Marking World Habitat Day 2025 with science-based knowledge for housing crisis response
Today, on 6 October 2025, we join the global community in observing World Habitat Day — an initiative of the United Nations held every first Monday of October. This year’s theme, “Urban Crisis Response”, draws attention to the urgent need for cities to respond to growing displacement, housing insecurity, and rising inequality.
This topic resonates strongly across Europe and beyond. An increasing number of people are being displaced due to conflict, political instability, climate change, and economic hardship. A record 122 million people are now forcibly displaced worldwide. In our increasingly urbanised world, displacement is becoming an urban phenomenon — over 60% of internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrants now seek shelter in cities. This puts pressure on local housing systems and accelerates urban growth, often outpacing the capacity of cities to provide adequate and affordable homes.
At the same time, Europe’s housing crisis is deepening. Soaring costs, an undersupply of affordable housing, and widening socio-economic inequalities are converging with the impacts of the green and digital transitions. Cities are under pressure to decarbonise and densify, but if these measures are not implemented inclusively, they risk further entrenching displacement and spatial inequalities. From energy-inefficient homes and rising rents to shrinking public housing stocks, residents across Europe are facing growing challenges in accessing adequate shelter. In line with this year’s World Habitat Day theme, integrated policy responses that balance climate objectives with housing rights and social equity are more urgent than ever.
ReHousIn research on the housing inequalities situation in Europe
The ReHousIn project is working to address this challenge by providing cutting-edge, comparative research on housing inequalities across nine European countries: Italy, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Austria, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Norway. The project investigates how green policies — such as energy retrofitting, urban densification, and nature-based solutions — impact housing systems, and whether they mitigate or exacerbate inequality.
Several major research deliverables have already been published and offer valuable insights for policy, practice, and civil society.
The first deliverable, Contextualized analysis of the housing situation – Papers on (sub)national trends, maps housing conditions across the nine countries from 1990 onward. It examines macroeconomic and demographic trends, housing tenure systems, affordability, and living conditions. The report provides national-level context to help understand the structural drivers of inequality. Read the full story here.
The second deliverable is the report on the first round of the ReHousIn Policy Labs. Held across nine countries in early 2025, the ReHousIn Policy Labs brought together stakeholders to explore how green urban interventions affect housing inequality. The Labs revealed varying levels of awareness, governance challenges, and the critical need to integrate climate and social objectives. Read the full story here.
The third deliverable is the National reports on the housing system from a multi-level perspective. The reports analyse two interrelated housing components in each country: the tenure-policy system (e.g. ownership, rental, and public housing) and the supply system (e.g. how housing is produced and financed). The findings highlight the tensions between market forces and equitable access to housing.
And the most recently, the National reports on the regulatory system of Energy and Environmental Policies (EEPs) reviews the regulatory frameworks shaping retrofitting, densification, and nature-based solutions in the housing sector. It explores how national policies and funding mechanisms impact social equity in housing and where gaps in regulation or protection exist.
A policy window: The EU’s Affordable Housing Plan (2026)
The EU is preparing its Affordable Housing Plan, set to launch in 2026, with the aim of making housing more affordable, sustainable, and high quality. As stated in the Letter of Intent from the President of the European Commission: “Europe... needs to do more to address the concerns of Europeans on affordability and the cost of living. This is particularly the case when it comes to housing and energy. We will accelerate efforts to reduce structurally high energy prices. We will make proposals to make housing more affordable, more sustainable and of better quality.”
This presents a unique opportunity for researchers, urban experts, and housing advocates to shape the EU’s policy direction. ReHousIn is committed to contributing evidence, engaging in dialogue, and helping ensure that housing justice is at the heart of Europe’s green transition.
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