"House prices in the Netherlands have doubled in the past decade, and a new-build home costs 16 times the average salary. Across the EU, affordability is not just a life-limiting problem in notoriously expensive property markets such as Lisbon, Madrid or Dublin. Speculative investment and a chronic supply shortage have also led to soaring prices in emerging areas where bigger, faster returns are attainable."
"Belatedly, this pan-European pattern is to be addressed by a Europe-wide response. Socialist MEPs made action on housing a condition of their continued support for the two-term European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Next month, Brussels will publish its first affordable housing plan, which will target the destructive growth of the Airbnb-style rental market and aim to make it easier for governments to subsidise the building of new homes."
"As the first-ever EU housing commissioner, Dan Jrgensen, noted in an interview with this newspaper last month, spiralling house prices and rents constitute a modern social crisis. The inability of societies to provide a decent home for first-time buyers making their way in life, and the pricing out of key workers from areas where they contribute every day to the common good, breaches the social contract in the most basic way."
Housing affordability has deteriorated across Europe, with house prices doubling in the Netherlands over the past decade and new-build homes costing sixteen times the average salary. Expensive markets like Lisbon, Madrid and Dublin and emerging areas alike face soaring prices driven by speculative investment and chronic supply shortages. Socialist MEPs conditioned support for the European Commission president on housing action, prompting Brussels to prepare the EU's first affordable housing plan. The plan will target the growth of Airbnb-style rentals and facilitate government subsidies for new construction. Spiralling prices and rents displace first-time buyers and key workers and fuel political extremism.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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