Special Committee on the Housing Crisis in the European Union Ordinary meeting
3 November 2026
Contents updated on 3 Nov 2026
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HOUS European Parliament
Follow its sittings00:04 - 00:30
Speaker 2
Okay, good afternoon, everyone. I think we can get started with our house committee meetings. So, we start, as usual, with the adoption of the agenda. And, if there is no objection, the agenda is deemed adopted. Before we start with our hearing, I have a couple of announcements.
00:30 - 03:07
Speaker 1
First of all, we have to adopt the minutes of the meeting of 9th of September 2026. If there are no objections, the minutes are adopted. And also just to remind you that this meeting is webstreamed on the Parliament's website, and that we have interpretation in 16 languages: German, English, French, Italian, Dutch, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak, Romanian and Croatian. So, and also I want to inform the colleagues that the house committee mission to Bucharest originally set from October 26 to 28th had to be cancelled. So now it's my great pleasure to welcome you and our guest speakers to today's public hearing organised by the committee on housing markets without speculation, public tools to restore housing affordability.
So let me start with the fundamental economic question. You know, what happens when housing increasingly becomes an asset whose value is driven not simply by the services it provides, but also by expectation of future capital gains? Housing occupies a unique position in our economy. It is a basic human need, a major component of household expenditure, a store of wealth and an important asset in financial markets. And all of these different functions do not necessarily move in the same direction.
So investment in housing is essential. It can finance new construction, improve the quality of existing buildings and expand the supply of rental and affordable housing. But we need to distinguish between investment that creates additional housing capacity and affordable housing capacity, and financial strategies that primarily seek returns from the appreciation of existing assets. Economic research has shown how credit conditions, investor expectations and speculative behaviour can amplify housing price cycles. When expectations of raising rising prices become self-reinforcing, financial dynamics can become increasingly disconnected from the underlying demand for housing services.
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