According to Open4business, rising house prices and rents in Europe are increasingly limiting people’s access to adequate housing and increasing the risk of homelessness, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights’ (FRA) annual report, *Fundamental Rights Report: Challenges and Achievements in 2025.
According to the FRA, between 2015 and 2024, house prices in the EU rose by an average of 53%, whilst rents increased by almost 17%. The Agency notes that the housing crisis is becoming not only an economic issue but also a human rights issue, as the right to adequate housing is becoming increasingly inaccessible to vulnerable groups.
“Rising costs are affecting many people and families, as more and more people cannot afford housing and are at risk of becoming homeless,” said FRA Director Sirpa Rautio.
According to estimates by the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), cited by the FRA, there were almost 1.3 million homeless people in the EU in 2025. The agency identifies young people, private-sector tenants, low-income families, migrants, refugees and people already on the brink of social exclusion as particularly vulnerable.
The FRA notes that more than two-thirds of EU residents own their own homes, yet among those with incomes below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, fewer than half are homeowners. This exacerbates inequality: rising house prices increase the wealth of property owners but worsen the situation for tenants and those without access to mortgages.
The report covers all 27 EU countries, as well as three candidate countries or countries potentially linked to the European integration process — Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia.
The housing crisis is becoming one of the key social challenges facing Europe. Rising house prices are already affecting not only the property market, but also demographics, labour mobility, social stability and trust in public institutions.