Affordable housing among top concerns for Europe’s mayors

Europe’s mayors are keen to tackle the housing crisis but want more help from the EU to take on that challenge and overcome budget constraints, a new poll reveals.

This year’s Eurocities Pulse: Mayors Survey — conducted in the spring and shared exclusively with POLITICO’s Living Cities — polled 86 municipal leaders from 26 European countries.

According to the results, 63 percent of the bloc’s mayors say tackling climate change is the top priority for their administration — consistent with last year’s findings. But this time, the second-most pressing concern on the list is access to affordable housing.

In 2023, housing had barely made the list of the top 10 priorities for mayors surveyed by the network. Its current status as one of the major concerns for the bloc’s local leaders underscores the impact of the home affordability crisis on cities across the continent today.

In many of Europe’s urban centers, mayors are facing mass protests against rising rental and home prices. In response, they’ve tried measures like rent caps, banned tourist rentals or launched major building initiatives. But those participating in the survey said they desperately need EU guidance to come up with a coordinated response to the crisis.

Even though housing is not, officially, an EU competence, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed to tackle the issue last year, and created the role of the bloc’s first dedicated Housing Commissioner, who is tasked with presenting a plan to increase Europe’s affordable housing stock in 2026. For the first time ever, the European Parliament now also has a Housing Committee, which is analyzing how costs can be reduced across the bloc.

The surveyed mayors have plenty of suggestions for how this could be done. More than half say more EU money should be allocated for home-building through programs like the signature Cohesion Policy, which was recently tweaked to allow member countries to use up to €15 billion in regional funds to address the crisis.

Local leaders are also calling for a revision of competition and state aid rules, so that more public cash can be allocated to building social and affordable housing. And they’re asking for comprehensive EU regulations to rein in the short-term rentals they say are exacerbating the problem.

Trust issues

The mayors polled by Eurocities say budget constraints remain a major obstacle to delivering on their priorities.

As high inflation and rising energy costs continue to place municipal governments under strain, many local leaders express frustration toward national administrations, which they believe make it more difficult for cities to access public funds.

These frustrations may explain why less than half of the polled mayors say they trust national authorities. The local leaders appear to resent their perceived loss of municipal autonomy — a result of the increased centralization of many EU countries — and complain of national politicians imposing “top-down” decisions.

However, while those surveyed appear to lack faith in the national governments they perceive to be out of touch with local concerns, they see EU officials in far-off Brussels as trusted partners. Unsurprisingly, confidence in the bloc’s institutions varies depending on the extent of municipal participation in their programs. But, overall, local leaders appreciate the EU’s efforts to engage with city leaders and provide public funding for local projects.

According to the survey, nearly three-quarters of participating mayors say they are optimistic about the EU’s future. That sets them apart from their constituents: The latest Eurobarometer data indicates only 62 percent of EU citizens express similar confidence in the bloc’s positive evolution.

The positive sentiment may be due mayors’ direct interaction with the bloc’s institutions, as well as their awareness of how much EU cash is used to fund municipal projects and infrastructure. It also underscore local leaders’ potential as advocates for the European project — and as major players in its future development.