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COMITE EUROPEEN DE COORDINATION DE L'HABITAT SOCIAL

HOUSING EUROPE

Since 1988 it is a network of 45 national and regional federations, as well as 16 partnering organisations in 31 countries in Europe.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Stefan Moser (Head of Unit Energy)

15 Oct 2025 · Affordable and social housing policies

Meeting with Stefan Moser (Head of Unit Energy)

15 Oct 2025 · Housing Policies - Regional Swedish Housing Association

Meeting with Stefan Moser (Head of Unit Energy)

9 Oct 2025 · Housing Policy in the EU on invitation by ESEIA

Response to European strategy for housing construction

18 Sept 2025

Public and social housing federations from Flanders, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden report growing use of prefabricated (pre-fab) solutions for renovation and new construction, including façades, roofs, and insulation. Around 3050% of Europes social housing stockmainly mid-20th-century row houses and apartment blocksis suitable for mass-customised renovation through pre-fab toolkits. Adoption varies: from pilots in Flanders, to large-scale roll-outs with Germany reporting 5,000 new dwellings built with pre-fab between 20192023, the Netherlands 7,000, and Sweden noting that 80% of all construction now relies on pre-fab. Confidence is high, with stakeholders viewing prefabrication as scalable and future-proof. Yet several obstacles hinder deployment: market fragmentation, weak coordination between policy and industry (supply chains, design teams, procurement), shortages of skilled personnel, and higher renovation costs compared to new build. Housing providers stress the need for affordable land, finance, and technology access to reach critical mass. Balancing standardisation for cost-efficiency with customisation for appearance remains a key challenge. Public policies are urgently required to support scaling up. Priorities include fostering industrial partnerships at regional and local levels (with public, cooperative, and social housing providers) to accelerate learning; facilitating collective procurement across project owners; training engineers and professionals; and structuring local bio-sourced material supply chains. Progress also depends on adapting standards and regulations to enable innovation, simplifying procurement and contracting (payments and guarantees), and supporting the growth of component manufacturers to trigger a supply shock. Financial mechanismssuch as reduced VAT, preferential borrowing rates, and other incentivesare essential for viability. In the Netherlands, social housing providers urge the European Commission to address labour shortages and rising costs through vocational training and reskilling. The De Bouwstroom (Building Flow) programme helps associations build faster and more cost-effectively via collaboration and conceptual methods. Tools like De Woonstandaard (The Housing Standard) align needs with ready-made solutions across household types and rental ranges. Shared tendering across corporations further reduces costs and increases efficiency. In Germany, providers advocate for temporary priority consideration in housing, enabling municipalities to bypass zoning plans that delay projects. Linked to upcoming legislation under Article 246e of the Building Code, this emergency measure addresses severe shortagesGermany completed just 251,900 homes in 2024 against a target of 400,000. The exemption would accelerate approvals and expand supply. In Sweden, procurement reforms and ready-to-occupy housing are boosting industrialised construction. Sveriges Allmännytta uses framework agreements to accelerate building, while Kombohusframework-procured multi-family buildingshave reduced costs for over a decade. Turnkey modular houses, offered at 2025% below market rates, allow design variation while maintaining affordability. Several EU-funded projects showcase how industrialisation and digital tools can transform housing. GigaRegioFactory develops pop-up renovation factories with plug-and-play retrofit packages in Belgium and France. Build-Up SPEED demonstrates modular, factory-built components that cut timelines and costs while ensuring quality. The Defragmentation Multidisciplinary Toolkit (DMT) of BARRIO aggregates demand at the district level to scale pre-fab renovation. Collectively, these initiatives highlight how off-site prefabrication, combined with digital planning, can deliver deep energy renovation, decarbonise housing stock, and expand affordable housing supply across Europe.
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Response to Review of the State aid rules on the Services of General Economic Interest (“SGEI”)

18 Jul 2025

Housing Europe, the European Federation of Public, Cooperative, and Social Housing, has been the voice of this sector since 1988. Representing 44 national and regional federations and 16 partner organisations across 31 countries, Housing Europe oversees around 25 million homes, accounting for approximately 11% of Europes housing stock. See in attachment the contribution to the call for evidence.
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Meeting with Katharina Knapton-Vierlich (Head of Unit Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs)

7 Jul 2025 · Part of the consultation with major European Business associations within the construction ecosystem to gather input for the Strategy, in particular data and information on the main policy gaps requiring action

Response to European Affordable Housing Plan

3 Jun 2025

Housing Europe, the European Federation of Public, Cooperative, and Social Housing, has been the voice of this sector since 1988. Representing 44 national and regional federations and 16 partner organisations across 31 countries, Housing Europe oversees around 25 million homes, accounting for approximately 11% of Europes housing stock. Through our network of over 43,000 local housing organisations, Housing Europe is the point of reference for stable housing models, innovation, research through our Observatory, and events. In annex Housing Europe outlines some recommendations to achieve better knowledge, better regulation and better finance for social, cooperative and public housing in the European Union.
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Meeting with Matthew Baldwin (Deputy Director-General Energy) and European Construction Industry Federation and

2 Jun 2025 · Housing, homelessness, social housing, sustainability, short term rental accommodations, construction

Response to Policy agenda for cities

26 May 2025

Housing Europe the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing represents over 40,000 local housing providers from across the EU. The millions of homes that our members provide are heavily concentrated in cities and their surrounding suburbs; the areas where both the demand and need for genuinely affordable housing options is most acute. Recognising the special challenges being faced by cities on housing, Housing Europe makes the following observations: - The Committee of the Regions ought to become the Committee of the Regions and Cities; offering a specific platform for city leaders that are not already empowered within the existing structure of the Committee to participate and share their unique perspectives; - The resources available to the European Urban Initiative (EUI) need to be substantially increased, in order for them to be able to address a broader range of challenges, and test a greater variety of solutions; - The Committee of the Regions (and Cities) must be empowered to play a strong role in ex-ante evaluations and fit for housing impact assessments of new, recast, and existing legislation by the European Commission in partnership with Housing Europe and the Economic and Social Committee, to systematically incorporate the affordable housing perspective in EU legislative drafting past experiences, such as the attempt to integrate housing affordability considerations into the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings or the Soil Monitoring Directive and others highlight the challenge. - Increased powers of scrutiny for sub-national policymakers can avoid unintended consequences of EU legislation, which can make it harder for local level to address the housing crisis. - Housing Europe notes that in practice, responsibility for the implementation of affordable housing plans is seldom held at the national level in EU Member States. Indeed, in the vast majority of countries, roll-out is a devolved competence of local municipalities. Therefore, it makes sense that city leaders and other local policymakers would be afforded more powers of oversight on new legislation, as they have insights and first-hand experience that can often be lacking from national-level stakeholders - Housing Europe notes that recent analysis shows [ https://www.housingeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/unlocking-potential_11-2024_digital.pdf ] the benefits of cities vesting responsibility for the development of social housing not in inefficient and overly bureaucratic internal structures, but rather in arms-length special purpose vehicles, like Municipal Housing Companies, who can better professionalise and depoliticise the process. Such entities can also develop long-term visions for housing delivery beyond a five-year election cycle. - Finally, Housing Europe notes that the current production of statistics on housing by Eurostat (e.g., Housing Cost Overburden) are wholly inadequate in terms of truly capturing a picture of housing affordability challenges. This because in most cases, such statistics are only produced at the national level. This is despite the fact that we know that housing challenges tend to be most acute in cities; something which is not well captured by the existing data. Housing Europe notes the excellent work of the ESPON-funded House4All project, which has highlighted the inadequacies of the existing data [ https://www.espon.eu/projects/access-affordable-and-quality-housing-all-people-house4all ]
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Meeting with Dan Jørgensen (Commissioner) and

22 May 2025 · Affordable Housing Plan

Meeting with Stefan Moser (Head of Unit Energy)

6 May 2025 · Data needs for housing policy analysis

Meeting with Dan Jørgensen (Commissioner) and PensionDanmark and

21 Mar 2025 · Affordable housing

Meeting with Stefan Moser (Head of Unit Energy)

4 Feb 2025 · The European Affordable Housing Plan and the possible contributions from Housing Europe

Meeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and

22 Mar 2024 · Social housing in Europe