In late March, Rachel Reeves, the UK finance minister, announced the injection of an extra £2 billion (€2.4 billion) in grant funding for the development of affordable housing. Reeves said the increased funding would result in the creation of around 18,000 new affordable homes.

Shortly after the announcement was made, Simon Century, head of capital investing at L&G, welcomed the news, saying the additional funding would help avoid “a cliff edge”. But he was adamant that the extra financing was only a stopgap measure. He stressed the need for public and private purses to collaborate and create “a unified long-term strategy, treating housing as essential infrastructure”. Failure to act, he warned, would leave millions on social housing waiting lists or struggling to get on the housing ladder.

Century’s admonition, which was aimed at the UK market, could equally apply to the rest of Europe. In a report from October 2024, JLL said some 23 million household