovation, empty buildings while people sleep on the street.
The current housing market is putting profit over people and the planet. Europe's buildings are expensive, empty and broken. But it does not have to be this way: the buildings exist, and so do the approaches to make them affordable. What is missing are the rules:
USE
- Regulate short-term rentals and vacancy.
- Convert empty buildings, like vacant homes and offices, into housing.
- Create incentives and fast permits to make renovation the first choice.
INVEST
- Ensure public money serves people not speculation.
- Reform fiscal rules so governments can invest more in housing.
- Create an EU housing fund.
PROTECT
- Set enforceable standards to keep housing affordable and sustainable.
- Keep people in their homes during EU-funded renovation.
- Establish an EU Housing Agency to govern transparently.
We call on the EU to act and people to sign!
Analysis
The problem is evident. In every European country, in every major survey, and across all age groups, housing emerges as the number one concern of citizens.
We see and feel it every day: in our cities and in the countryside, in our families and among our friends. We notice it when people cannot find a home, when rents rise, when contracts end, when young people cannot move out, and when older people are pushed out of their neighbourhoods. We see it when flats cannot be renovated, or when energy bills become unaffordable.
Why is this happening? Why is the system so unfair? Why can people not afford a roof over their heads, while so many buildings sit empty? Why are assets more important than homes? Why are we building new flats and offices that no one can afford or needs, while existing buildings are falling apart or being demolished?
Buildings Are Expensive
Housing prices are driven by speculation, financialisation, short-term rentals and policies like Golden Visa programmes. In Lisbon, average rents have exceeded the average salary. Across the EU, rents have risen by almost a third since 2010. In some countries, they have doubled. In Italy, Spain, Romania and Greece, young people cannot leave their parents' home before 30. Middle-income households fall into a trap: too rich for social housing, too poor for the market. It is the nurse, the police officer, the teacher who keeps the city running but can no longer afford to live in it.
Buildings Are Empty
Millions of homes stand empty while people search for housing and homelessness grows. In Berlin, Paris and Brussels, enough empty office space exists to house tens of thousands of people, yet new offices are still being designed, planned and built. In cities and in the countryside, entire neighbourhoods and villages have been converted into holiday rentals, leaving streets full of tourists but empty of residents. There are enough buildings but they remain out of reach. It is the homeless person sleeping on the street in front of an empty office tower, and the worker commuting hours because every nearby flat has become a holiday rental.
Buildings Are Broken
Most European buildings are old and energy-inefficient. Renovation can turn them into the homes of tomorrow, fast and at a fraction of new construction costs. Yet renovation faces a systemic problem: renoviction. Tenants are pushed out of their flats through rising rents, while public money increases private property values. The current system favours the new over the old, leading to demolition, wasting materials, money and energy already invested in building them – while the building sector produces more than a third of Europe's CO₂ emissions and more than a third of its waste. It is the retired couple who own their home but cannot afford to heat it, the tenant who is pushed out of their neighbourhood, and the planet paying the price of demolition and rebuilding what already exists.
Expensive, empty and broken. Europe's buildings fuel social inequality, ecological damage and political polarisation. The European Union has begun to act: with the Renovation Wave and the Affordable Housing Act. But legislation alone will not be enough. It is now or never that we, the citizens of Europe, shape the rules that will define housing across our continent. That is why this initiative focuses on what can be done immediately – within the existing system and the existing building stock, because new construction takes years, while the crisis is happening now. The goal is to deliver results tomorrow, not only in ten years.
To get there, this initiative proposes actions at two speeds:
What must happen now:
➔ Recognise the right to housing now and place it at the centre of EU policy.
➔ Respond to the crisis as the emergency it is, and act with the existing building stock.
What must change structurally:
➔ Regulate housing markets to tackle vacancy, speculation and financialisation.
➔ Reform the structural causes through public investment, fair rules, climate safeguards and an EU housing agency.
These four principles are the foundation of a detailed legal proposal that accompanies this initiative. This initiative brings together citizens, organisations and movements from across Europe who have long advocated for these causes. It builds on their work, including the 10th Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe, Report on Climate Adaptation in Public, Cooperative, and Social Housing in Europe; the ACE Sector Study; the TASH Report Living at the Crossroads: Affordability, Climate and Real Estate Investment; the European Manifesto for Housing Justice; the Joint statement Beyond Bandages - Towards a European Affordable Housing Plan that is Fair and Sustainable; the Recommendations by the European Housing Advisory Board; the European Green Deal and the Renovation Wave; as well as the European Affordable Housing Plan and supporting Staff Working Documents.
We see and feel it every day: in our cities and in the countryside, in our families and among our friends. We notice it when people cannot find a home, when rents rise, when contracts end, when young people cannot move out, and when older people are pushed out of their neighbourhoods. We see it when flats cannot be renovated, or when energy bills become unaffordable.
Why is this happening? Why is the system so unfair? Why can people not afford a roof over their heads, while so many buildings sit empty? Why are assets more important than homes? Why are we building new flats and offices that no one can afford or needs, while existing buildings are falling apart or being demolished?
Buildings Are Expensive
Housing prices are driven by speculation, financialisation, short-term rentals and policies like Golden Visa programmes. In Lisbon, average rents have exceeded the average salary. Across the EU, rents have risen by almost a third since 2010. In some countries, they have doubled. In Italy, Spain, Romania and Greece, young people cannot leave their parents' home before 30. Middle-income households fall into a trap: too rich for social housing, too poor for the market. It is the nurse, the police officer, the teacher who keeps the city running but can no longer afford to live in it.
Buildings Are Empty
Millions of homes stand empty while people search for housing and homelessness grows. In Berlin, Paris and Brussels, enough empty office space exists to house tens of thousands of people, yet new offices are still being designed, planned and built. In cities and in the countryside, entire neighbourhoods and villages have been converted into holiday rentals, leaving streets full of tourists but empty of residents. There are enough buildings but they remain out of reach. It is the homeless person sleeping on the street in front of an empty office tower, and the worker commuting hours because every nearby flat has become a holiday rental.
Buildings Are Broken
Most European buildings are old and energy-inefficient. Renovation can turn them into the homes of tomorrow, fast and at a fraction of new construction costs. Yet renovation faces a systemic problem: renoviction. Tenants are pushed out of their flats through rising rents, while public money increases private property values. The current system favours the new over the old, leading to demolition, wasting materials, money and energy already invested in building them – while the building sector produces more than a third of Europe's CO₂ emissions and more than a third of its waste. It is the retired couple who own their home but cannot afford to heat it, the tenant who is pushed out of their neighbourhood, and the planet paying the price of demolition and rebuilding what already exists.
Expensive, empty and broken. Europe's buildings fuel social inequality, ecological damage and political polarisation. The European Union has begun to act: with the Renovation Wave and the Affordable Housing Act. But legislation alone will not be enough. It is now or never that we, the citizens of Europe, shape the rules that will define housing across our continent. That is why this initiative focuses on what can be done immediately – within the existing system and the existing building stock, because new construction takes years, while the crisis is happening now. The goal is to deliver results tomorrow, not only in ten years.
To get there, this initiative proposes actions at two speeds:
What must happen now:
➔ Recognise the right to housing now and place it at the centre of EU policy.
➔ Respond to the crisis as the emergency it is, and act with the existing building stock.
What must change structurally:
➔ Regulate housing markets to tackle vacancy, speculation and financialisation.
➔ Reform the structural causes through public investment, fair rules, climate safeguards and an EU housing agency.
These four principles are the foundation of a detailed legal proposal that accompanies this initiative. This initiative brings together citizens, organisations and movements from across Europe who have long advocated for these causes. It builds on their work, including the 10th Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe, Report on Climate Adaptation in Public, Cooperative, and Social Housing in Europe; the ACE Sector Study; the TASH Report Living at the Crossroads: Affordability, Climate and Real Estate Investment; the European Manifesto for Housing Justice; the Joint statement Beyond Bandages - Towards a European Affordable Housing Plan that is Fair and Sustainable; the Recommendations by the European Housing Advisory Board; the European Green Deal and the Renovation Wave; as well as the European Affordable Housing Plan and supporting Staff Working Documents.
Legal Proposal
This initiative has submitted a draft legal act, that proposed concrete measures to adapt existing EU laws with the goal to make housing more affordable, sustainable an fair. Download the full draft legal proposal (PDF in English).
Legal Proposal PDF