Special committee on the Housing Crisis in the European Union Ordinary meeting
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HOUS European Parliament
Follow its sittingsElena Campelo Aubarell
So here you can see in this map that one of our effort is not only to concentrate our lending in the countries where housing is more developed, but also to roll out in the EU 27 member states. Some examples: in the Czech Republic, we signed a first loan to support key worker accommodation close to hospitals, to research centers, to universities. In Greece, we are also backing a PPP scheme to support student housing in Crete that will allow 5,000 students to access student accommodation. We have backed the national affordable housing plan in Portugal with more than 1 billion euro. We also supported Flanders in their social and affordable housing plan with 700 million euro.
And we are also providing advisory to countries like Croatia, Latvia, Czechia and Slovakia. Next slide, please. Very briefly, in terms of communication, we have our webpage that's called More Homes Better Homes, where you can find how we can support, which tools. And we are also visiting the majority of member states and meet stakeholders in the country in order to discuss what special lines of action we can take. And the last slide, please, is that going forward, what's next?
We believe that we need to build on what works in order to bring all this to a scale that is measurable. And this depends on three conditions. The first one is that we continue to have the support from EU budget, such as what I have already mentioned, this InvestEU guarantee for projects that are more risky, but also technical assistance for the advisory hub. Then we also need to have fiscal space for public investment. And where fiscal space is limited, we also would like to explore alternative investment models, like for instance try to support PPP models like we do in Latvia, in the Basque Country, in Portugal.
And then finally, it's all about partnerships. I think that we all agree that the challenge is so huge that neither local governments, countries, public promoter can do it alone. We need to work, everybody needs to collaborate together so that we can do this real scale-up.
And now we have a great opportunity with this new pan-European investment platform. We already have a very nice example of partnership in France. I'm sure that Mr. Lovato and Mr. Castrinidis will provide more details about it. But we have this housing alliance where we have unlocked more than 5 billion euro in the last five years. And we are pursuing similar collaboration with other promotional banks in Poland, in Italy, and in other member states.
Let me conclude, I think that I'm already a few minutes ahead, by saying that we need to work together. That it's the only way to multiply our impact so that we can effectively really scale up. Thank you.
Irene Tinagli
Thank you very much, Mrs. Campello, for your very clear presentation. Do we already have the slides? Okay. Now I give the floor to Rainer Lovato, head of projects in the loans and social development of the Council of Europe Development Bank. Mr. Lovato, you have more or less the same time.
Rainer Lovato
Thank you, chair. Just a couple of words to CEB. So established in '56 to finance housing and employment solutions for post-World War II internally displaced persons, housing remains at the heart of CEB's mandate. Since then, we have supported social and increasingly also affordable housing across a large majority of our 43 member states, while continuing to engage with all our member states on this shared priority. What I'm trying to say is that housing is not a side activity for the CEB.
Since 2010, we have approved close to 8 billion euros for social and affordable housing, representing about 20% of our activity. In practice, we focus on financing housing solutions mainly for people facing particular barriers to access adequate housing: low-income households, young people, older persons, persons with disabilities, victims of domestic or gender-based violence, responding to the vulnerable groups as identified by national authorities. CEB financing support is provided at state, regional, or municipal level, either to help provide housing for disadvantaged groups or to combine area-based rehabilitation with the provision of new social housing stock and related services. A core challenge is how to engage impactfully in social and affordable housing projects that are often characterized by limited bankability. So that's where we look in particular.
Small municipal companies or private socially-driven operators, for example, often face constraints in attracting finance. And this is due to their risk profile, at times limited track record to demonstrate capacity, and finally project size. They refer to themselves often as fragile institutions, they themselves. The CEB's increasing engagement in affordable housing, so going a little bit away from the most vulnerable and social, it's not a shift away from vulnerable groups tout court. Rather, it helps build models that can deliver social housing at scale, because that's what's needed now, by combining deep affordability, cost recovery, which is essential, and social mix to reduce the risk of segregation.
And this brings me to the purpose of today's exchange. To address such challenges and develop solutions at scale, we believe that partnerships are essential, especially with national and local public financing institutions that can aggregate or bundle projects into bigger investment packages. National promotional banks are the first and natural aggregators. Since the start of 2025, so we're talking about a year and a half, we have approved 1.1 billion euros in housing, largely through these aggregation mechanisms. So across France, Slovenia, Spain and elsewhere, our recent operations point to a common model: working through national or local promotional banks alongside the EIB, whom I thank, and EU resources.
It's the model that we had presented just a couple of minutes ago. We have to aggregate demand, improve financing terms and channel long-term funding, which is what we provide, to social and affordable housing providers. This makes it possible to reach smaller municipalities and socially-driven operators while keeping focus on low and middle-income households, and I'll say it again, vulnerable groups. In addition to partnerships and aggregators, having the right instruments such as guarantees and targeted subsidies is also key. The guarantees, InvestEU was already mentioned, they help address risk and bankability constraints, while targeted grant or subsidy components may be needed, actually they are needed, where affordability requirements are deepest.
And this is something we all have to keep in mind: there are many cases where rents cannot fully cover investment costs. So in a rapidly changing and challenging environment with competing budgetary priorities, I won't get into the crisis that we're facing nowadays, talk about energy, energy poverty, I mean it compounds the thing, it's essential to stay focused on the fundamentals of the housing crisis, which for us is sound project design, I'll repeat it, scalable delivery models, effective aggregation and the right mix of financing instruments, guarantees and subsidies. I will briefly like to mention EPOCH because having said that and coming back to the vulnerable, the CEB advocates for future EU affordable and sustainable housing policies to prioritize housing solutions for vulnerable populations such as the homeless, in cooperation with the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness, EPOCH, where the CEB, our institution, is the co-chair of the funding workstream. Experience from EPOCH demonstrates that future EU budget allocations should in our opinion reflect the financing realities of housing for vulnerable groups. In practice, the delivery of financially sustainable solutions for the weakest and most disadvantaged requires a public subsidy or grant covering 20 to 60% of total investment costs.
Something which a lot of people tend to forget is that you have total investment costs, call it brick and mortar, design, supervision and so forth, but something which is often forgotten are the financing costs. So here I'm talking about interest payments. So when the Housing First model was started in Finland some 50, 60 years ago, there was a 50% subsidy. And so what we're advocating for is some kind of a Finland moment to come and just to realize that the more we go towards the vulnerable, the weaker, and there are very good cooperatives and associations out there, in order to support them we need these subsidies and these grants and these guarantees, without saying anything against or without let's say withholding our fullest support for scalable models, which is what we're talking about today.
So I thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to share our thoughts, and I remain committed to working with the European Union, the national promotional banks, and all parties here. And I thank you very much, Chair.
Irene Tinagli
Thank you. Thank you very much. Now I give the floor to Costa Kastrinivis, Deputy Director of Banque des Territoires, who is connected. Hello, welcome. You have the floor for six, seven minutes.
Costa Kastrinidis
Ok, bonjour Madame la Présidente, bonjour à toutes et à tous, je suis très heureux et honoré de participer à cette audition au nom de la Caisse des Dépôts. Peut-être commencer par réaffirmer le soutien de la Caisse des Dépôts, de la Banque des Territoires en faveur du plan européen pour le logement abordable. La crise continentale qui frappe aujourd'hui l'industrie de la ville et du logement nécessite une réponse collective et les institutions nationales de promotion ont un rôle particulier à jouer dans ce cadre en complémentarité des institutions européennes comme l'ont dit mes deux précédents collègues que je salue. Réunis dans une association européenne, l'association ELTI, les 33 investisseurs de long terme présents dans les 23 pays ont un bilan aujourd'hui combiné de 2900 milliards d'euros de force de frappe financière et ce n'est pas seulement un poids financier, c'est avant tout aussi une capacité à agir qui a été mise en lumière dans le cadre notamment du plan européen puisque à la fois l'ELTI et son association sœur l'EAPB ont annoncé leur intention de financer la politique du logement à hauteur de 375 milliards d'ici 2029. C'est une ambition forte qui suppose l'existence d'un cadre favorable au niveau européen, un cadre favorable comme cela a été dit dans le cadre du prochain cadre financier, un cadre d'aides d'État adapté notamment pour le logement social et une architecture qui permet à la fois d'avoir une vision au niveau européen et une mobilisation des partenaires nationaux qui ont cette capacité à interagir avec les territoires au plus près des décideurs locaux et des acteurs territoriaux.
En France, le modèle de la Caisse des Dépôts repose sur l'épargne des Français qui depuis plus d'un siècle maintenant est transformée pour faire des financements de long terme qui pour le logement social, le logement abordable permet à la fois de financer l'acquisition des terrains, du foncier jusqu'à la production et la rénovation des logements sociaux avec des prêts de très long terme qui peuvent aller à 50 ans pour le bâtiment et à 80 ans pour le foncier. Ce dispositif aujourd'hui fonctionne à plein régime dans ce contexte de crise puisque les opérateurs de logement social au niveau français représentent aujourd'hui la production de un logement neuf sur deux qui ont bénéficié des financements issus de l'épargne des Français, soit 123 000 logements produits en 2025. La France est un des pays où le niveau de construction reste plutôt plus élevé que dans les pays voisins, notamment par la force de ce système du logement social français et de ce système de financement sur la base de l'épargne des Français, mais pas uniquement.
Costa Kastrinidis
Of course, no worry. On a depuis 2019 un système de partenariat avec à la fois le secteur du logement social mais également avec les institutions que sont la BEI et la Banque du Conseil de l'Europe. Cette alliance qui a été déjà évoquée par mes collègues a le mérite de pouvoir apporter les ressources des banques européennes au plus près des acteurs territoriaux pour les aider dans leurs projets et à améliorer finalement le plan de financement de leurs projets. Et c'est sur cette base que nous travaillons actuellement dans le cadre du plan européen pour pouvoir concevoir le hub national de financement du logement abordable qui va finalement des opérateurs jusqu'aux financeurs européens en s'appuyant sur la plateforme que représente la Banque des Territoires et la Caisse des Dépôts. Ce que je voulais dire pour ne pas être trop long c'est que face à l'ampleur de la crise aujourd'hui on a travaillé à une feuille de route dédiée au logement, une feuille de route qui représente une mobilisation de 100 milliards d'euros d'ici 2030 et qui vise à faire sortir de terre 650 000 logements abordables d'ici 2030 à la fois en travaillant sur un choc de l'offre donc le locatif mais aussi l'accession à la propriété et des évolutions de plus long terme qui sont des enjeux importants pour l'industrie de la ville.
Cette première évolution importante pour l'industrie de la ville est la question de la transformation des actifs qui sont déjà présents, la transformation finalement des bureaux en logements, des zones d'entrée de ville commerciales en logements, la transformation aussi de l'habitat vacant pour en faire des logements sociaux et des logements abordables. C'est une évolution de long terme qui va demander beaucoup de capital, beaucoup d'investissement et aussi de l'ingénierie et il est important que des acteurs de long terme comme nous le sommes ici puissions accompagner les opérateurs sur cette vision de long terme. Et puis parmi les sujets de long terme également il y a la question du foncier notamment des prix du foncier, de la manière dont les acteurs publics peuvent mieux se saisir de la question du prix du foncier pour pouvoir réguler le marché et redonner du pouvoir d'achat aux ménages. Et pour finir donc fort de cette expérience et du partenariat très riche que nous avons avec l'échelon européen peut-être quelques pistes pour aller plus loin dans le cadre des travaux et du plan européen à venir. Tout d'abord cela a été dit mais il nous semble important que le logement soit bien traité comme une infrastructure stratégique dans le cadre du prochain cadre financier pluriannuel que ce soit dans les plans de partenariat nationaux et régionaux mais également dans le cadre du fonds de compétitivité puisque le logement contribue à l'attractivité des territoires.
Par ailleurs dans le cadre de la subsidiarité la complémentarité entre l'échelon local, national et européen nous semble primordiale avec des instruments qui ont fait leurs preuves et qui pourraient venir utilement aider sur la question de la crise du logement.
Je pense au blending entre les subventions européennes et les financements des banques promotionnelles d'investissement, à des subventions également dédiées à l'innovation, notamment en matière industrielle de l'industrie de la construction et du bâtiment pour lequel les besoins d'innovation sont très conséquents. Et puis des sujets de de-risking, de garanties qui ont également un impact extrêmement fort pour accompagner, comme cela a été dit, des projets vers les plus vulnérables ou parfois pour aider certains acteurs à convaincre les décideurs locaux de se lancer dans des opérations d'investissement en faveur du logement. Je vous remercie pour votre attention.
Irene Tinagli
Thank you. Thank you very much for your intervention. Now I will give the floor to Giorgio Mauro Pieralli, head of real estate at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.
Giorgio Mauro Pieralli
Thank you chairman. Terrò il mio discorso in italiano per questa sessione. È un piacere essere qui e avere la possibilità di condividere l'esperienza del gruppo Cassa Depositi e Prestiti nel contrasto all'emergenza abitativa, un tema che tocca la vita quotidiana di milioni di cittadini. La casa non è un bene semplicemente un bene materiale, ma è un diritto fondamentale della persona. Tuttavia, garantire un accesso equo e sostenibile all'abitazione rappresenta oggi una delle sfide più complesse.
In questo scenario, un ruolo chiave può essere svolto dagli istituti nazionali di promozione che hanno la capacità di agire come catalizzatori di capitale paziente, accompagnando progetti di lungo periodo e favorendo la convergenza tra risorse pubbliche e investimenti privati. In Italia, in qualità di istituto nazionale di promozione, il gruppo Cassa Depositi e Prestiti opera a sostegno dell'abitare sociale secondo una logica di addizionalità e complementarietà rispetto al mercato, intervenendo anche in ambiti e iniziative in cui altri investitori non sono presenti. In tale contesto, CDP coniuga la valutazione del profilo rischio-rendimento di ciascuna operazione immobiliare con quella di impatto generato, anche sociale, in un'ottica di rigenerazione urbana. Il nostro focus iniziale sul tema dell'abitare è stato sul social housing. Nel 2010, con il fondo investimenti per l'abitare, il perimetro di intervento era focalizzato sul residenziale.
Progressivamente abbiamo esteso ad altri segmenti dell'abitare che contribuiscono a creare l'emergenza abitativa, come lo student housing, il senior housing e il service housing. Nel nostro piano strategico 2025-2027 abbiamo incluso il service housing con l'offerta residenziale dedicata a lavoratori che si devono spostare sul territorio nazionale. Il nostro modello di intervento in equity si basa su uno schema di fondo di fondi dove CDP agisce come investitore di riferimento. Negli anni questo schema ha permesso di sostenere 35 fondi gestiti da 15 società di gestione del risparmio con progetti immobiliari in oltre 100 comuni in tutta Italia attraverso tre fondi di fondi. Grazie a questa struttura si ottiene un blending finanziario con esito virtuoso in termini di effetto moltiplicatore delle risorse.
Per dare un'idea, a partire dai circa 1.5 miliardi investiti da CDP, sono stati realizzati investimenti immobiliari per oltre 5 miliardi. Per rappresentarvi concretamente quello che facciamo con i nostri investimenti e l'impatto che generiamo, voglio presentarvi alcuni esempi. Il fondo Investire per l'Abitare non ha investito soltanto nelle grandi città, Roma e Milano, ma abbiamo contribuito a realizzare progetti anche in regioni meno popolate dove il disagio abitativo è comunque concreto. È il caso del nostro progetto Città dei Sassi, localizzato a Matera, capoluogo della regione Basilicata, una regione del sud Italia con 550.000 abitanti e un reddito pro capite 25% inferiore alla media nazionale. In questa operazione, che è uno dei più rilevanti interventi immobiliari nel sud Italia, sono stati realizzati 155 alloggi su un'area di 13.000 metri quadri, già assegnati a famiglie numerose, giovani coppie e anziani.
Una risposta alla richiesta di abitazione a canone calmierato particolarmente elevata nel sud Italia e un esempio di rigenerazione urbana in una zona depressa. Il gruppo Cassa Depositi e Prestiti è stato il principale investitore nel progetto che è stato realizzato attraverso un fondo immobiliare investito da CDP, dalla Fondazione con il Sud e dalla regione. Per lo student housing abbiamo investito le risorse del nostro fondo e abbiamo contribuito alla realizzazione di uno studentato in a Napoli, in Campania, una regione da 5,5 milioni di abitanti con un reddito pro capite il 28% al di sotto della media nazionale. Inaugurato nel 2025, il progetto è un progetto di riqualificazione di un immobile uso ufficio da 15.000 metri quadri trasformato in residenza per studenti. Il progetto è supportato dal Fondo Europeo per gli Investimenti nell'ambito di un più ampio accordo di co-investimento.
Nel 2024 abbiamo lanciato il primo progetto per senior housing in Roma con l'Istituto Nazionale di Previdenza Sociale e il Policlinico Gemelli, un progetto finalizzato a soluzioni abitative per anziani autosufficienti. Sarà implementato a Roma su un perimetro di nove edifici con 300 appartamenti. In più, i primi esempi di service housing nell'est, a Trieste e Udine, e nel distretto orafo di Valenza. Noi non facciamo soltanto investimenti in equity, ma diamo anche sostegno con finanziamenti di medio-lungo periodo che possono essere assistiti dalla garanzia InvestEU. Questo è quello che abbiamo fatto in Puglia con un finanziamento di 10 milioni ad Arca Puglia, assistito per il 50% dalla garanzia InvestEU per la riqualificazione del patrimonio residenziale pubblico con priorità all'eliminazione delle barriere architettoniche e l'accessibilità agli alloggi.
Questo è come il gruppo CDP lavora e come svolge la sua attività in Italia, con una particolare attenzione all'utilizzo di fondi comunitari. Il gruppo CDP è uno dei principali implement partner del progetto InvestEU al di fuori del gruppo BEI. In questo contesto, CDP ha sostegno di questa garanzia di pari al 50% dell'investimento secondo un principio pari passu. Il fondo ha già ottenuto una garanzia della Commissione Europea pari a 50 milioni a fronte di un investimento di CDP di 100 milioni, parallelamente sono in corso altre iniziative a riguardo. Per concludere, la casa è una sfida nazionale ed europea che richiede risposte coordinate e molto concrete.
Il gruppo è pronto a fare la sua parte mettendo a disposizione competenze, risorse e visione. Crediamo fermamente che solo unendo le forze potremo garantire a ogni cittadino europeo il diritto a una casa dignitosa, sostenibile e accessibile.
Irene Tinagli
Thank you. Thank you very much for your intervention. So now I give the floor to Harun Tanković, Managing Director of the Funding Department of the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Mr. Tanković.
Harun Tanković
Dear Chair, dear members of the Parliament. Next slide, please. Well, in Croatian case, the affordable housing, although due to high rate of citizen ownership of residential real estate, we can say that only until a couple of years ago, since the COVID epidemic, we have seen issue of affordable housing becoming more and more prominent and increasingly important on the Croatian market. The growth of the real estate prices as well as the rents have been linked to several drivers. Overall growth in prices, which imposed higher expenses in construction area for the new units.
Then, of course, the growing tourism activities that imposed growth in demand for real estate units and strong increase for short-term rentals in regions with high tourism activities, while also increase in demand for real estate due to openness of Croatian market for the foreign citizens. Moreover, what is needed to be said in that respect, that also Croatian market has seen that real estate has been older in terms of the age of the real estate buildings. Having said that, all these factors have caused increase in the prices, in increase of the real estate prices on the entire market. Just from as it can be shown from the slide, as of 2015 and 2025, the growth on real estate markets in Croatia was one of the most highest in the EU. Having presented this information, next slide, please.
The Croatian government decided there is a need to make a certain move in terms to address those challenges. So in that respect, in March 2025, the National Housing Policy Plan, which will cover the period for until 2030, was adopted, which will then address couple of major objectives in terms of the how to alleviate crisis that was seen on the housing market in Republic of the Croatia. That included the housing affordability, of course, the housing sustainability, and also how to use the land and space for the purpose of housing. After adoption, one of the key elements of the whole National Housing Plan was adoption of the Affordable Housing Act, which was finally adopted in April of this year, 2026. What did this regulatory framework provide can be also seen on the next slide, please.
And it included numerous of measures presented and introduced by this Affordable Housing Act.
Couple of those measures include master rental sub-program, which sources apartments from the private owners on the market in order to meet affordable housing needs through the sublease of affordable rents. Then there is a second one, build-to-rent program, which means targeting construction of affordable housing for rent, build-to-own program, targeting construction of affordable housing units for sale, and also, what is very important, modernization housing program, which is focusing on energy efficiency and in case of Croatia important seismic resilience or what we like to call counter-earthquake measures. Also, there are certain other measures involved, such as tax support for the first-time homeowners throughout 50% VAT reimbursement. What is also needed to be said that this program, this National Housing Program, also put in place foundation of a new Affordable Housing Revolving Fund. In order to present this, please next slide.
What is actually perceived is that this Affordable Housing Revolving Fund will ensure stability and continuity in the financing of affordable housing projects, but also would diversify available sources of financing for the affordable housing projects and in order to depend on funds provided by the central government budget and or municipal budgets. What is also envisaged is that HBOR will manage this National Affordable Housing Revolving Fund and what would be very much in line with what we have seen across across the EU. At this point, the fund the fund will be operational by the end of 2027 and initial expectations are that the sources of funding and needed funds will will range between 1.2 and 2 billion of euros for the next five to seven years of operation. What is also needed to said, this this will not be only funding operations, this will also depend on any other sources and other financial instruments and having said that HBOR is experienced in blending various financial instruments in terms of the grants and so on, we are also looking forward that this practice will will continue under this fund in the future. In that respect, we found that any kind of future discussion is important and that there is support given to the affordable housing area.
As you can see from the slide, this pretty much shows how the various funds will be channeled through the fund managed by HBOR and in cooperation on the governmental and municipal level. Next slide, please. And maybe to conclude with with the final slide, we think that recognizing and accepting the role of NPBs around the EU is a natural way of supporting housing area because of their role, but also we also find that many other things should be done.
Through our colleagues, we are always supporting further further further let's say further measures that could alleviate the whole situation, such as simplification of state aid rules, but also bearing in mind that local specificities should be tailor-made for each and every country. With this, I will conclude my intervention. Thank you very much.
Irene Tinagli
Thank you. Thank you very very much. Now I we open the Q&A session with the coordinators and the representatives of the political no. Oh, I am sorry. I forgot I'm I apologize.
Okay, I really apologize. We have another speaker, so is Oriol Vidal-Barraquer Castells from Institut Català de Finances. Thank you and and sorry.
Oriol Vidal-Barraquer Castells
It's all right. Thank you, Madam Chair, and and thank you for inviting ICF. We are the regional promotional bank of Catalonia, and we're very happy to be here to share our view. I think it's good news that from Europe we have a chance to remind you of the importance of regions when tackling issues like this one, which have a very strong local dimension. Next slide, please, and to very briefly explain who we are.
We are the public promotional bank of Catalonia. We were founded 41 years ago, and our mission is like that of any other promotional bank. Next slide. Our role on housing started in 2018 when we began financing the development of social and affordable housing. The share of social housing in Catalonia was just 1.5% at the beginning of the decade, which is much lower than the European average of between 9.3 and 15% depending on the source.
The current government's plan is to build or generate an additional 50,000 new social and affordable dwellings for rent, and our role here is to finance all this effort. The development of public housing in Catalonia is mainly carried out by non-profit foundations dedicated specifically to housing. Some larger cities have their own publicly owned development agencies that develop directly, and recently some private for-profit agents have started to show interest in the development of social housing for rent. Most of our loans, most of our effort is through blended finance that has an interest rate subsidy provided by the Catalan Housing Agency. Next slide, please.
Yeah, that's a bit what I already said. Let's go to the next slide, please. Yes, since 2018 we have allocated more than 500 million euros, and this has allowed the construction of 5,500 new public homes. Next slide, and another one, and another one. Yeah, the next one, please.
To explain you the main housing program that we have, which is the financing of the construction of new housing developments. Our loans can finance up to 100% of the eligible costs, and they have a 30-year maturity with a grace period of up to four years. The interest rate is subsidized by the Catalan Housing Agency during the first 20 years of the loan repayment period. The subsidy is 190 basis points. The Catalan Housing Agency on parallel also grants some funds to the managers of the housing to cover some operating costs, and this ensures an average income of 10.93 euros per square meter and a reasonable return on investment.
Next two slides, please.
Speaker 16
These are some examples, but next slide and next slide. Another program that we have, we call it acquisition, and this one targets what we call emergency housing. These dwellings are intended for people at risk of social exclusion or at risk of losing their current homes. Here what the government does is exercise its right of first refusal in specific circumstances. This right is then transferred to municipalities or non-profit organizations which buy the dwelling, refurbish it and dedicate it to users who need emergency housing.
At ICF, we assess the financial viability of the project and finance the acquisition and renovation. Next slide. Loans here are up to 130,000 euros per property, a limit of 50 million per holder, and we also finance 100% of the cost. The maturity is also 30 years and there is in this case a two-year grace period. Here there's also a subsidy by the Catalan Housing Agency, which is of 200 basis points.
After 75 years, this project we have financed the acquisition of 300 homes in 208 transactions for a total of 22 million euros. I know these numbers may seem small, but we are a region, so they're quite, we're quite proud of them. Next slide to explain you a new, a new, and another slide, sorry, to explain you another project that we launched last year, which is emancipation. And this one aims to address the difficulties of young people, young people face in accessing home ownership. Here the Catalan government offers loans up to 50,000 euros or 20% of the purchase price.
These loans are interest-free and have a maximum maturity of 35 years with a 30-year grace period, which means that the young person will start paying the loan after they have repaid the mortgage. People up to 40 years of age who do not own or have never owned a home can access these loans. They must be registered in Catalonia and must not exceed an income limit of 83,000 euros per year, which is pretty high for Catalan standards. The flats bought with these loans are then registered as protected. This means that the owner can sell them only for the original price plus inflation and the cost of any renovations.
The idea is that with these flats we will create a market of homes that cannot be used for speculation. Our role here as ICF is to manage the loans and the relationship with the private banks that have signed up to the program. The money itself is by the Catalan government, the Catalan Housing Agency. With less than a full year of experience, we have already financed the purchase of 1,000, more than 1,000 homes, benefiting more than 1,600 people. Actually tomorrow is the first anniversary of this program.
Next slide, please. And another one. I wanted to start finishing by saying that all our efforts in housing, except emancipation, rely on the continued support of the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank, both present here, which I want to thank for their trust. Because without their long-term loans, we would not be able to offer loans with a 30-year maturity without putting our balance sheet at risk. This model in which multilateral financial institutions such as these channel their resources through national and regional promotional banks works.
They do have a unique capacity to access international capital markets and we have the advantage of being very close to the projects and developers themselves. So thank you for your for your support. Next slide. Because and another one. Two years ago ICF was pillar assessed and we are now negotiating with the European Commission to create a financial instrument for housing using the Invest EU guarantee.
Because what we need is private banks to help us finance this effort in the construction of new of new public housings. The proposed financial product is a capped guarantee scheme aimed at regulated credit institutions operating in Catalonia to support lending for affordable and protected social houses housing projects. The product is therefore expected to mobilize significant investment in affordable and social housing while using the Invest EU guarantee in a targeted and highly policy-driven manner. In this regard I wanted to share with you our concerns about some amendments proposed to the draft report by the Committee on Industry Research and Energy on the European Competitiveness Fund. Amendment 111 would prohibit the ECF's own budget under Article 4 from financing housing.
Housing could only be supported only with RRP funds. And amendments 45 and 173 point in the same direction. Housing would be eligible under the ECF Invest EU instrument only where the national government commits RRP resources to this to this. But under these amendments the instrument like we are building today would not be replicated in the next programming period unless housing were prioritized at a national level. And housing is a local issue.
It affects all of Europe but the regional component cannot be disregarded. I would urge you to preserve the capacity of European regions and regional public banks like mine to enhance our efforts on housing by delivering European funds to this crucial issue without depending on national priorities. There are some other pressing issues that are key to the role of promotional banks in helping Europeans accessing decent home. We strongly welcome the extension of state aid rules to affordable housing not just social housing. But we also believe that enabling regulation should be extended to address the housing crisis.
And this requires the creation of a new GBER article for affordable rental housing allowing investment aid to be granted without prior notification. And another important issue is the classification of housing providers as part of general government. This pushes their debt onto national accounts and limits their and our capacity to act. We would welcome guidance allowing these providers to be classified off the government balance sheet in line with the recommendations made by the European Affordable Housing Advisory Board last November. In conclusion we as promotional banks are already playing a crucial role in tackling the housing crisis.
Our capacity through blended finance to multiply public money is key to leveraging our efforts on an issue that requires considerable resources and all the agility and promptness we are capable of. Everyone involved at ICF every person who talks to a client analyzes risk gathers data or markets our products knows someone in their own life who is struggling to access a decent home. So being able to contribute as an institution and as professionals to helping these people is deeply fulfilling and we want to keep doing it and do it more. Thank you very much.
Irene Tinagli
Thank you. Thank you very much very for this very interesting presentation. And now we move on to our debate and I start by giving the floor to Nikolina Brnjac for the EPP.
Nikolina Brnjac
Thank you Chair. First of all I would like to thank all of the distinguished speakers for joining us today to discuss on the most important topic for young Europeans. So Europe is lacking 10 million housing units and affordable housing cannot be solved through regulation alone. It has to be combination of measures primarily by increasing the supply chain of housing. So Croatia has recently adopted a new affordable housing act with different models of affordable housing.
And the latest study of Institute for Social Research in Croatia shows that young people young Croatians want possibility to choose between affordable renting and affordable housing and possibility to buy affordable home.
Also this act includes housing cooperatives, very popular models for smaller projects, and the key measure is also the establishment of the national revolving fund for affordable housing, which will be managed by HBOR and should bring together national resources, European funds, as well as financial instruments from EIB and other international financial institutions. So my question goes to Mr. Tanković is whether he could elaborate on the reasons for particular mixed model which combines affordable rental housing and the sale of housing units, and how do you see the role of the national development banks in the new multiannual financial framework? Thank you.
Harun Tanković
Thank you. In terms of why we have a mixed model here is is for two reasons, according to what we have seen from the proposal given by the ministry. One is one part of the citizens are not able to afford purchase of the first real estate. In that respect, we also are looking at the the Croatian government is also looking at the at the option to afford to provide them affordable rent. On the other hand, some of the citizens, especially if they if they tend to be and become more let's say banking acceptable, they are in entitled and ready to purchase those those flats.
However, what is needed to be said very clearly that the when it come when it comes to the purchase of the affordable house or or flat, more importantly, on a single building that is built for that purpose, half of that at least has to go through the rental scheme and half of that has to go can go to the purchase program. In case we are talking about the building size 10 flats, the whole of the building has to go through the renting scheme. Of course, there is also certain covenants where if if the flat is purchased, it cannot be sold for next 35 years, and if so, it has to be first offered to the central housing agency or the municipal one. Of course, there are certain circumstances where the where the flat can be sold, but also it has to be said that purchased flat cannot be given as a rent for further for other tenants or or on the market. These are the main things that this new act on affordable housing is prescribing, and we as a national promotional bank were are very interested to see what the fund will bring because we will then be able to finance what is actually needed on the market, and both rental and purchase are something which can be seen as a major interest.
However, we will focus most likely and most importantly on the construction and modernization of the current housing stock or as as I said the building of the and construction of the new one. This is in a nutshell, I think, what is needed to be said in that respect.
Irene Tinagli
Thank you very much. Now give the floor to Gaby Bischoff for the S&D.
Gabriele Bischoff
Thank you chair and welcome to our distinguished guest from the EIB and CEB and the regional banks too. And I have to say first I would like to take up your positive message on one hand on like with the EIB on on increase in investment and here I think that is very positive. And we also think that this network, this alliance of on one hand EIB, CEB but also the regional banks will be key because I mean we are still facing this huge investment gap. And we have to address it and I think it was also shown through some of the examples also from Catalonia and others how important it is from there from from the European level to the regional banks and then to the local projects. I think this is the point.
And what do we have I would like to hear a little bit more also how can we make sure really here that also smaller organizations and not-for-profit actors, cooperatives for example and small municipalities can participate in this and and can benefit from this financial possibilities on one hand. And my second question would be I think you all highlighted in one way or the other the MFF and the new government governance and the structure here and also that we have competing budgetary priorities to put it very diplomatically. How we can make sure for example we tried here also from my group very much in the competitiveness funds what anchors do we need. You were talking also about some problematic amendments to make sure that also in the future it will be possible to address this huge investment gap because I sometimes fear a little bit that with the new structure and and the new priorities and that we want to do more with less money that we might end up with less money in the next MFF than we have now. And I think that would be devastating.
So to make sure what concrete messages would you give us as parliament and negotiators on on the next MFF here and how to anchor it within this new framework. Thank you.
Elena Campelo Aubarell
Yes I can start. The the first question about scaling up but also being able to to reach to these smaller municipalities is a bit what we have all discussed no that each one of the actors that you have sitting here have a different role. We are complementary but I think that we have the same objective that is to scale up to be able to tackle this investment gap but each one of us does things I mean we try to do the things that we know how to do it best no.
So the EIB, the CDC, the CDP, they are the big players, given, you know, the large amounts of money, where for instance CEB, they can do more this social angle, the support to these more non-profit, these cooperatives, these actors that have this more this social nature under themselves. We work very well also with ICF in in trying to on-lend these funds, as I mentioned, 50% of what the EIB does is giving is giving the money to commercial, to public banks so that they can then they have this this sense from the territory, no, from the smaller municipalities and they have this direct contact and then they can do these these smaller loans, no, in that regard. So for the moment it's working, but of course the effort is huge, and we need to continue and in that sense we also I think that we share this worry about the next MFF and how this is going, and this is why we also said, no, that we need to keep this InvestEU guarantee, this money for technical advice through the hub, also that we we work in these fiscal measures to to still have this housing outside balance sheet whenever it's possible and and to continue working in in that sense, no? And then I hand over to to the rest of of the table.
Yannick Kirchhof
Maybe from my end, Caisse des Dépôts, so the French long-term investor. When it comes to covering also smaller projects and making sure that smaller project promoters also have access to to EU financing, I think that sort of our example of the alliance that had had been established in 2020 with the European Investment Bank and the CEB, which had already been mentioned at numerous occasions. I think the very starting point was very much to make sure that also very small promoters can have access to EU financing. So this was basically the very starting point and we have seen that this has been a success story that has also been been mentioned at various occasions. When it comes to the second part of the question concerning the MFF, this is particularly the reason why we would like to see housing to be treated as a strategic investment and to be fully also integrated in the entire discussion about EU competitiveness, because we consider this to be an issue that covers many parts of society and many many people.
And I think I think that there is also many aspects of of sort of the the economics behind it that have to be taken into account. So this was why we proposed the treatment of as a strategic investment and earmarking in the in the upcoming MFF under both headings.
Speaker 16
Just to just to add a bit on the same, I was I was checking some data, the average project we finance from ICF it's 5 million euros and 45 new homes. So it's rather rather small. So just to insist on this that that the channeling of resources through regional and national promotional banks does allow smaller projects to also access access this money and maybe a bit what I said before about preserving the capacity of regions to prioritize to prioritize housing when when using European funds.
Irene Tinagli
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much. Now I give the floor to Gordan Bosanac for the Greens.
Gordan Bosanac
Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the presentations. It's always interesting to have investors on the other part of the table. You are the public one, not the private one. I was thinking maybe we should also have one hearing with the private investors. It is totally another story with which all of us have to work, but let's focus now on this public investment.
First, I'm really happy also that I have heard from local, I mean, more national level, like examples from France and Italy about not only building the new stocks, but also repurposing and reusing already existing stock, which I think it's really, really important and that this is in portfolio of your banks. And usually I do always have the same question. For us as Greens, it's really important when the new cycle of investments will come, how can we guarantee that those investments will not make the same mistakes as some from the past, mostly from the private sector, that they will contribute to the further financialization and speculation of housing market? So question is more, I know that each and every bank, when you are giving the loan, you have all department which is doing the deep analysis of the clients and you ask many questions of financial ability, etc. But is it possible now also to develop criteria really to check that investment which will be given even to the local authority will not end up at the end in two or three steps, either, I don't know, in tourism and will contribute and will be end up in the short-term rental, for example.
So how to make this really deeper safeguards that all the public money will be really not contributing to the further financialization and speculation? Is this something which in your banks are started to think about and develop the criteria? And two more specific question. It's for representative of Croatian Bank for Research and Development. We are now seeing that in Eastern Europe there is more and more interest, as my colleague from S&D mentioned, about non-profit and cooperatives related to the housing.
So would it be now really possible to have loans directed towards those associations, which are not social, those are also affordable housing projects, not only social housing, but affordable housing project? Will HBOR be open to that? And the question for colleague from Spain, Cervera, I think, you presented this emancipation loan, but have you been checked what was the final impact of this loan to the housing prices market in Catalonia? Because something similar, not the same, was happening in my country, Croatia, when the younger generation got subsidies for their loans. And what we have seen that market has immediately reacted by increasing the prices of the flats.
So market was waiting for those loans to be released to increase the prices. So at the end, we did nothing. We just, you know, did increase the prices of the flats. So have you tested this model that it is not doing the same mistake? Thank you.
Elena Campelo Aubarell
Maybe I can start with the first question about the financialization, speculation and the safeguards. And you are right that we have very strict due diligence criteria when we assess a new operation. We of course check. We in principle, we prefer to support affordable rental housing. However, ownership is also eligible, given that there are certain conditions that these units remain affordable over a very long period of time, that they cannot be resold in the market at making a windfall gains and and a number of other conditions.
However, of course, we have a limited space where we can act also. We need to be conscious that that the challenge is is is large, that also that that we need to scale up and and we are trying to preserve this also giving some technical assistance to governments, to countries, in order also to share best practices of what are the sustainable models that have worked in Europe, no? And helping the countries to reach a minimum percentage of these social and affordable units over the years, no? Because for instance, no, in some cases, no, we always say that in the in Austria, they have reached a percentage that 40% of their units are considered to be affordable, while in other countries, because these units are sold over time, they never reach a certain percentage and they have been always below, no, the European average. So we are trying to promote this.
But of course, you know, at the end is a law, it's a national, local issue and each country needs to come with the right regulation. The most that we can do is to share these best practices and what and what it has it has worked over time. And then maybe I mean I don't know if someone else wants to add something about about that.
Giorgio Mauro Pieralli
Yes, I I would like to add it that in our experience, we in our model, we invest as a fund of funds in initiative promoted by local foundation or a local region. And those funds invest in affordable housing project that are strictly regulated by the urbanistic law in the local in in the local area, with a long-term agreement for letting the flat at a capped rent with a discount referred to the market that cannot be sold separately for a defined period of time. And we are talking about something in a range of 30, 40 years. So in this case, this social program have a a long-term target. And this is what we check before to start with the funds of funds investment.
The fact that we are joined with a local promoter increase the effectiveness of our action and in particular on the fact that we are not only concentrated in the most developed and well-known cities. It's quite easy to invest in Milan area, in Rome area, where we have the competition of institutional funds or private investor for residential. In our mission, we are very focused to solve this tremendous gap in several area where speculator are not present because they have not market, they have not the liquidity for this type of product.
Harun Tanković
Okay, to provide an answer on the non-profit housing cooperatives, it's probably from our end a bit too early to to say as the act is recently adopted. However, we have to look at what the act is prescribing and there are certain support elements within the act provided to those cooperatives, it says per se as the the Republic of Croatia. But I think what has to come before this all the layers of the project that have to be prepared and then within the within the national plan for that is then approved for the next year in terms of the construction or rehabilitation of that of that let's say venue or building has to be firstly approved before we can say that is going to be approved any kind of support from HBOR.
But as I said it's too maybe too early to tell at this moment. I think it's good that we have overall this non-profit housing cooperative as an option to support on a local or any kind of level the members of the cooperative in respect to their housing needs. So let's keep an eye on this at this moment. This is this is what the act is prescribing.
Speaker 16
Okay, maybe to answer this specific question about the emancipation loans that we have in in place. We have not seen an increase in prices since we started the the project which was which was one year ago. Maybe I could explain a little more on detail how this works because these loans what want to cover is the upfront payments that young people are facing difficulties to save for because of the high rents they do have to pay they cannot they cannot save up to cover the 20% that usually banks ask as an upfront payment. So that's what these loans do. They have a limit of 50,000 euros or the 20% of the of the of the cost and we have had no need to rise this limit so probably the the prices have not been affected by by by these loans I'd say.
Irene Tinagli
Okay, thank you very much. Now I give the floor to Rudy Kennes for the Left.
Rudi Kennes
Thank you chair. The rising cost of living and the limited access to affordable and adequate housing which is a human right by the way recognized by the UN remains a big concern for 82% of Europeans. In Flanders, my region, access to social housing remains severely limited. In this region alone 200,000 families are currently on waiting lists and social housing associates put severe limitations on who can access social housing while 11,000 properties being left empty. Nearly 20% household are at risk of energy poverty also due to the financial inability to afford renovations to make homes energy efficient.
In Flanders this year estimates account of 21,000 homeless people among one third are children whom the Belgian government denies the right to dignified accommodation. In Antwerp an average apartment can be rented for a minimum of 900 euro per month. A property on the lower end of the housing market costs minimum 350,000 euro and a minimum deposit of 20% of the total cost is required to get a mortgage. Clearly housing has become a privilege and not a right anymore. Therefore although I welcome the EIB's contribution to affordable housing notably the 1.7 billion euro loan to build and renovate social housing in Flanders I must ask you if the project financed under this agreement will ensure social inclusivity, transparent allocation, energy efficiency and appropriate use of existing resources or will it fund help line the pockets of developers?
And does the EIB foresee financing for low-income households to help renovate their homes to make them energy efficient and lower their energy bills? Will the EIB help municipalities build new homes that comply with modern environment-friendly construction standards in line with the needs and expectations of the people in Europe?
Elena Campelo Aubarell
Thanks for the question and also for highlighting the huge needs that a region like Flanders and throughout Europe we are facing. The bank is very happy to be able to support the regional national program with this 1.7 billion, from which 700 million have already been signed. We are going to support more than 6,000 new homes. I am sure that this is not enough because the needs are even huge, but at least it shows that at national level the government has already been able to put a program in place, that they have been able to manage to mobilize also public funding to that extent, also to increase the impact because we have these more favorable terms in our due diligence, as I was explaining before. We do a careful assessment of how this money will be channeled to final beneficiaries, to promoters, that there are transparent mechanisms in place to allocate these units, and we do a follow-up of the operation until the project is up and running and is fully operational.
So we preserve that. You were asking also about energy efficiency. By default, because the EIB is also the climate bank, we request that all the homes, all the housing units that we are investing are have very low levels of energy consumption. They need to adhere at least to the latest EU regulation, but if I recall well, also in Flanders there was a high proportion of these homes that were even much below that, at least 10% below what is required by law. So yes, they will be energy efficiency.
And I recall that there was also a percentage of the loan was for renovation. So that we are also supporting, I think it was 10,000 units more to renovate these homes. Of course, we could do more. We could also work with intermediaries, with commercial banks to also channel loans to private owners, also to support with this energy efficiency, and we are doing that in other countries. So if the request comes to us, we will be very happy to provide some support for that.
Thank you.
Irene Tinagli
Okay. If there are no other requests for the floor, neither for our experts nor from our MEPs, I think I can give the floor to Alessandro Coloccia from the Task Force on Housing from the European Commission for a comment on this.
Alessandro Coloccia
Good afternoon. Thank you, thank you, Chair. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks very much for the invitation. I think this was a very interesting opportunity to have all the major players together.
We are working on a daily basis to deliver on housing investments in this MFF and hopefully also in the next MFF.
For those that don't know me, I work in the housing task force. We are in DG ENER, so we report directly to Commissioner Jørgensen and we are in a way a coordinating body within the Commission to try to deliver on all this priority. As you know, we published the first ever European Affordable Housing Plan in December last year and we are now in the implementation phase. In this plan, we dedicated a specific pillar, so we we had four pillars looking at various dimensions and we dedicated one pillar, which is the second one, to investments. Summarizing in a nutshell, I see this pillar as divided in two main actions.
One is the state aid revision to basically deliver on to encourage member states to have higher public investments. And then we have the second part of the second pillar, which is dedicated to more generally public and private investments with a strong focus on the work that that all the banks that are here are are doing. Just to just to recall, also also in the plan we had a commitment by the European Investment Bank Group to basically work work on this on this on this area, increasing their financing support through their strategy, their new strategy on housing, but also an increasing attention by other institutions such as the Council of Europe Development Bank that is here today, but also the European Investment the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the EBRD, as well as the effort by the national promotional banks to invest by 2029 375 billion in social, affordable and sustainable housing. So there is a major effort by all these financial institutions to to deliver on the on the objectives of the of the plan. At the same time, this is not a new topic for the Commission and already in the context of the current MFF, we have mobilized 43 billion of investments to support housing, looking at different basically programs from the RRF to cohesion policy to InvestEU, just to mention few of them.
And you know that we have worked on the reprogramming cohesion funds. The reprogramming so far has led to an extra 3.3 billion to affordable and sustainable housing and the number, by the way, may also increase in the in the coming in the coming years until the program is is is finished. And we are also looking forward the upcoming social climate plans, which are also dedicating a part of their resources to to housing. Just few words on something we are shaping together. We are trying to do this in a bottom-up approach and not coming from above with a one one-size-fit-all solution, which is the Pan-European Investment Platform.
This is a joint initiative between the Commission and all the all the players speaking speaking here here today. And in in in a nutshell, this initiative is currently having three three main three main legs. The first one is a digital a digital map. We have reached out to to all of you to basically provide us with an overview of all the instruments you're currently delivering. And basically, we are working on such an instrument that can show to the beneficiaries in a very very very easily how how much support is coming from your institutions and which instruments you are offering in the context of social affordable housing, sustainable housing, but also the innovation sector, which is of course very very important.
This map has not been published. We shared with the with you the the basically the draft the draft of this map. We are trying to try trying to improve it, but the objective is to publish it in the coming in the coming months. The second leg of the platform, it's something which we think is very important and is the launch of a joint working group. The working group has been launched last last week.
The call for expression of interest is open. We aim to have the first kick-off meeting in the first few weeks of October. The main areas which we're looking at are three. The first one is the development of development and deployment of social affordable sustainable housing models. The second one is the innovation in the construction sector.
And the third one is more on the digitalization of how we can deploy grants or financial instruments at the EU but also national national national level. We think this is very important and actually also listening to the discussion that we that we had today, it's very clear that we don't have a single a single solution. We don't have a single scheme. We have a number a number of solutions that serve different purposes. We have equity instruments, we have debt instruments and guarantees, we have advisory services.
And we also look at different dimensions going to looking at the whole housing continuum from the homelessness people, Seb mentioned the very good work done under EPOCH, up to the quasi the quasi the quasi market. We look at the renovation and we look at the new build, at the issue of empty or underutilized houses. So there are there is there are a number a number of issues being being developed and we hope to to deliver on on all of this. When it comes to the working group, we're also working with the DG DG Employment, our colleagues, to try to develop something which looks specifically at homeless people or the very at the fragile part of the of the population. And we may envisage strong cooperation with the with the EPOCH, so the European Platform on Combating Homelessness.
So hopefully we can we have some news on this in the upcoming future. The third leg is the national hubs, what we call national hubs. You also heard about about this this concept. Here the main idea is to bring together the key financial players but also public authorities, private investors and more generally stakeholders at the national level.
So if this working group or this digital map represent the horizontal leg of the platform, we also thought that it's important to have a vertical leg looking at the national dimension, since at the end of the day investments in housing are done at a local, regional, and national level. In these hubs, we hope and we encourage all your institutions to have an active role, providing advisory, showcasing your instruments, and more generally playing, basically supporting the delivery of affordable housing. Both the national hubs and the working group are done in close synergy with the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition, another initiative developed in DG ENER. So we are trying to have a single approach. So yes, thanks very much and happy to have questions if there are any.
Irene Tinagli
Okay, thank you, thank you very much. Now with this intervention we conclude our public hearing on the role of national promotional banks and the EIB in addressing the housing crisis. I think this gave us a very comprehensive picture of the scale and the consequences also of the housing investment gap across the European Union and also possible ideas on how to tackle that. Of course the challenges are many and here in this house we will try to do our part. Right now actually we are in a debate and negotiations that directly is not related to housing, but indirectly it's a lot related to housing, which is the negotiation on MFF, and also not only for the amount of resources available but the structure as well, as it's been, as it has emerged in our conversation.
So I hope that each one of us will be, you know, able to speak up in their domain of work to, you know, let other colleagues and the Commission know how important it is to address this crisis and to have the proper instruments and resources, because as it's been said, it is not only a social crisis, it's a competitiveness crisis, it's strategic, it's a key strategic aspect for our future. So thank you very much for your contribution and your interventions today. Now before we close our meeting today, I have to report, I have a feedback from the mission to Dublin that we just had at the end of May. The delegation visited Dublin to examine housing affordability and homelessness challenges, the role of approved housing bodies and private developers in housing delivery, and the contribution of EU financing instruments to Ireland's housing response. The mission included meetings with the Minister for Housing, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the Joint Oireachtas Committee, housing stakeholders from the public, private, and social sectors, and Eurofound.
The delegation observed that Ireland faces acute and structural housing pressures, particularly in Dublin, driven by high construction costs, limited social housing stock, and rising homelessness, which reached a record level in early 2024.
These challenges reflect a broader dynamics affecting many European cities, making the work of this committee directly relevant. Actually, you know, one thing that emerged, and I want to bring it up here because this could be relevant for you as well, is that some of the operators in the social housing and in particular in addressing homelessness noticed that most of the projects of the availability is targeted to families or couples. There is very little supply of social, you know, supply for single people homeless, but it is a problem that requires probably some, you know, targeted solution, especially as we are facing and we are seeing that in many of the analysis of this committee that one of the problems of the most fragile categories in housing crisis are single mothers, single fathers or singles that find themselves maybe without a job but with, or maybe they have a low-paid job, but with one salary you cannot afford pay a rent in the city. So I think this is something that maybe we didn't, you know, traditional solutions are not fit for this change in society and in needs, but you know, just wanted to put it out there. So a key focus was the financing of social and affordable housing.
Stakeholders consistently highlighted the importance of long-term European financing, particularly through the EIB, while calling for simpler and more direct access to EU funds at local level. So the delegation also heard about the defective concrete products crisis affecting an estimated 20,000 or more Irish homes, a situation with a clear European regulatory dimension that the committee will follow up on. This also emerged in other meetings that we had. So the quality of the projects that we will undertake are also important. Members concluded that housing must remain a strategic priority for the EU, supported by long-term financing, simplified access to EU funds and effective multi-level governance.
So I think now we have completed, but just one more thing, if there are no further requests for the floor on this topics, I really would like to personally thank Tiana Vuatovich, yes, from the secretariat, who will be leaving Parliament for some time. And she has helped us enormously, and not last in our last mission. Thank you very much. And I personally and we all wish you every success and happiness in the months to come. Okay, we will be meeting again on July 13, 2026.