Europäische Bürgermeister fordern Ursula von der Leyen auf, die Wohnungskrise in der EU anzugehen

> The mayors of 10 major European cities – between them representing more than 13 million people – have written to Ursula von der Leyen calling on the EU to “rise to the occasion” to tackle one of the “most pressing challenges” facing the bloc: the housing crisis.

> “Time is of the essence: citizens need solutions and they need them now,” the letter signed by the mayors of Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam and Paris, among others, reads.

> They note that a growing number of social groups, from young people to single-parent households, are struggling to access adequate housing across Europe, while the number of homeless people has climbed to a record high.

> “This shortage has become particularly critical also for key workers and middle-class households,” the letter noted. “And it risks eroding the social foundation of the European project and undermining cities’ ability to attract and retain talent, threatening their competitiveness.”

> Across the 27-member bloc, house prices soared by 47% between 2010 and 2022, according to Eurostat data, with rents rising 18% over the same period. In some countries, more than a fifth of households spend 40% or more of their net income on housing.

> Cities have been on the frontlines of this crisis, with protests over housing erupting from Madrid to Milan.

> The mayors said they had tried to do what they could within the limits of their resources. “However, many cities are still confronted with difficult decisions, such as whether to prioritise investing in new housing construction, the fight against homelessness or improving the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock,” said the letter, which was also signed by the mayors of Milan, Lisbon, Leipzig, Lyon, Bologna and Budapest.

> The letter comes after von der Leyen’s decision, as the European Commission president, to appoint the EU’s first commissioner for housing.

> In their letter, the mayors welcomed the recent appointment of Dan Jørgensen and urged him to allow them a seat at the decision-making table as well as carve out a fast track that would enable cities to directly access EU funds for social and affordable housing.

She probably has multiple properties of her own she’s gouging.

We are more busy with war than giving housing to people. Then we are somehow surprised the far right is sweeping elections.

In Canada we are finally getting our out of control immigration policy back in check, and surprise surprise, rent and house prices are finally dropping when you don’t have millions of added demand putting pressure on a limited housing market

I don’t know what could be done at EU level. Zoning is decided on city level, zoning laws are on national level, construction laws mostly on national…

Of course some kind of “construction fund/loans” scheme could be found on EU level. Altough I’m not sure if it would help or that is it needed. Some of the construction regulation is on EU level. These could also be laxed.

So I don’t know. Individual countries should just make sure that there is enough new construction in cities with zoning and maybe schemes that fund new buildings. That is the most important thing. In places with too much airbnb (altough this is generally not the main problem, but in some places it can be significant), countries/cities can just decide to limit airbnb renting.

While I generally think housing policy is usually a local problem, it’s clear that certain things in the housing market are taking place at a much grander scale and requires a larger response. Off the top of my head:

1. Our of control international finance pouring money into housing and creating real estate bubbles, 2008 style. Real reform is needed, and not the fig leaf we got in the last 15 years. 

2. Construction is getting generally more expensive, due to expansive materials, energy and labour. A cohesive response is required for all of these. 

3. Persistent stagnant wages across the bloc with an establishment overly wedded to fiscal conservatism. The problems we see in Germany are simply what has already long been going on in the rest of the EU coming into the core of the EU. 

Ursula already “”tackled”” the child-corn issues in Germany, then she tackled the HK boomstick “not accurate enough for German soldier” problem but surprisingly those same boomsticks are accurate enough for the rest of the world… then she continued to fail upwards onto EU level… so now I am sure she is gonna do amazing in the “housing crisis” just as amazing as she has done in the refugee-crisis and geopolitics is down the shitter crisis… EU is totally more influential and more important in geopolitics and more stable than ever, thanks to Ursula the almighty and always successful problem-solver by the grace of Merkel.