Europe’s cities are in the midst of a housing crisis. With growing levels of unmet housing demand, there is a pressing need for a multidecade policy response to expand new supply.

A new paper from INREV — The Housing Middle Income Europe Report — outlines how supply gaps have been identified across the full spectrum of housing tenure segments in Europe. These include the private rented sector (PRS), public and third sector not-for-profit (NFP) subsidised housing, and owner-occupied properties.

Housing policy has failed to adequately respond to strong socio-demographic shifts. A growth in demand for single-person households stands out the most, led by several factors such as the delaying of family formation, as well as more mobile employment. This, alongside population growth and rapid urbanisation, has changed housing demand patterns in terms of volume, location, tenure and required utility.

The lack of affordable rented housing solutions has beco