Making a house a home

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges that we are facing today. Science has brought us far and we know that reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieve a just transition to a low-carbon and energy-efficient built environment will be vital. But this entails another challenge. How can we get there, while also ensuring access to decent, quality, future-proof affordable housing? The energy and building sector have an important role to play in progressing towards a...

It has now been three years since Housing Europe embarked on a special journey – to increase circularity in social and affordable homes, by bringing renovation techniques, recycling, and upcycling to a new level while preserving affordability and fairness. While we have seen multiple public, cooperative, and social housing providers implement circular models, we are now referring to Housing Europe’s partnership in the EU Horizon 2020 funded HOUSEFUL project, which has at its core the aim to...

Cheap money is gold for private housing investors, and central banks have a big role to play in directing money flows. This is one of the key messages from our previous podcast episode that focused on how central banks are affecting our access to decent, affordable housing. Of course, we know that many more players are involved and responsible for the housing situation we observe in different locations. Today, we will be getting closer to the action and zeroing in on the role of mortgage...

Money makes the world go around and central banks supposedly keep it flowing. However, should they also ensure it flows in the right direction? Central banks aim at promoting financial stability and could promote sustainable development that includes investment in affordable, inclusive, decarbonised housing. They could also create the perfect storm and promote borrowing, indebtedness, offering cheap money to big investors, creating real estate inflation, unaffordability, and as recent...

Where did we leave the conversation last time? After our 12 #Housing2030 podcast episodes about affordable housing that is mindful of climate sustainability, responsible land policy, better governance and finance were listened about 2,400 times, we launched the long-awaited “#Housing2030: Effective policies for affordable housing in the UNECE region”. The study that was led by Housing Europe, UNECE, and UN-Habitat draws on the experience of over 100 researchers, policymakers and housing...

[FR] Le logement social est souvent considéré comme un laboratoire d'innovation sociale et environnementale. Ce podcast qui nous amènera à quelques kilomètres des bureaux de Housing Europe le prouvera. Alors restez avec nous, car nous allons dans le sud de la Belgique, la région wallonne. Notre membre, la Société wallonne du Logement (SWL) nous guidera à travers leurs défis comme par exemple rénover les logements tout en les gardant abordables, opter pour des solutions à plus faible impact...

Well-functioning housing systems can be easy to grasp and build upon. At the same time, developing housing systems in transition or even starting from zero is not a given. It takes political will, dedication, time, adequate and targeted investment to ensure that communities in our cities and rural areas have decent, quality homes allowing them to focus on bigger goals in life. In this episode, we are meeting virtually Grzegorz Gajda from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to discuss how...

Try discussing housing affordability without mentioning the financialisation of real estate property. This key concept has affected the general housing conditions in many countries - big funds buying tens of thousands of homes, expanding mortgage market that drives up prices, constantly increasing rents, gentrification and pricing people out. The financialisation of housing can easily sound complex, so we have invited someone who can explain it even to a grandma. You are with ‘Making a...

Being a fundamental right, our homes should be treated the same way in national accounts as energy or transport infrastructure. While we often think of the social benefits of housing affordability, there are also a handful of economic reasons to reform or improve housing finance. Building more social housing, for example, counterbalances house price inflation. Grants, loans, adapted interest rates that support the construction or renovation of homes might appear as costly solutions, but...

When speaking about social inclusion and housing, one European country can be seen as a total myth buster. Yes, it is Finland. Once travel is safe and possible again, we dare you to have a stroll in its capital, Helsinki and try to tell the difference between the tenures just by looking at the buildings. It is also the right time to say that the next edition of the International Social Housing Festival in June 2022 will give you this opportunity. A European champion in tackling...

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule,” writes Charles Dickens in his novel the ‘Great expectations’. When speaking about evidence, the hundreds of graphs and reports about the current state of housing and well-being are crystal clear - prices and incomes rarely march shoulder to shoulder. But is housing legislation always based on facts? Positive examples of housing affordability do exist, and yet, serious improvements in this direction are more...

When was the last time when you took a stroll around a neighbourhood and you found it well-maintained, with a good social mix and green spaces or just the opposite, rather run-down, leaving you a feeling that things can be improved? And a second question to kick off the discussion - when was the last time when you thought that districts, homes and people’s quality of life are the result of a strategic, systematic political action or perhaps inaction? Welcome to ‘Making a house a home’ - the...

We can’t judge a book by its cover but can we have a clear idea of the vision of a city by looking at how liveable it is? Paying special attention to the level of existing affordable housing, the configuration of its neighbourhoods, the ecological footprint of homes and people’s access to green spaces, could be a hint helping us to define how functional megapolises, cities, small towns and rural areas are. Welcome to the podcast of Housing Europe, the European federation of public,...

Our home – the place where we now work and play, celebrate holidays and relax might seem to us to be always the same, just as we left it this morning. At the same time, we also know that housing is developing as we are speaking. Isn’t that a fascinating paradox? Housing renovation is now on nearly all political agendas, seen as a way to achieve climate goals, improve people’s lives and boost the economy. Innovative solutions and models are coming from different corners of Europe. We see the...

The changing climate of the planet presents a challenge to all of us. Besides being a key issue that we need to tackle swiftly and effectively, climate change and environmental goals have to be designed to protect all parts of our society. With the need to heat, cool and build our homes more sustainably, housing goes right at the heart of the climate discussion. Our subscribers who have been closely following this show will notice that there is a change of the voice behind the microphone,...

One could call it the ‘holy grail’ of today’s highly urbanized world. The way authorities manage it shapes the way we live, including how much public and green space we can benefit from, how we can move around, what types of services we can find around us and most importantly what kind of home we can access. Urban Land is a cornerstone of modern cities and today’s focus point of ‘Making a house a home’. In the third episode of our mini series dedicated to the ‘Housing 2030’ joint...

Paraphrasing Mark Twain one could say “take good care of Land, they aren't making it anymore”. This is why when one needs to look at ways to boost provision of affordable housing until 2030, land is definitely one of the major points for consideration. This is episode 2 of our mini-series dedicated to Housing 2030, the joint international initiative of housing experts from over 56 governments through UNECE and UN Habitat and 43,000 affordable housing providers and neighbourhood developers...

This episode kicks off a mini-series dedicated to #Housing2030, a joint international initiative of housing experts from over 56 governments through UNECE and UN Habitat and 43,000 affordable housing providers and neighbourhood developers represented by Housing Europe with the aim to improve the capacity of national and local governments to formulate policies that improve housing affordability and sustainability. As the countdown to the first virtual event of the ‘Housing 2030’ initiative,...

After discussing the EU Green Deal and its ambition for a Renovation Wave, today we’re heading back to the European Parliament to meet one of its Dutch Members with the Greens, Kim van Sparrentak. Kim is currently rapporteur of the European Parliament upcoming own initiative report on “Decent and Affordable Housing for All” and the timing unfortunately couldn’t have been more appropriate given that the Coronavirus Crisis has brought to surface Europe’s housing challenges for good. During our...

We’re back with yet another episode of our series around the housing aspect of the Coronavirus Crisis, in which we are addressing a number of questions that are probably in your mind as well, with one special guest each time. Today, we’re making the link with the European Commission flagship initiative, the EU Green Deal and the so called ‘Renovation Wave’ that is envisaged to improve the condition of Europe’s building stock. Ciaran Cuffe is an Irish Member of the European Parliament with...