Many European renters are anxious about the future, and housing afford-ability, in particular. And it’s easy to see why.
Home prices rose 10 percent in the European Union year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2021, and rents climbed 1.1 percent, according to Euro-stat. The figures were the latest chapter in a long-running trend that has seen home prices soar by 42 percent since 2018 and rents rise by a little more than 6 percent over the same period. And on top of everything else, inflation is now running about 8.6 percent in the euro zone.
Could this lead to a political backlash for landlords? European property investors, as a group, are clearly worried about rent caps and other kinds of regulation hurting returns. A recent Knight Frank survey found that commercial real estate investors identified regulation as a top risk factor (55 percent), tying with rising development costs (55 percent), and ahead of rent control (46 percent) and affordability (46 percent).