Title: ‘HOUSING CRISIS IN EUROPE AND GREECE;
How strategic urban planning & state urban policies may facilitate affordable housing?’ - Roundtable Discussion
Chair:
Prof. Aspa Gospodini
Department of Planning and Regional Development
University of Thessaly, Greece
Abstract/Description:
Between 2015 and 2024, house prices in the EU rose on average by 53%. Between 2010 and the first quarter of 2025, also housing rents rose by 27.8 % on average in EU. Young Europeans are particularly affected, leaving their parents' home later, in some cases later than the age of 30 years. In 2024, the mean housing costs in the EU exceeded 40% of the disposable income for 9.8% of households in EU cities. The edges of this mean percentage are, on the one hand Greece and on the other Cyprus. Almost one third of Greeks (29%) living in large cities had housing costs of over 40% of their income. But only 2.3% of Cypriots in cities faced the same issue [source: European Parliament https://www.europarl.europa.eu ].
Αs European Politicians, mainly of the Social Democrats Party, argue, the ongoing housing crisis has a strong political impact. Behind the alarming rise of far-right political movements and parties across established democracies in EU, are the pervasive anxieties and insecurities such as professional insecurity, social exclusion and housing insecurity - experienced by significant segments of European societies; and creating all together fertile ground for nativist and xenophobic movements. The European Commission and European Parliament have adopted the Housing Policy ‘Everyone should get equal access to decent, healthy housing’, calling on EU countries to recognise adequate housing as a fundamental human right that is enforceable through specific legislation. The European Investment Bank in March 2025, announced plans for investments of around €10 billion over the following two years in affordable and sustainable housing [ https://www.eib.org/en/press/all/2025 ].
In Greece, house prices have since 2017 recorded an annual increase of about 10% and registered a cumulative rise of 66.4% from 2017 to 2024. According to indexes provided by online real-estate advertisement platforms, rent prices also increased by more than 75% between 2015 and 2024. In 2023, housing prices in Greece have reached the level of the previous historical peak of 2007, when cheap mortgaged lending had contributed to their rapid escalation. But the mean annual income of Greeks is still far below that of 2008. In the last three years, The Greek Government introduced new housing policies such as ‘Sptiti mou 1”, ‘Spiti mou 2”, “Public Sponsoring of Housing Renovation and Rent”, et al., but they have been proven insufficient to handle the housing crisis.
This round-table discussion focusses on the following issues:
(a) it examines best housing policies and practices in EU and internationally, presenting successful paradigms;
(b) it analyses all dimensions of housing crisis in Greece;
(c) it presents a critical view of the insufficient housing policies recently introduced by the Greek Government;
(d) it explores new potentials for affordable housing by means of both strategic urban planning policies and state-financial policies in EU and Greece. More specifically, it investigates solutions towards secure housing as social right and fundamental social good – as these are associated to both market regulations (e.g. price and rent control, protection of vulnerable households, limits on short-term home-leasing for tourists and golden-visa advantages for foreign investors, et. al.) and strategic urban planning, (e.g. social housing, re-use of vacant buildings, adoptive renewal of abandoned industrial estates, et al.).
Keywords: Housing crisis, real estate market, urban policies for affordable housing, strategic urban planning, public policies and market-regulations.
Coordinator of the Roundtable Discussion
Aspa Gospodini, Professor of Urban Planning & Design, Department of Planning & Regional Development, University of Thessaly, Greece.
Invited Contributors in the Roundtable Discussion:
George Petrakos, former Rector of University of Thessaly, Professor of Spatial Economic Analysis, Department of Planning & Regional Development, University of Thessaly, Greece;
Antonios Rovolis, Professor of Spatial and Urban Economics, Director of the Research Institute of Urban Environment and Human Resources, Chair of the Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Athens, Member of Panteion University Council;
Nikolaos Karanikolas, Professor of Cartography-Geography and Real Estate Valuation and Analysis, Chair of the Department of Planning & Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Prodromos Vlamis, Associate Professor of Financial Analysis and Real Estate Economics, University of Piraeus, Greece; Member of the Management Board of RAAEY, Water Branch Regulatory Authority for Energy, Waste & Water