Spiralling rents and sky-high property prices risk becoming a major battleground in European politics, with far-right and populist parties increasingly exploiting public anger over the continent's housing shortage, experts have warned. The UN's special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, said the crisis is now affecting not just low earners but the middle classes, making it a potent political issue.
Mr Rajagopal said far-right parties thrive when they can exploit social gaps emerging from underinvestment and inadequate government planning, and when they can blame outsiders. He argued that housing could become as powerful a driver of far-right support as immigration, particularly ahead of European Parliament elections in which far-right parties are forecast to finish first in nine EU member states and second or third in another nine.
The issue has sparked protests in cities including Lisbon, Amsterdam, Prague, Milan and London, with young people particularly angered by rents consuming half their incomes and mortgages ten times the average salary. Housing was a top concern in last year's Dutch elections, won by Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom party, and contributed to the rise of Portugal's Chega party, which nearly trebled its vote share in March.
According to Eurostat, house prices across the EU soared by 47% between 2010 and 2022, while rents rose by 18%. Recent academic research, including a study by Tarik Abou-Chadi of the European University Institute, found a clear link between rising rents and support for Germany's far-right AfD party, even in areas where rents had not actually increased. Mr Abou-Chadi said 'fear of status loss' is a key factor driving anxiety and radical-right support.
Mainstream parties are beginning to respond. In January, big city mayors called for urgent action on affordable, quality housing, and MEPs and housing ministers urged that housing be made a top priority. Mr Rajagopal, who recently reported on the Dutch housing crisis, said a first step should be to enshrine affordable, adequate and secure housing as a legal right, noting that EU countries have a 'long and laudable tradition of social protection'.
