Housing Crisis Moves to the Heart of Europe’s Agenda

Europe’s worsening housing crisis will dominate the informal Eurogroup meeting in Nicosia, on Friday May 21, following an initiative by Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis. Speaking at the 4th Real Estate Conference, Pierrakakis stressed that soaring housing costs are no longer a uniquely Greek problem but a challenge confronting most European economies.

“No country has yet found a single, definitive solution,” he noted, underlining that housing policy is now moving decisively onto the European agenda. The Nicosia meeting will focus on exchanging both successful and unsuccessful policy experiences from member states in an effort to identify measures that could also be adapted to the Greek market.

Three countries — Spain, Croatia and Ireland — are expected to present case studies widely regarded as emblematic responses to the escalating housing squeeze.