HOUSING REVIEW 2015 Housing Review of 15 Countries in Europe and Central Asia Sustainability Livability HOUSING REVIEW 2015
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AffordabilityHOUSING REVIEW 2015 Housing review of 15 countries in Europe and Central Asia Sustainability Livability HOUSING REVIEW 2015 1 HOUSING REVIEW 2015 Housing review of 15 countries in Europe and Central Asia Housing Review 2015 AFFORDABILITY, LIVABILITY, SUSTAINABILITY On the cover A girl washes her feet from a water tap in the interior courtyard of a block of flats in Baia Mare, Romania on July 21, 2011 where the mayor has decided to construct a wall around the flats housing a majority of Roma families. ©AFP PHOTO/Daniel Mihailescu 2 HOUSING REVIEW 2015 Housing review of 15 countries in Europe and Central Asia Housing Review 2015 AFFORDABILITY, LIVABILITY, SUSTAINABILITY 3 HOUSING REVIEW 2015 Housing review of 15 countries in Europe and Central Asia ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Habitat for Humanity would like to acknowledge the contribution of the authors, editorial team, proofreader and designer to the 2015 Housing Review. Authors Dr. József Hegedüs and Vera Horváth (Housing in Europe) Dr. Marja Elsinga and Dr. Marietta Haffner (Affordability) Michelle Norris and Anna Carnegie (Sustainability) Dr. Christiane Droste (Livability) Habitat for Humanity staff (All boxes in chapters) Dr. Wolfgang Amann (Part Two) Images and illustrations Kai Klump (planungsgruppe agsn) Geert de Pauw (Community Land Trust Brussels) Claire Carriou Tina Bühner (GrandHotel Cosmopolis) Jutta Geisenhofer Sabina Prommersberger (Frauenwohnen eG) Bence Komlosi (GrandHome Budapest) Andreas Delleske Dinah Roake (Brixton Green) Nick Philipps (metwork) Editorial team Christopher Sorek and Katerina Bezgachina, Habitat for Humanity, Europe, Middle East and Africa Lani Charlwood, Habitat for Humanity Great Britain Managing editor Jean Milligan Proofreader: Adam Smith, Habitat for Humanity International Design and layout: Barbora Fricova, Habitat for Humanity, Europe, Middle East and Africa 4 HOUSING REVIEW 2015 Housing review of 15 countries in Europe and Central Asia Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 FOREWORD 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 PART ONE: HOUSING ASSESSMENT 2015 9 Chapter I Housing in Europe 11 Chapter II Affordability 29 Chapter III Sustainability 43 Chapter IV Livability 57 PART TWO: HOUSING REVIEW OF 15 COUNTRIES IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA 77 Chapter A Housing Stock and Provision 79 Chapter B Housing Construction, Markets, Housing Finance 107 Chapter C Demography, Economy, Living Conditions 121 Chapter D Annex 135 5 HOUSING REVIEW 2015 Housing review of 15 countries in Europe and Central Asia FOREWORD The housing crisis sparked by the 2008 global financial meltdown is far from over in Europe. The facts listed in the 2015 Habitat for Humanity Housing Review make evident this silent emergency. Some 10.1 percent of European households suffer from housing cost overburden, and 36.9 percent of these are also at risk of poverty. According to Eurostat, nearly 50 million Europeans (9.6 percent of the European Union’s population) live in severe material deprivation. This rate is almost twice as high (18.6 percent) in new member states. Resolution of the crisis does not look imminent as the share of young adults age 18-34 living with their parents is at record highs, reaching 55 percent of young adults in Portugal, 66 percent in Italy, and 74 percent in Slovenia. The housing situation for Europe’s middle- and low-income groups has not improved significantly since the 2013 Housing Review. Despite this, Habitat remains determined to push for change, and help lead and define new policies. Our aspiration with the 2015 Housing Review is to continue to raise the alarm on Europe’s housing crisis, to shape the debate on regional and national housing policy discussions, and increase understanding among politicians, governmental officials, academics and civil society on what it means to provide affordable, sustainable and livable housing for Europe’s middle- and low-income groups. What emerges in the three thematic chapters is that Europe needs to look at better ways of developing and providing housing that helps Europeans, regardless of class or income, have a decent place to live. It needs to augment investment in sustainable housing ranging from building materials and technology to construction practices to make current and future building more resilient, environmentally friendly and economically viable. Finally, the trends and threats to Europe’s middle- and low-income neighbourhoods need to be analysed and concrete solutions developed to ensure the region’s cities remain livable for everyone. The 2015 Housing Review concludes with updated statistics and analysis, based on the 2013 edition, on housing in 15 European and Central Asian countries. The most worrying trend is the limited, or in some countries the complete lack of, new social housing. The arrival of thousands of refugees from conflicts in the Middle East and Africa over the past 18 months means more people than ever in Europe need access to social housing. Habitat is alarmed that only a very few European countries are responding on a large scale to this worrying shortage. Our next step is to make certain that the issues raised in this Review are at the core of regional and national discussions. In the longer term, we will publish biannual reports that monitor the state of housing in Europe. The goal is to be an alternative reference publication, which offers independent expert analysis on Europe’s housing industry. Finally, this publication is one pillar in Habitat’s regional efforts to ensure that Europe’s political and private sector leadership do not forget that middle and low-income people need safe and livable homes today and in the future. Greg Foster Area Vice President Europe, Middle East and Africa Habitat for Humanity International 6 HOUSING REVIEW 2015 Housing review of 15 countries in Europe and Central Asia EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Europe’s middle- and lower-income groups are facing a landscape, while also identifying good practices. The major housing crisis. According to the European Union’s closing section identifies the barriers to the effective design statistics agency, Eurostat, 3 million people in the region and implementation of sustainable housing policies. were homeless in 2010, while 17 percent were ill-housed, meaning they lived in poor conditions or were threatened Part One, Chapter 4 aims to clarify the many definitions with losing their home. The situation has improved little of livability, how it is incorporated into European policy, in the past five years. and the current research of non-governmental housing organizations advocating for affordable housing. The The 2015 Housing Review from Habitat for Humanity chapter goes on to explore the main threats to Europe’s aims to shape the debate around Europe’s multitude of middle and low-income neighborhoods. It raises alarm housing policies. The review looks at the latest European on the increasing gap across all larger European cities housing crisis through three themes: between poverty and affluence, dynamic and poor areas, centre and periphery – spatial and social. Affordability — getting people into housing and keeping them there. It concludes by advocating for community-driven social housing programs that have the potential to provide Sustainability — building energy-efficient, environmen- opportunities to create new homes for low-income groups. tally friendly residential housing and living spaces. Concrete examples are provided from different European countries of community-driven housing and land-use to Livability — creating communities of the future through show the positive impact these programs have had on social integration and community building. low-income communities. These bottom-up initiatives open up new perspectives on potential partnerships and The review, which is divided into two parts, each with community-driven opportunities to respond to the major four chapters, examines the issues and offers long-term trends in society and neighborhoods. solutions that could provide fair housing for Europe’s middle- and lower-income citizens. Part Two is an update of the 2013 Housing Review with the latest numbers and new information related to Part One, Chapter 1 includes an overview of the latest housing in Europe and Central Asian (ECA) countries. facts and figures related to the three themes. It assesses The latest figures show there are some positive trends, the diversity of housing problems throughout the region with ownership increasing to 90 percent in most ECA and provides insight into challenges the “new poor” countries. Additionally, housing costs in relation to living in urban centers and the “traditional poor” in total household expenditures remained stable in most rural areas are facing in relation to housing. It advocates countries or even decreased as governmental policies for a convergence of national housing policies into one succeeded in keeping costs in line. The bad news is that European model that can be adapted to different contexts. the rental sector is stagnant and social rental housing has further declined in most ECA countries, and housing Part One, Chapter 2 highlights measures of housing policies are not prepared to handle the demographic shift affordability in order to better understand the extent of of an aging population that does not have the financial the problem; review trends, policies and practices over the means to maintain their homes. past century; and analyze current efforts to help resolve, or at least alleviate, affordability problems for Europe’s The review ends with an annex providing