The European Union has confirmed that it will hold a “high-level meeting” on the bloc’s deepening housing crisis in Dublin in November, with the EU 27 set to revisit the issue under Ireland’s incoming Council presidency.
European Council President António Costa announced the gathering on April 30 after meeting with the Mayors for Housing alliance in Brussels. He told reporters that affordable housing was “one of the most urgent and complex problems for millions of Europeans”.
The November fixture is to take place during an informal summit prepared by Ireland, the next member state to assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. Ireland takes over on July 1, 2026.
Costa was joined at the press conference by Jaume Collboni, mayor of Barcelona, alongside the mayors of Paris and Rome, who attended on behalf of the 17-city alliance.
The European Council President framed housing affordability as central to public trust in the bloc’s institutions, saying it sat “at the centre of the disaffection of citizens with the democratic institutions”. He added that the shortage was “reducing labour mobility, affecting productivity and demographics”.
NO QUICK FIX
The decision to schedule a fresh summit some seven months from now will draw scrutiny from those who argue the bloc has been slow to respond to a problem that has been building across European capitals for years.
Average house prices across the EU have risen by more than 60 per cent over the past decade, while rents have climbed by more than 20 per cent, according to the European Commission’s own figures published alongside the launch of the first ever European Affordable Housing Plan on December 16, 2025.
Costa acknowledged on April 30 that competence over housing rested primarily with EU member states, though he argued for a “coordinated response” between governments at every level. The forthcoming legislative tools accompanying the plan should, in his view, give authorities the means to adapt policies to local conditions, including measures on short-term rentals and on speculation.
That message echoes the line taken at the European Council summit on October 23-24, 2025, when EU leaders for the first time signed up to a housing strategy. The conclusions of that gathering drew criticism, though, for being short on detail.
Costa said the matter would remain on the EU’s agenda and feature in talks on the next long-term budget.
MAYORS PRESS FOR REGULATION AND CASH
Collboni told reporters that the housing crisis was now calling fundamental EU rights into question, including freedom of movement and the ability to remain in one’s own city. “Today what is at stake in Europe is the right to stay in your city and your neighbourhood,” he said.
The Barcelona mayor warned that rising rents and property prices were pushing out “the most vulnerable sectors”, as well as “young people” and “the urban middle classes”.
He called for a “new approach” combining regulation and financing, and said the bloc should develop tools such as “stressed market zones” that would allow extraordinary measures to be taken when housing costs exceeded set thresholds for households.
The Mayors for Housing alliance, led by Barcelona, brings together 17 European cities including Amsterdam, Athens, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Lisbon, Paris, Rome and Warsaw. It has pressed Brussels for a European Affordable Housing Fund capable of mobilising €300 billion a year.
Collboni said EU institutions had begun placing housing among their priorities, citing the legislative work in preparation, but he insisted on the need to reinforce the effort in the next multiannual financial framework.
A SLOW-MOVING RESPONSE
The pace of the European response has frustrated elected representatives in Ireland in particular, where Dublin has spent years grappling with one of the bloc’s tightest property markets.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had pledged to hold the EU’s first ever Housing Summit in 2026 during the October 2025 leaders’ debate. The European Parliament has since established its own Special Committee on the Housing Crisis, which adopted recommendations in February 2026.
The EC’s Affordable Housing Plan was billed as Brussels’ most direct intervention to date in a policy area traditionally reserved for member states. Critics have pointed out, though, that key elements of the accompanying Housing Simplification Package are not due to be delivered until 2027.
Costa said the EU’s role would remain one of supporting cities and national governments rather than leading. “There is no one single solution,” he told reporters, adding that the bloc would “rely on towns and cities and their mayors to take the lead and find concrete solutions”.
The November meeting in Dublin will, according to him, allow leaders to keep the issue on the agenda and prepare the ground for discussion under Ireland’s presidency in the second half of 2026.
