ReHousIn at ENHR 2025: Contributing to the Housing Inequality Debate in Grand Paris
The ReHousIn team was actively engaged at the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) Conference 2025 in Grand Paris, contributing to a wide range of discussions on housing inequalities across Europe. Through various sessions, the team connected the project's findings to broader policy debates and academic discourse on just and inclusive housing transitions.
Researchers from ETH Zurich represented the project with a paper titled "Balancing Environmental and Social Goals: A Critical Review of Energy Refurbishment Policies and Practices in Switzerland’s Rental Housing Stock." The paper explores the tensions between energy refurbishments and an equitable access to adequate and affordable housing to the table at the ENHR conference in Grand Paris.
This paper focuses on Switzerland’s energy refurbishment policies and explores how they are affecting and being affected by the overall housing market, and on their influence on housing equity and affordability.
The contribution sparked discussions on the social consequences of green transformations, particularly in contexts where rental markets are tight and tenants have limited protection from rising rents.
By highlighting empirical cases and policy trends in Switzerland, the research group connected their findings to broader international debates on just transitions in the housing sector.
The paper forms part of the ReHousIn research framework, which investigates how environmental goals affect housing justice. Our analysis contributes to identifying the systemic conditions under which energy refurbishments risk reinforcing housing inequality, and it calls for a more integrated policy approach that balances ecological ambitions with the right to affordable housing.
Authors: Jennifer Duyne Barenstein, Luisa Gehriger, Salome Rohner, Hannah Widmer
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