 | This article needs to be updated.(August 2024) |
Housing in Europe includes modern and traditional styles.
| This article needs to be updated.(August 2024) |
Housing in Europe includes modern and traditional styles.
In 2015, more than 4 out of every 10 persons (42.0%) in the EU-28 lived in flats, close to one quarter (24.1%) in semi-detached houses and one third (33.3%) in detached houses. The proportion of people living in flats was highest, among the EU Member States, in Spain (65.9%), Latvia (65.0%) and Estonia (62.6%), while the highest proportions of people living in semi-detached houses were reported in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (both 59.9%) and Ireland (51.6%); these were the only Member States where more than half of the population lived in a semi-detached house. The share of people living in detached houses peaked in Croatia (73.4%), Slovenia (65.1%), Hungary (62.1%) and Romania (60.1%); Serbia (66.1%) and Norway (61.2%) also reported that more than 6 out of every 10 persons in of their population were living in detached houses.
Since 2010, the percentage of those living in detached houses across the EU 27 has remained stable, with the percentage of those living in detached houses remaining in the range of 34.5% to 35.8%. The only region of Europe with a distinctive trend is the Nordic countries, where the percentage of those living in detached houses is in steady decline. The percentage of those living in detached houses in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland, fell from 63%, 59%, 48%, and 36% to 58%, 54%, 44%, and 32% respectively. The only Nordic country resistant to this trend is Finland, where the percentage of those living in detached houses has remained stable in the 47.6% to 46.1% range.
In the period of 2010 to 2018, the country in the EU 27 with the greatest percent decrease in those living in detached houses was Luxembourg, with a decrease from 43.3% to 34.7%. The greatest percentage increase was in Romania, where the percentage of those living in detached houses increased from 60.8% to 65.2%.
| country | detached houses | semi-detached or terraced houses | flats | owning | renting | free accommodation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EU-28 (2015) average | 33.3% | 24.1% | 42% | 69.4% | 19.7% | 10.9% |
| Belgium | 36% | 39% | 25% | 67% | 31% | 2% |
| Czech Republic | 39% | 10% | 56% | 72% | 24% | 4% |
| Denmark | 53% | 15% | 38% | 58% | 42% | - |
| Germany | 26% | 13% | 62% | 46% | 52% | 3% |
| Estonia | 34% | 4% | 69% | 83% | 8% | 10% |
| Ireland | 40% | 55% | 4% | 77% | 21% | 1% |
| Greece | 32% | 10% | 55% | 73% | 21% | 6% |
| Spain | 13% | 19% | 66% | 83% | 11% | 7% |
| France | 42% | 20% | 41% | 58% | 38% | 4% |
| Italy | 23% | 19% | 53% | 72% | 19% | 10% |
| Cyprus | 44% | 29% | 25% | 66% | 13% | 20% |
| Latvia | 31% | 5% | 72% | 84% | 13% | 4% |
| Lithuania | 35% | 9% | 59% | 89% | 3% | 7% |
| Luxembourg | 35% | 30% | 33% | 71% | 26% | 3% |
| Hungary | 65% | 8% | 35% | 87% | 7% | 6% |
| Malta | 5% | 49% | 46% | 77% | 21% | 3% |
| Netherlands | 17% | 55% | 26% | 56% | 43% | - |
| Austria | 45% | 12% | 48% | 52% | 41% | 7% |
| Poland | 50% | 5% | 55% | 58% | 38% | 4% |
| Portugal | 37% | 23% | 38% | 73% | 19% | 9% |
| Romania | 65% | 3% | 41% | 96% | 2% | 2% |
| Slovenia | 66% | 4% | 31% | 80% | 8% | 12% |
| Slovakia | 50% | 2% | 53% | 89% | 10% | 2% |
| Finland | 46% | 19% | 43% | 67% | 32% | 1% |
| Sweden | 44% | 7% | 51% | 62% | 38% | - |
| United Kingdom | 24% | 59% | 18% | 71% | 27% | 1% |
| Iceland | 32% | 15% | 51% | 83% | 16% | 2% |
| Norway | 58% | 19% | 11% | 78% | 20% | 3% |
| Switzerland (2009) | 25% | 14% | 58% | 37% [1] | 60% | - |
In Europe, there is also a significant shortage of investment in social housing and a pressing need to renovate existing units. Annual investment in housing is predicted at €57 billion for new building and energy-efficiency modifications. The projections do not include the refugee situation caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [2]
In both Sweden and Poland, there is a dramatically increasing demand for affordable housing in mid-size cities. Sweden is
building thousands of affordable rental homes with near-zero energy use and the highest efficiency standards, the European Investment Bank approved a nearly €300 million loan in September 2019 to support this work. In the Polish city of Poznań, many residents do not qualify for city-supported affordable housing due to their high incomes but are unable to buy a home in the regular market because of low credit rating. The city and a local housing company began a project for these residents to build more than 1,000 flats that also have a kindergarten, day-care centre, a playground and parking spaces for people with disabilities. The European Investment Bank provided a €34 million loan for this project. [3]
In Tallinn, a recently established network of 19 European communities are aiming to raise the standard of living for their population while lessening their environmental footprint. The city is receiving a €100 million loan as support from the European Investment Bank, in order to upgrade public spaces, schools, social housing and energy efficient measures. [4] [5]
In 2022, Polish bank BGK will get a €133 million loan to help fund social and affordable homes across the country. The project is set to produce 5,000 new and 500 restored housing units across Poland, with the majority located in cohesion regions. [4] [6]
The EIB also took part in a €120 million public-private partnership agreement to create over 500 affordable housing units in Ireland. [7] [8]
From 2015 to 2023, housing prices in the European Union surged by 48%, while rents went up by 13%, making housing costs a significant burden, particularly in regional capitals and smaller cities. [9] [10]
The highest increases in house prices were observed in Hungary (196%), Lithuania (114%), and Czechia (112%), with the most significant rent hikes occurring in Lithuania (68%), Estonia (59%), and Poland (58%). [9] [11]
Across all regions, 45% of households, and over two-thirds of municipalities in less developed regions, indicate a shortage of investment in social housing, exacerbating the already strained housing markets. [9] [12]
Germany provides several business tax incentives for local government in housing development. These incentives are designed to attract investors and promote the construction of affordable social housing in urban areas. Some of them are: [13] [14]
There is a shortage of energy-efficient homes in Europe, the issue is especially bad in many urban areas, where 70% of the EU's population lives. Almost half of all European residential buildings were constructed pre-1970, when energy consumption in materials, standards and techniques was not considered. The European Commission found that 75% of buildings and housing need to be made more energy efficient to meet climate goals. [15]
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions companies and projects that achieve the policy aims of the European Union through loans, equity and guarantees.
The economy of the Netherlands is a highly developed market economy focused on trade and logistics, manufacturing, services, innovation and technology and sustainable and renewable energy. It is the world's 18th largest economy by nominal GDP and the 28th largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) and is the fifth largest economy in European Union by nominal GDP. It has the world's 11th highest per capita GDP (nominal) and the 13th highest per capita GDP (PPP) as of 2023 making it one of the highest earning nations in the world. Many of the world's largest tech companies are based in its capital Amsterdam or have established their European headquarters in the city, such as IBM, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Cisco, Uber, Netflix and Tesla. Its second largest city Rotterdam is a major trade, logistics and economic center of the world and is Europe's largest seaport. Netherlands is ranked fifth on global innovation index and fourth on the Global Competitiveness Report. Among OECD nations, Netherlands has a highly efficient and strong social security system; social expenditure stood at roughly 25.3% of GDP.
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, definitions of poverty, and other criteria for allocation vary within different contexts. Within the OECD, social housing represents an average of 7% of national housing stock (2020), ranging from ~34% in the Netherlands to less than 1% in Colombia.
A housing estate is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country.
A green economy is an economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without degrading the environment. It is closely related with ecological economics, but has a more politically applied focus. The 2011 UNEP Green Economy Report argues "that to be green, an economy must not only be efficient, but also fair. Fairness implies recognizing global and country level equity dimensions, particularly in assuring a Just Transition to an economy that is low-carbon, resource efficient, and socially inclusive."
The economy of Europe comprises about 748 million people in 50 countries.
Real estate economics is the application of economic techniques to real estate markets. It tries to describe, explain, and predict patterns of prices, supply, and demand. The closely related field of housing economics is narrower in scope, concentrating on residential real estate markets, while the research on real estate trends focuses on the business and structural changes affecting the industry. Both draw on partial equilibrium analysis, urban economics, spatial economics, basic and extensive research, surveys, and finance.
The affordability of housing in the UK reflects the ability to rent or buy property. There are various ways to determine or estimate housing affordability. One commonly used metric is the median housing affordability ratio; this compares the median price paid for residential property to the median gross annual earnings for full-time workers. According to official government statistics, housing affordability worsened between 2020 and 2021, and since 1997 housing affordability has worsened overall, especially in London. The most affordable local authorities in 2021 were in the North West, Wales, Yorkshire and The Humber, West Midlands and North East.
The economy of the European Union is the joint economy of the member states of the European Union (EU). It is the second largest economy in the world in nominal terms, after the United States, and the third largest at purchasing power parity (PPP), after China and the US. The European Union's GDP is estimated to be $19.35 trillion (nominal) in 2024 or $26.64 trillion (PPP), representing around one-sixth of the global economy. Germany has the biggest national GDP of all EU countries, followed by France and Italy. In 2022, the social welfare expenditure of the European Union (EU) as a whole was 19.5% of its GDP.
An excess profits tax, EPT, is a tax on returns or profits which exceed risk-adjusted normal returns. The concept of excess profit is very similar to that of economic rent. Excess profit tax can be imposed on individuals or corporations. Excess profit taxes are usually imposed on monopolist industries.
Equity sharing is another name for shared ownership or co-ownership. It takes one property, more than one owner, and blends them to maximize profit and tax deductions. Typically, the parties find a home and buy it together as co-owners, but sometimes they join to co-own a property one of them already owns. At the end of an agreed term, they buy one another out or sell the property and split the equity. In England, equity sharing and shared ownership are not the same thing.
The Regional Policy of the European Union (EU), also referred as Cohesion Policy, is a policy with the stated aim of improving the economic well-being of regions in the European Union and also to avoid regional disparities. More than one third of the EU's budget is devoted to this policy, which aims to remove economic, social and territorial disparities across the EU, restructure declining industrial areas and diversify rural areas which have declining agriculture. In doing so, EU regional policy is geared towards making regions more competitive, fostering economic growth and creating new jobs. The policy also has a role to play in wider challenges for the future, including climate change, energy supply and globalisation.
A real-estate bubble or property bubble is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real estate markets, and it typically follows a land boom. A land boom is a rapid increase in the market price of real property such as housing until they reach unsustainable levels and then declines. This period, during the run-up to the crash, is also known as froth. The questions of whether real estate bubbles can be identified and prevented, and whether they have broader macroeconomic significance, are answered differently by schools of economic thought, as detailed below.
Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affordable housing refers to mortgages and a number of forms that exist along a continuum – from emergency homeless shelters, to transitional housing, to non-market rental, to formal and informal rental, indigenous housing, and ending with affordable home ownership.
Home ownership in Australia is considered a key cultural icon, and part of the Australian tradition known as the Great Australian Dream of "owning a detached house on a fenced block of land." Home ownership has been seen as creating a responsible citizenry; according to a former Premier of Victoria: "The home owner feels that he has a stake in the country, and that he has something worth working for, living for, fighting for."
The Australian property bubble is the economic theory that the Australian property market has become or is becoming significantly overpriced and due for a significant downturn. Since the early 2010s, various commentators, including one Treasury official, have claimed the Australian property market is in a significant bubble.
Affordable housing in Canada refers to living spaces that are deemed financially accessible to households with a median household income. Housing affordability is generally measured based on a shelter-cost-to-income ratio (STIR) of 30% by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the national housing agency of Canada. It encompasses a continuum ranging from market-based options like affordable rental housing and affordable home ownership, to non-market alternatives such as government-subsidized housing. Canada ranks among the lowest of the most developed countries for housing affordability.
Housing in the United Kingdom represents the largest non-financial asset class in the UK; its overall net value passed the £5 trillion mark in 2014. Housing includes modern and traditional styles. About 30% of homes are owned outright by their occupants, and a further 40% are owner-occupied on a mortgage. About 18% are social housing of some kind, and the remaining 12% are privately rented.
Affordable housing is housing that is deemed affordable to those with a median household income as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. A general rule is no more than 30% of gross monthly income should be spent on housing, to be considered affordable as the challenges of promoting affordable housing varies by location.
A global energy crisis began in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, with much of the globe facing shortages and increased prices in oil, gas and electricity markets. The crisis was caused by a variety of economic factors, including the rapid post-pandemic economic rebound that outpaced energy supply, and escalated into a widespread global energy crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The price of natural gas reached record highs, and as a result, so did electricity in some markets. Oil prices hit their highest level since 2008.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)