GEN Europe Contribution to the European Affordable Housing Plan

Connecting Communities for Affordable, Sustainable and Inclusive Housing Across Europe

Introduction

Recently, the European Commission has published the European Affordable Housing Plan, as a result of a process that included a Consultation to which GEN Europe took part. While we need to warn about the risks connected with an approach that sees the main solution to the housing crisis in the development of new houses, if this implies more contaminating emissions, toxic materials and soil sealing, we welcome the Plan’s explicit acknowledgement that supporting non-profit and limited-profit housing providers — including housing cooperatives and community land trusts — can help stabilise price volatility and keep homes affordable over the long term. 

The Plan also recognises the persistent barriers these models face, notably insufficient legal recognition and limited access to finance. This recognition matters. Europe’s housing crisis cannot be solved through supply expansion alone: it also requires structures that protect homes from speculation, keep affordability in place across generations, and strengthen social cohesion. Community-led, cooperative and non-profit approaches have proven their ability to deliver those outcomes — while also contributing to climate goals through renovation-first strategies, circular construction, and shared infrastructures.

At the same time, the Plan’s success will depend on whether this direction is translated into practical implementation pathways that work beyond large-scale developers and mainstream market actors. From GEN Europe’s perspective, four issues are now decisive: (1) community-led solutions must become financially reachable at scale; (2) the recognition of cooperatives and CLTs must lead to concrete reforms in Member States; (3) the “rural right to stay” must be strengthened through delivery models that combine housing, services and local economies; (4) investment mobilisation must be designed to avoid unintended consequences, ensuring that public support expands affordability rather than fuelling price inflation; and (5) sustainability, participation and inclusion should be treated as part of the delivery infrastructure for affordable housing, not as nice-to-have “extras”.

This position paper sets out concrete measures to make these ambitions real — combining enabling regulation, fit-for-purpose financing, and implementation support — so that community-led housing can become a mainstream part of Europe’s affordable housing toolbox.

GEN Europe’s proposals

1) Make community-led solutions financially reachable

Create finance and delivery pathways designed for community-led and non-profit providers, including small and medium promoters.

• Establish dedicated technical assistance for early-stage project development (legal structuring, business planning, permitting, procurement, social impact and affordability design).
• Enable project aggregation so smaller initiatives can access financing through portfolios/pipelines (standardised templates, shared due diligence, bundling of similar projects).
• Deploy fit-for-purpose guarantees and blended finance instruments that reflect cooperative ownership, collective collateral, and longer development timelines.
• Ensure that EU and national instruments are accessible to community-led actors in practice (eligibility rules, minimum ticket sizes, reporting burdens, procurement approaches).

2) Turn recognition of cooperatives and CLTs into real reforms

Support Member States to remove structural barriers so cooperative and CLT models can scale.

• Promote legal recognition of cooperative housing, CLT-like mechanisms and other community-led tenure forms, with clear rules for governance, resale restrictions and permanent affordability.
• Reduce administrative barriers for collective projects (land access, permitting, taxation treatment, registration and compliance requirements).
• Encourage public authorities to adopt enabling approaches: municipal land policies, long leases, land value capture tools, and partnerships that prioritise long-term affordability over short-term revenue.

3) Strengthen the “rural right to stay” with community-led delivery

Make rural housing action deliverable by linking renovation, services and livelihoods, not treating housing in isolation.

• Prioritise renovation, repurposing and reuse of vacant/underused rural housing stock through community–municipality partnerships.
• Support community-led approaches that pair housing with local services and infrastructures (mobility, energy, care, shared spaces, digital connectivity).
• Invest in local economic viability (skills, social economy, small enterprises) so housing solutions reinforce rural resilience and territorial cohesion.

4) Guard against unintended consequences of investment mobilisation

Increase investment while preventing financialisation and price inflation.

• Attach affordability locks and anti-speculation conditions to publicly supported projects (long-term rent/price controls, resale restrictions, stewardship models).
• Improve transparency and monitoring of market dynamics in “housing stressed areas” and ensure local authorities have workable tools to protect residential stock.
• Ensure that new investment channels reward long-term social outcomes (affordability, inclusion, energy performance), not only short-term financial returns.

5) Embed sustainability, participation and inclusion as delivery standards

Treat social innovation and climate alignment as part of the delivery infrastructure for affordable housing.

• Mainstream participatory planning and resident governance to strengthen inclusion, reduce project risks, and improve long-term stability.
• Scale circular and low-carbon construction and deep retrofit approaches that lower lifecycle costs and reduce energy poverty.
• Support peer-learning and capacity building for municipalities and community actors, so quality, inclusion and sustainability are implemented consistently.

GEN Europe stands ready to contribute to implementation through our network of ecovillages and national networks: offering replicable models, training and peer-learning, and a pipeline of community-led projects that can demonstrate how permanent affordability and climate resilience can be delivered together.

That’s why this January, together with our partners Ecolise, ICLEI Europe, RIPESS Europe, Moba Cooperative, Commoning Spaces Network, ISCTE and the University of Vechta, we will kick-start Community-led HOusing for Inclusion, Climate, and Equity (CHOICE), a CERV project that will increase awareness of and support for community-led housing solutions by engaging citizens, community-led initiatives, civil society organizations and policymakers in workshops and debates across Europe.

Contact:
Dario Ferraro – Project Development Manager
GEN Europe – Global Ecovillage Network of Europe