Impact & data
A continent struggling with housing costs
Across Europe, roughly 35million people are caught in the affordability crisis — spending more than 40% of their disposable income on housing. Here's where the burden falls hardest, in the latest Eurostat data.
By the numbers
Total people affected
34,524,124EU rate 7.7% · down from 8.8% in 2023
Most affected country
Germany · 9,360,640
Average burden rate
7.5% across EU countries
Key insights
7.7% of the EU population is overburdened by housing costs — improving slowly, but still tens of millions of people.
Greece has the highest burden rate in Europe at 26.4%.
Germany carries the most affected people overall: 9,360,640.
Nordic countries are also heavily affected — Denmark at 23.4%* and Sweden at 10.8%.
People affected by housing costs · by country
34.5M
people affected across the EU
Germany9,360,64027.1%
France4,408,48612.8%
Spain3,537,23710.2%
Italy2,947,1738.5%
Greece2,738,2967.9%
Poland1,496,3974.3%
Denmark1,402,3004.1%
Netherlands1,172,8623.4%
Other EU7,460,73321.6%
Sources: Eurostat, EU-SILC 2025 (ilc_lvho07a) × Eurostat, population on 1 Jan 2025 (tps00001). See also the OECD Affordable Housing Database (Oct 2025). Country figures are approximate (rate × population). *Denmark 2025: Eurostat flags a break in the time series.
The transformation
From isolated blocks to connected communities
A typical street is a patchwork of owner-occupied, private-rent and social homes that rarely mix — and too few of them are affordable. Fair Squares adds a new kind of home to that mix: community-owned and permanently affordable, woven in street by street rather than walled off in one place.
Before
Fragmented tenure and few affordable homes, with little shared space to bring people together.
After
Fair Squares homes (in magenta) mixed into the same streets — funding a shared garden and new neighbourhood life.
