HouseInc
Inclusive, affordable and sustainable housing for marginalised communities
A HORIZON-funded project that will use innovative methodologies and approaches to analyse the interlinked dimensions of housing inequalities in 4 European countries.
The EU is facing a housing crisis with a lack of affordable, sustainable, and inclusive housing. Many EU citizens are currently faced with poor living conditions. According to Eurostat data, in 2022, 16.8% of EU citizens lived in overcrowded households, with higher rates in Eastern Europe. Energy poverty is also on the rise, with 9.3% of the EU population unable to keep their homes adequately warm in 2022. The recent surge in energy and fuel prices has worsened this situation. Other factors that impact the quality of housing include, leaking roofs, damp walls, floors or foundations, or rot in window frames or floors, which were experienced by 14.8% of EU citizens in 2020. The cost of housing is also a burden, with 10.8% of the EU population living in a household where housing costs represent more than 40% of disposable income, in 2022.
Housing inequality, defined as disparity in the access, affordability, quality of housing conditions and availability of housing between different groups of people, affects many in the EU, with those living in or at risk of poverty disproportionately impacted. The quality of housing goes beyond the physical structure of a building and has impacts on health and well-being, economic and working conditions, and social cohesion. Poor quality housing has a harmful impact on society and leads to social exclusion by depriving occupants of social and economic opportunities.
HouseInc will address housing inequalities by contributing to policy measures that will seek to increase access to affordable, inclusive and sustainable housing for marginalised groups in society.
The overall objective of the HouseInc project is to deeply analyse interlinked dimensions of housing inequalities, with a particular focus on marginalised communities – through innovative methodologies and approaches. HouseInc will assess and test drivers of and impacts on micro/meso/macro levels to identify interlinkages among ecological (environmental), social (labour, mobility, health and family), and economic (income, energy price) conditions and address the multidimensionality of housing inequality. By taking a holistic approach, HouseInc will provide solutions that aim to relieve the burden of housing inequality in 4 marginalised communities in Europe.
Partners
More information about the project at https://ieecp.org/projects/houseinc/
The project started in February 2024 and will end in January 2027. Granting authority: European Research Executive Agency, project number: 101132513, Call: HORIZON-CL2-2023-TRANSFORMATIONS-01, Topic: HORIZON-CL2-2023-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-09, Type of action: HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions.
The members of the Socioeconomics of Housing team involved in the project are responsible mainly for Work Package 3: "Financial and political drivers and impacts of housing inequality". The main objective of this activity is to analyse of drivers and consequences of housing inequality as well as policies influencing housing inequality. Its solution includes the following steps:
1. Identification of datasets and countries for quantitative data analyses.
All analytical tasks of WP3 (and WP4) will be conducted on selected European countries. This country selection should reflect: (1) diverse housing regimes; (2) diverse average levels of housing affordability and amounts of total household residential wealth; (3) diverse geography and climate; (4) diverse macroeconomic performance (GDP per capita and inflation); (5) diverse demographic/migration trends – population size, society ageing, foreign immigration and urbanization; (6) availability of data. Based on these criteria, we will select a number of countries in addition to the four core countries that we include in all subsequent tasks. In addition, we will secure available secondary data for the subsequent WPs (i.e. EU-SILC, HFCS, EQLS and ESS). Additionally, we will use data from national censuses and house price datasets and, where necessary, draw on results from the multinational survey conducted in WP4.
2. Measuring long-term trends in financial levels of housing inequality in selected countries.
In this task, we will measure the main indicators for three financial levels of housing inequality using secondary datasets for different countries. This task focuses mainly on inequalities in (1) housing affordability; (2) affordability of mortgage finance; and (3) housing (residential) wealth, and considers different tenure statuses.
3. Testing impacts of economic and demographic factors on financial inequality trends.
We will use comparative cross-sectional and panel datasets (e.g., countries and survey waves) for testing the impact of various factors on values and trends in three financial levels of housing inequality (i.e. housing afford-ability, affordability of mortgage and finance, and housing residential wealth) that will be expressed by the set of indicators computed in 2. If possible, these potential drivers will be tested jointly to estimate their relative impact on housing inequality. We will focus on the following main factors/drivers of housing inequality, such as household income and income inequality, intergenerational financial/wealth transfers within families, inflation and interest rates, energy costs, low elasticity of housing supply, private investments and housing financing flows, and demographic trends, such as urbanization, changes in structures of households and the ageing of society.
4. Testing impacts of selected policy tools on inequality trends.
This task examines the effects of a wide range of housing policies that are aimed at guaranteeing both afforda-bility and sustainability of housing. These policies include 1) tenant-oriented tools, 2) homeowner-oriented tools and 3) sustainability-oriented tools. We will conduct a comprehensive meta-analysis of empirical studies that investigate effects of individual housing policy instruments. The results enable us to predict potential outcomes of different policy combinations in terms of affordability of housing, quantity and quality of housing, labor market outcomes, and sustainability of housing. In addition, a summary of housing policies applied in the EU member states will be done to compare governmental housing regulations both across time and space. When possible, the quantitative measures of intensities of such policies will be suggested and constructed.
5. Testing how housing wealth and income polarization affect the housing market.
In this task, we will analyse how income and housing wealth polarisation affect the housing market, against the background of changing interest rates and inflation. Specifically, housing inequality trends as well as the impact of interest rates and inflation changes on housing inequality (tested under 2) as well as impacts of applying macroprudential policies on housing inequality (tested under 3), will all be confronted with housing market performance and its change in the selected countries, measured by (1) number and distribution (if available) of transactions; (2) share of investment transactions (i.e., buying second flats for investment); (3) signs of specula-tive market activities (vacancies, undeveloped residential land); (4) familialism (size and distribution of inter-generational transfers); (5) and volatility (overvaluation) of house prices. The goal of this task is to assess whether increasing housing inequality may also cause significant changes in the housing market. Thus, national (house price) statistics will be extensively employed. Depending on data availability, we will perform the most appropriate research analysis – leading to full econometrics or to “likely” conclusions.
Co-funded by the European Union under project ID 101132513. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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