To accommodate their citizens, European mayors are trying to build at all costs

In Barcelona, ​​housing has become the "second biggest concern for residents, just behind security," David Martinez, director of urban planning at Barcelona City Hall, told AFP at the Mipim real estate fair in Cannes.

"There is a shortage of housing, especially affordable housing, and over the last seven years prices have increased, whether for buying or renting," he explains.

A description that fits many other cities: in London, rents increased by 11% in 2024, and the number of people sleeping rough has soared. In Berlin, moving means seeing your rent double. In Paris, London, and Cardiff, waiting lists for social housing are growing.

In Rome, "people who were able to pay rent before, young couples, families with children, are finding themselves in difficulty," reports Tobia Zevi, deputy mayor in charge of public real estate and housing policies.

A shortage accentuated in certain cities by the increase in accommodation offered for short-term tourist rental, second homes and vacant accommodation.

In the Acropolis district of Athens, "90% of apartments are AirBnbs," says Ioannis Georgizas, president of the Greek capital's development agency, explaining that the municipality is trying to "distribute tourist flows" throughout the city.

For its part, Paris City Hall is hunting down unauthorized tourist rentals and would like to see the 128.000 vacant homes, which represent 9% of the stock, return to the rental market.

More definitively, the mayor of Barcelona announced a few months ago that all tourist apartment licenses would be abolished by 2028. "That's 10.000 homes that will return to the market," David Martinez rejoices.

In Cardiff, Mayor Huw Thomas's fight to increase and preserve housing stock is using tax leverage: a property tax doubled for second homes and quadrupled for homes that have been vacant for three years.

"Emergency"

For all these public officials, it is new construction that could make access to housing easier for their constituents: 88.000 new homes are wanted per year in London, 70.000 per year in the Greater Paris area, 200.000 in Berlin by 2040, and a target of 60.000 on the few remaining plots of land in Barcelona.

Quotas of social or affordable housing accompany these new constructions, according to different terms, for buyers or tenants.

However, construction costs have risen sharply in some countries, undermining the financial viability of real estate projects. "We require all new projects to contain 30% social housing, and the rest is difficult to finance," says Belit Onay, Mayor of Hanover.

"New housing is so expensive that we can't offer it on the private rental market. More than 20 euros per square meter per month doesn't correspond to the income level of Berliners," worries Lars Loebner, head of housing projects at the Berlin Senate.

London is trying to address this problem by offering subsidies, while Barcelona is looking for "more hands to speed up construction."

Due to a lack of space, municipalities are also studying options for urban "redensification", with the addition of new floors to existing buildings in Paris, the conversion of unused commercial space in Hanover, or the transformation of empty offices.

"Affordable housing is an emergency," warns Tobia Zevi, who believes that the City cannot solve everything; "we need a national contribution and also European support."

In December, around ten mayors called on the European Commission, and its newly created Commissioner for Housing and Energy, to address this issue.