From Plan to People: Why Renovation and Delivery Will Decide Europe’s Affordable Housing Future
Europe finally has an Affordable Housing Plan. And that matters.
For millions of people, housing has become the pressure point where rising rents, high energy bills and declining housing quality collide. The Commission is right to recognise that affordability is not just about building more homes, but also about fixing the ones people already live in.
But publishing a plan is the easy part. Making it work on the ground is where housing policies usually fall short.
Renovation is not optional
If Europe is serious about affordability, renovation must move from the margins to the centre of housing policy.
For households, what matters is not only the rent or mortgage, but the total cost of living in a home: energy bills, maintenance, comfort and health. Deep renovation permanently lowers these costs, improves living conditions and protects people from future energy price shocks. It also prevents buildings from becoming obsolete and housing stock from losing value – creating the opportunity to also transform neglected buildings and regenerate whole neighbourhoods in the process.
Access to an affordable home is also key. From this point of view, renovation is not only a climate measure. It is one of the most powerful tools Europe has to make housing affordable over time and to transform undervalued but well-connected neighbourhoods into more attractive places to live. In this way access to quality, affordable housing can also expanded in areas adjoining those under pressure.
Yet too many renovation projects never happen. The process is complex, financing is hard to access, and support remains fragmented. Without clear demand signals, skilled co-ordination and simple, practical delivery pathways, interest does not translate into action.
Delivery happens through public authorities
Affordable housing is not delivered in Brussels. It is delivered by public authorities, ministries, municipalities, housing providers and local project developers, working with communities, SMEs and financiers.
National and regional authorities design support schemes and set the regulatory framework. Local authorities manage planning, permits, public housing, neighbourhoods and infrastructure. If these actors are not equipped with usable tools like technical assistance, data, delivery models, enabling powers and financial instruments that they can actually deploy, even well-designed European instruments will not reach communities and households.
This is why delivery mechanisms matter. One-stop shops, neighbourhood-based renovation partnerships, project aggregation platforms and standardised, investment-ready approaches are not administrative extras. They are what make renovation and affordable housing possible at scale.
Finance must follow real projects
The Plan’s ambition to mobilise public and private investment is welcome. But money alone does not deliver affordable homes.
Finance must be structured and geared to the needs of projects on the ground: renovation pipelines, regeneration programmes and financial intermediaries that may require a combination of technical support, funding, liquidity and guarantees. In turn projects need to be designed to be bankable and be pro-active in managing risks.
The facilities offered by public banks, guarantee providers and private financial institutions need to reach housing providers, renovation vehicles and households through simple, accessible and low-transaction-cost solutions - especially for first-time buyers and people facing energy poverty.
Equally important, investment must come with safeguards. Private finance must be harnessed to serve the public interest. Renovation should not lead to displacement, rent increases or higher household debt. The goal must be long-term affordability: lower bills, better homes and stable communities.
From plans to delivery
Europe does not lack strategies. What it lacks is the capacity to turn them into repeatable, investable projects that work for public authorities, communities and citizens.
If the Affordable Housing Plan is to deliver real change, it must:
Put renovation at the heart of affordability,
Treat housing as a public investment priority across all levels of government,
Build delivery capacity alongside financial capacity, and
Make EU and national support simple, practical and usable.
SEFA works at this interface between policy, finance and delivery. We bring together public authorities, housing providers, financiers and solution providers to turn housing and renovation strategies into real projects on the ground, through tailored financing mechanisms and practical delivery models.
The Plan sets the direction. The next step must focus on delivery. It´s on this that success will depend.
By Lina Konstantinopoulou, Executive Director SEFA