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HOUSING EUROPE REVIEW the Nuts and Bolts of European Social HOUSING EUROPE REVIEW The nuts and bolts of European social 2012 housing systems | 1 | | 2 | Housing Europe Review 2012 The nuts and bolts of European social housing systems Published by CECODHAS Housing Europe’s Observatory, Brussels (Belgium) October 2011 | 3 | Authors: Alice Pittini Elsa Laino Acknowledgments: The following country correspondents have directly contributed to this report through their updates and revisions: Eva Bauer (GBV, Austria); Enrique Bueso (AVS, Spain); Joao Carvalhosa (CECODHAS P., Portugal); Guy Entringer (SNHBM, Luxemburg); Georg Georgiev (Bulgarian Housing Association, Bulgaria); Laurent Ghekiere (USH, France); Ulrika Hagred (SABO, Sweden); Martin Hanák (SCMBD, Czech Republic); Evi Kaila (OEK, Greece); Terry Jones and Shea Jones (NHF and CHCymru respectively, United Kingdom); Luc Laurent (FLW, Belgium); Alexander Lujiten (AEDES, Netherlands); Donal McManus (ICSH, Ireland); Alina Muzioł-Węcławowicz (Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, Poland); Ozgur Oener (GdW, Germany); Ilze Osa (Ministry of Economics, Latvia); Anna Pozzo (Federcasa, Italy); Anu Sarnet (EKYL, Estonia); Niina Savolainen (VVO, Finland); Bogodan Suditu (Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism, Romania); Elena Szolgayova (Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development, Slovak Republic); Nora Teller (Metropolitan Research Institute, Hungary); Vilma Vaiciuniene (Ministry of Environment, Lithuania). While every effort has been made to ensure that the data and other information in this report are accurate, some errors may remain. CECODHAS Housing Europe’s Observatory www.housingeurope.eu/about/observatory The Observatory is the research branch of CECODHAS Housing Europe – the federation of public, cooperative and social housing. The main aim of the Observatory is to identify and analyse key trends and research needs in the field of housing and social housing at European level. The Observatory supports CECODHAS Housing Europe’s policy work by providing strategic and evidence-based analysis in the field. This publication was made possible thanks to the support of the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) Building and Social Housing Foundation | 4 | TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword 6 Introduction 7 Chapter I: the context 9 1.1 Housing availability and tenures 10 1.2 Housing (un)affordability? 15 1.3 Quality of dwellings and housing conditions 17 1.4 Population trends and housing 18 Chapter 2 – Social housing in the European Union 21 2.1 What is social housing? 22 2.2 How big is the sector? 24 2.3 Who provides social housing? 25 2.4 How is social housing financed? 27 2.5 Who can access social housing? 33 Chapter 3: Country profiles 37 References 79 List of figures and tables 79 List of member organisation of CECODHAS Housing Europe by country 83 Glossary 85 | 5 | Foreword Everywhere, the financial sustainability of the sector is brought into question as the two pillars of most widely used social hous- ing system are being put under pressure by budget cuts. In Northern and anglo-saxon Europe, social housing rents are fixed at cost-level with tenants receiving housing benefit as deter- mined by their income to reach the level of the rent. On the one hand, the costs of housing depend on the state aid received. This Vit Vanicek, state aid is currently being cut everywhere meaning that the cur- President of the rent rent levels applying in social housing are set to increase. The Union of Czech UK future reform of social housing policies is emblematic of that and Moravian trend. On the other hand, housing benefits are being cut, with a Co-operative Housing dramatic impact on disposable income of poor households. and of CECODHAS Housing Europe A consequence of these drastic public spending cuts, may be that social housing providers will be asked to find new financial sourc- es for housing low-income households, thus enlarging the scope Dear Reader, of their activities as the only way to fulfil their mission. The first review that CECODHAS HOUSING EUROPE’s Observatory It is interesting to see also that in Eastern and central Europe, carried out of the EU social housing landscape was published four new legal frameworks for non-profit rental housing providers are years ago. At that time our country profiles filled an informa- being developed. In Slovakia, the State Housing Fund has started tion gap on social housing policies in Europe, and were widely to deliver affordable housing while in Bulgaria a law will soon welcomed. give legal certainty to develop affordable housing. Since then, the policy contexts in which housing policies devel- In conclusion, while the social housing systems across Europe oped have changed dramatically. In 2007, the policy trends were have more than 100 years of history in a number of countries, focusing on supporting private home-ownership and construction the social housing providers are stable and the rules are clear, the of new housing. In continental Europe, social housing stocks were broader context has been changing substantially over the last five decreasing slowly as a proportion of the total housing stock as years. Social housing is now seen as a very important economic more private housing were built. The prices were, almost every- stabiliser. Housing market stability must create conditions under where unaffordable for low-income and creating residential bub- which all citizens can find an adequate answer to their needs. bles in places of housing shortage while in Ireland and Spain eco- The trend of housing policies to focus public support on home- nomic growth was fuelled for a decade by the construction sector. ownership has been increasing wealth inequalities over the last decades, and hopefully has come to an end. In autumn 2007, the over-indebtedness resulting from the unaf- fordability of housing for low-income groups, crashed the global There is still some work to be done in order to achieve more bal- financial system, leading to a major crisis, known as the subprime anced housing markets, with affordable prices and housing and crisis. This crisis is on-going and has developed over the last two places where people wants to live. This report will give you an years, into a public debt crisis. overview of the social and public policies in EU. In a year’s time, we will complete this review with a description of cooperative As a response to the crisis, a number of countries have decided to housing to show the importance of diversity of housing as the key invest and support social housing production as a way to sustain to a sustainable society and economy. growth in the construction sector. These measures were short- lived and have been over-shadowed by a political landscape dom- inated by austerity programmes. As this report shows only very few members are still building new social housing at a substantial I wish you a very good read, pace (such as France, Austria, and Denmark). In the UK, planned drastic changes in social housing policies could bring opportuni- ties and threats for our members, the social housing associations, but will not deliver a response to the growing need for really affordable housing for low-income households and the growing numbers of homelessness. | 6 | Introduction Aims Themes and structure This Review provides an update of the 2007 report Housing This Review is structured in three chapters. Following these first Europe 2007- Review of social, co-operative and public introductory remarks, the first chapter presents a short overview housing in the 27 EU member states. While the previous of the context in which the social housing sector is embedded, review aimed at providing an overview of the main development namely the characteristics and recent developments in the hous- in housing policies and housing markets affecting the social, co- ing markets, in terms of housing tenures and availability, af- operative and public housing sector, the current study focuses fordability, quality and demographic trends impacting housing on social housing and aims at providing a clearer picture of the demand. way social housing systems are structured across the EU, while identifying the main recent trends in the sector. The second chapter brings together the information presented in the country profiles, providing a brief analysis of the social hous- Methods ing sector from different perspectives: the diversity of definitions This Review draws on the main and most recent statistical reports at the national level and common characteristics across Europe, and specialised literature available to this date (October 2011), the size of the sector, which kind of actors are involved in social listed in the reference section. housing provision, who can benefit from a social dwelling in the different national contexts, how the sector is financed and what It also represented an opportunity to take stock of the work of are the most innovative solutions in this sense. CECODHAS Housing Europe Observatory over the last 3 years, as this report was fed by a number of studies we have carried out The third chapter presents the 27 country profiles of the social since 2008, as indicated in the references. housing sector. Each of them includes a collection of ‘facts and figures’ summarising some key housing and related indicators in Finally, as for the 2007 Review, this study would not have been the country. possible without a consolidated network of correspondents, in- cluding both experts from CECODHAS Housing Europe member organisations and external national experts, who proved particu- larly helpful in covering those countries where CECODHAS hous- ing Europe does not have any member organisation. | 7 | | 8 | Chapter I The conteXT | 9 | 1.1 Housing availability and tenures A widely shared feature of housing markets in the European Union is the high share of home-ownership in most Member States (Chart 1). According to the most recent available data, today homeownership ranges from over 90% in some Eastern European countries such as Estonia, Romania and Bulgaria, to 40% in Germany, the only country in the European Union where the rental sector is larger than the owner-occupied one.
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