Demos Helsinki’s Post

Europe cannot simply build its way out of the housing crisis. Years of following the conventional solution to “simply build more” have exposed cities to a housing crisis compounded by an ecological crisis. The current housing situation in Europe is not good: between 2010 and 2022, EU house prices increased by 47%, and rents increased by 18%. It is no wonder that the housing crisis is on the European Commission’s agenda, and more political pressure is building. But one of the main insights from our work on housing within planetary boundaries in Finland and the EU is that business-as-usual solutions prevail. There is insufficient integration of social and ecological imperatives into urban planning and policy. How can cities address housing justice while also averting ecological and biodiversity crises from worsening? There’s no silver bullet for the EU’s housing crisis — but without innovation and sufficiency driving the agenda, we’re just building on broken foundations.