We continue looking at a bold new approach to sustainable living—neighbourhoods that don’t just cut energy use but actually generate more than they consume.

With the EU ramping up its housing and climate commitments, Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhoods (SPENs) are proving that entire districts can be energy-positive while remaining affordable and inclusive. One initiative leading the way is syn.ikia, an EU-funded project demonstrating how social housing providers across Europe an deliver these climate-friendly communities. But what will it take to movefrom pilots to widespread adoption?

To help us answer that, we’re joined by Ciarán Cuffe,recently elected Co-President of the European Greens and a key architect of the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). We’ll discuss why theneighbourhood approach is essential for decarbonising Europe’s building stock, the biggest political and practical barriers to scaling up SPENs, and how the social housing sector can play a leading role in this transition.

And with major developments at the EU level—including the first-ever Commissioner for Housing, a European Commission task force working across policies, and growing momentum for a pan-European investment platform—couldthis be the breakthrough moment for energy-positive neighbourhoods?

Stay with us to find out.

The syn.ikia project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 869918.

As Europe moves towards a fair energy transition, ensuring access to affordable, sustainable housing has never been more urgent. With the first-ever EU Commissioner for Housing, a dedicated Task Force within the European Commission, and the upcoming Affordable Housing Plan, housing policy is taking centre stage in Brussels.

In our first episode for 2025, we’re returning to a crucial question straight from the European Parliament: how can we achieve a fair energy transition while ensuring access to affordable, sustainable housing?

This episode explores the intersection of housing and climate policies, examining how initiatives like Fit for 55 and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive impact low-income households. Our guests, MEP Brigitte van der Berg, a leading voice in the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Housing Crisis, and Julien Dijol, Policy Director at Housing Europe, share insights on the financial and regulatory solutions needed to scale up sustainable housing across Europe.

As the voice of over 43,000 public, cooperative, and social housing providers in 31 countries, Housing Europe highlights the role of social and cooperative housing as a driver of innovation. One key example is syn.ikia, an EU-funded project developing plus-energy neighbourhoods—communities that generate more renewable energy than they consume.

Enjoy listening!

The syn.ikia project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 869918.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges that we are facing today. Science has brought us far and we know that reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieve a just transition to a low-carbon and energy-efficient built environment will be vital. But this entails another challenge. How can we get there, while also ensuring access to decent, quality, future-proof affordable housing? The energy and building sector have an important role to play in progressing towards a low-carbonsociety.

Part of the answer could be the development of neighbourhoods that produce at least as much renewable energy as they use in a year in different climates, contexts and markets in Europe. In a Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhood, the geographical boundary is expanded to the entire site of the neighbourhood. This will be possible by using innovative solutions and focusing on encouraging resident engagement. The EU-funded Horizon2020 project, syn.ikia that Housing Europe and social housing providers from the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, as well as private real estate in Norway are part of is offering solutions in this direction. Led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the project syn.ikia has been expanding the know-how of the sector and fast-tracking innovation to mitigate the energy crisis.

In this podcast show, Housing Europe's communication team tuned straight from our 2022 Renovation Summit that took place in Brussels to speak with a Dutch social housing provider, care provider and tenants who are experiencing what is it to build and live in Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhood.

The Dutch pilot is located in Loopkanstraat, Uden, a typical mid-size town in the Netherlands representing a marine climate which means that summers are rather cool and the winters are generally mild. The demo is constructing new add-ons to existing buildings and with syn.ikia’s strategy, the neighbourhood will reach the plus energy standards. This can be replicated in similar neighbourhoods in the Netherlands and other comparable contexts in Europe. The construction was finalised in May 2022, allowing tenants to move in.

Area housing corporation lets approximately 8.500 homes in Uden, Veghel and the surrounding villages. It is a partner for people that depend on a housing corporation for their accommodation: people on low incomes, starters, residence permit holders and people with a disability. Labyrinth Care & Work / Connect Living is offering guidance to (young) adults with a mental and/or mild intellectual disability. The ambassadors are tenants who accompany neighbours who may need care &contributes to a pleasant living environment and promotes social interaction.

Today’s interviewees will walk us through what a Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhood means from different perspectives: social housing provider, care provider organisation and the tenants themselves. What challenges were met along the way? What does it take to adapt to such an environment? 

Let’s get started.

It has now been three years since Housing Europe embarked on a special journey – to increase circularity in social and affordable homes, by bringing renovation techniques, recycling, and upcycling to a new level while preserving affordability and fairness. While we have seen multiple public, cooperative, and social housing providers implement circular models, we are now referring to Housing Europe’s partnership in the EU Horizon 2020 funded HOUSEFUL project, which has at its core the aim to increase the use of circular building and renovation techniques.

My name is Diana Yordanova and you are with another episode of ‘Making a house a home’, the podcast show of Housing Europe where we bring the vision of more than 43,000 public, cooperative, and social housing providers whose main goal is to ensure that people relying on modest incomes can also live in decent, affordable homes.

One way of doing that is, of course, circularity and making the best out of buildings’ waste. Together with various partners within the EU-funded Houseful project, we are doing this by testing and developing new circular housing solutions in four demo sites in Spain and Austria. This includes social housing buildings of Neues Leben from Vienna and Agencia de L'Habitatge de Catalunya based in Barcelona.

With the help of Housing Europe’s research coordinator, Dara Turnbull we are going to hear from representatives from two of those demo sites - the Cambium Community, a new eco-village concept, and Neues Leben, a limited-profit housing association. In the next few minutes, they are explaining a little bit about the circular solutions that are being tested, and also why these new approaches can help to provide cheaper and more sustainable homes to social housing tenants.

If you are curious to know more about Houseful, you can check out the website www.houseful.eu. You can also contact us directly at Housing Europe at [email protected]

Enjoy.

Cheap money is gold for private housing investors, and central banks have a big role to play in directing money flows. This is one of the key messages from our previous podcast episode that focused on how central banks are affecting our access to decent, affordable housing. Of course, we know that many more players are involved and responsible for the housing situation we observe in different locations.

Today,  we will be getting closer to the action and zeroing in on the role of mortgage banks and how these financial institutions are regulated in a way that influences housing affordability – for better or worse.

Has there been too much reliance on debt?

Does the easier access to mortgages mean that more people have become homeowners?

What can regulators do and what has been the role of investment flows?

Many interesting questions to which we are providing the answers today.

You are with ‘Making a house a home’ and the 3rd episode of our “Tools to tame financialisation” podcast season which is part of the #Housing2030 initiative led by the European Federation of public, cooperative, and social housing providers known as Housing Europe, UNECE and UN-Habitat. I am Diana Yordanova and these new episodes are kindly supported by the Irish Research Council and the Irish Council of Social Housing.

Once again, I will be joined by the lead writer of the #Housing2030 report, Dr Julie Lawson from RMIT University and Professor Michelle Norris from University College Dublin who was the main mind behind the chapter about sustainable finance.

You will hear many of the seasoned experts from episode 2 who also have a say on how we could ensure that mortgages are not hampering access to affordable homes.

Our next discussion on the topic will be in real life. On 15th June, Housing Europe, UNECE, and UN-Habitat will be at the third International Social Housing Festival in Helsinki, Finland. We are hoping to see some of you, our listeners at Helsinki City Hall and to hear your view on how we could tackle the commodification of housing collectively.

You can still register for the event at the official website of the Festival - www.socialhousingfestival.eu

Tell us if you are coming via the #Housing2030 hashtag.

Money makes the world go around and central banks supposedly keep it flowing. However, should they also ensure it flows in the right direction?

Central banks aim at promoting financial stability and could promote sustainable development that includes investment in affordable, inclusive, decarbonised housing. They could also create the perfect storm and promote borrowing, indebtedness, offering cheap money to big investors, creating real estate inflation, unaffordability, and as recent history remembers create housing booms and busts.

You are with ‘Making a house a home’, I am your host, Diana Yordanova and this is the second podcast episode of #Housing2030 – the initiative led by the European Federation of public, cooperative, and social housing providers, UNECE, and UN-Habitat. This new season is kindly supported by the Irish Research Council and the Irish Council of Social Housing.

We continue to dismantle financialisation and to search for tools that could tame it together with the lead writer of the #Housing2030 report, Dr Julie Lawson from RMIT University, and Professor Michelle Norris from University College Dublin who also wrote the chapter on better, sustainable finance that results in more affordable housing.

To discuss the role of central banks, we have met with seasoned experts, advocates, decision-makers literally from all around the world – Brussels, London, Strasbourg, Groningen, Auckland, Ottawa, and Hong Kong. 

Professor Laurence Murphy, Human Geography at the University of Auckland, New Zealand

Professor Dirk Bezemer, Finance, monetary economics, growth and development at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands

Alicia Garcia Herrero, Chief economist for Asia Pacific and Bruegel Institute, formerly European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund

Dr Josh Ryan-Collins, a Senior Research Fellow in Economics and Finance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose in London

Stefan Zeugner, macroeconomist expert, Directorate‑General of the European Commission for Economic and Financial Affairs

Kim van Sparrentak, Member of the European Parliament, the Greens (Netherlands)

Leilani Farha, Founder of 'The Shift' and former UN Rapporteur on the Right to Housing

Enjoy!

As usual, we invite you to keep in touch with us at [email protected] or via the #Housing2030 hashtag. Make sure to come back to our channel in a few weeks from now when we will take a deep dive into the world of mortgage market regulation and how we can make it better.

Where did we leave the conversation last time? After our 12 #Housing2030 podcast episodes about affordable housing that is mindful of climate sustainability, responsible land policy, better governance and finance were listened about 2,400 times, we launched the long-awaited “#Housing2030: Effective policies for affordable housing in the UNECE region”. The study that was led by Housing Europe, UNECE, and UN-Habitat draws on the experience of over 100 researchers, policymakers and housing providers from across the UNECE region and beyond, to define useful approaches, outline their advantages and disadvantages, and illustrate how smart affordable housing solutions can be applied locally.

A compilation of over 160 tried and tested practices were in the hands of UNECE Housing Ministers on 6th October 2021 in the UN Headquarters in Geneva and just a month later, the publication made it to COP26 in Glasgow. However, the work is far from being done. The #Housing2030 report set just the beginning of very big questions that we felt obliged to come back to.

So, we are embarking on a real journey to address the elephant in the room when it comes to housing affordability – the financialisation of housing and what are the tools that could tame it.

Why are we choosing exactly this topic? The facts speak for themselves. Home ownership in many countries is declining and so is social housing. More are being forced to rent. Home prices and rent have risen dramatically throughout the pandemic and the IMF cautions that private investors are increasingly active in the real estate market. 

This podcast is a joint effort with the UNECE and UN Habitat, we are also grateful for the support from Irish Research Council and Irish Council for Social Housing who is a member of Housing Europe.

I am Diana Yordanova, and in this new season of our #Housing2030 podcasts, I would like to do things a bit more differently. I am welcoming back two extremely knowledgeable researchers, the lead writer of the #Housing2030 report, Dr Julie Lawson who is an international researcher in housing systems at RMIT University Australia and Dr Michelle Norris, Professor of Social Policy at University College Dublin, who played a key role in the Housing2030 report, especially chapters on finance and governance. This time, they will be back-to-back with me addressing questions to influential decision makers about how can housing be looked not as a commodity but as a human right.

We must build more effective critical capacities to address the harmful causes of financialisaton. This is why, we will do our best to enhance knowledge about the policy design, implementation outcomes and how different financial flows and housing outcomes can be achieved.

Tune in for this new season of #Housing2030 podcasts.

[FR]

Le logement social est souvent considéré comme un laboratoire d'innovation sociale et environnementale. Ce podcast qui nous amènera à quelques kilomètres des bureaux de Housing Europe le prouvera. Alors restez avec nous, car nous allons dans le sud de la Belgique, la région wallonne. 

Notre membre, la Société wallonne du Logement (SWL) nous guidera à travers leurs défis comme par exemple rénover les logements tout en les gardant abordables, opter pour des solutions à plus faible impact environnemental dont l'emploi de matériaux biosourcés. SWL fait également une brève rétrospective des 8 dernières années depuis le lancement du projet Housing First dans le pays - ce qui a été réalisé et ce qu’ils devraient encore viser. Plus important, cet épisode est une invitation officielle à un échange d'idées et d'expériences.

Ce podcast est le tout premier épisode de 'Making a house a home' en français et dans celui-ci, on a le plaisir de discuter avec le porte-parole de SWL, Daniel Pollain. 

[EN]

Social housing is often considered to be a laboratory where social and environmental innovation is taking place. This podcast which will bring us just a few kilometres from Housing Europe's headquarters will prove this. Stay with us, we are bringing you to the south of Belgium or the Walloon region where our member, Societe Wallonne du Logement (SWL) walks us through the major challenges they are experiencing locally in their mission to renovate homes while keeping them affordable, their journey towards circularity and more sustainable materials. SWL also makes a short retrospection of the past 8 years since the Housing First project had kicked off in the country - what has been achieved and what should we be aiming at. Most importantly, this episode is an official invite for an exchange of ideas and experiences. 

You are with the very first episode of 'Making a house a home'  in French and in it, we have the pleasure to be talking to the spokesperson of SWL, Daniel Pollain. 

How does the fair energy transition translate into your work? How are you and your tenants going through the economic and social recovery? What are the emerging housing needs in your country? Housing Europe would be glad to tour around the continent and hear the latest updates from public, cooperative and social housing providers. If you would like to share with us your story, drop us a message at [email protected] 

Well-functioning housing systems can be easy to grasp and build upon. At the same time, developing housing systems in transition or even starting from zero is not a given. It takes political will, dedication, time, adequate and targeted investment to ensure that communities in our cities and rural areas have decent, quality homes allowing them to focus on bigger goals in life.

In this episode, we are meeting virtually Grzegorz Gajda from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to discuss how long-term and well-planned sustainable finance can result in healthy, financially sound housing that works for the society at large.

If you want to hear more from the EIB and the work it does on housing, join the next Housing 2030 conference ‘Shaping investment pathways to deliver affordable housing’ on 14th April. Last-minute registrations are possible on www.housingeurope.eu and www.housing2030.org.

A good land policy, the idea of the 15-minute city, how to manage a successful renovation, improving the cities we live in, the fundamental ‘building blocks’ of good housing governance, the Finnish model, diverse funding and combatting financialisation. The list of the previous Housing 2030 podcasts is quite long. If you have missed some, you are more than welcome to tune in on Anchor, Spotify, Google or Apple podcasts.

Is there a topic you would like us to cover? Reach out to us via email at [email protected]

Enjoy listening.

Try discussing housing affordability without mentioning the financialisation of real estate property. This key concept has affected the general housing conditions in many countries - big funds buying tens of thousands of homes, expanding mortgage market that drives up prices, constantly increasing rents, gentrification and pricing people out. The financialisation of housing can easily sound complex, so we have invited someone who can explain it even to a grandma.

You are with ‘Making a house a home’ - the podcast of the European federation of public, cooperative and social housing providers, Housing Europe. This is the 11th podcast of Housing 2030, the joint initiative of UNECE, UN-Habitat and Housing Europe that aims at bringing the best out of land and environmental policy, governance and finance to deliver housing affordability. I am Diana Yordanova and in this episode, we will look at the virtue of adequate funding and finance or more specifically, how governments can get to grips with the financialisation of homes.

The guest of the show today is Professor Manuel Aalbers who is a human geographer, sociologist and urban planner teaching at the prestigious KU Leuven University in Belgium. His main research interest is in the intersection of housing and finance which as you will hear, has turned into one of the biggest challenges of our time that we need to solve if we want our communities to thrive.

Manuel Aalbers will join the main panel of the upcoming Housing 2030 conference ‘Shaping investment pathways to deliver affordable housing’ which will take place online on 14th April. Last registrations are open at www.housingeurope.eu and www.housing2030.org. We are also curious to hear your thoughts, so feel free to reach out to us on [email protected] or via the #Housing2030 hashtag.