Blog

On November 25, 2024, colleagues from IDEA Consult representing the Belgian ESPON Contact Point (BECP) hosted a workshop titled “Housing Affordability: Challenges and Perspectives in Belgium and Europe” at Perspective Brussels. This event brought together experts and policymakers to exchange insights on housing affordability challenges and strategies in Belgium and Europe, with a focus on ongoing research  and practical applications. It was built on the ESPON Thematic Action Plan “Perspectives for all people and places” and the ongoing House4All research.  

The workshop opened with a presentation of this ongoing research by Franziska Sielker from the Technical University of Vienna. She highlighted the need for cross-boarder research in this time where all EU countries are facing the same crisis, although it might look different in different contexts. She also gave an insight into the methodology and the different maps they have produced so far in the research process. As part of the research they use of web scraping data from all ESPON countries and normalising the data to open up for cross Europe comparisons. Having all this data can in turn lead to better strategies and policies to ensure access to affordable and quality housing for more Europeans. That is also the main objective of this project. You can read more about it here (https://www.espon.eu/projects/access-affordable-and-quality-housing-all-people-house4all).  

Sielker also focused specifically on some specific outcomes for Belgium and made a comparison between Brussels and Vienna. This way the participants could also get a better understanding of the Vienna housing model and other European examples, providing a broader perspective on housing affordability.  

Speakers from across Belgium—representing Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels—provided a diverse view of housing challenges and policies in the country.  

• Research on housing dynamics in Belgium ( Jean-Marie Halleux from ULiège, Yves Van De Casteele from perspective.brussels) 
• Policies and spatial planning in Flanders (Isabelle Loris from VPO, Brecht Vanderkerckhove from Atelier Romain) 
• Innovative projects and social housing (Geert de Paauw from CLTB, Veronica Pezzuti from SoHoNet) 

The event concluded with Alice Pittini from Housing Europe bringing us back to a European perspective, looking at the example of Danish social housing policy as an example of how to use other European examples for our own housing challenges.   

The combination of European and Belgian perspectives enriched the conversation between the speakers after each segment, moderated by David Monic from IDEA Consult. This offered practical takeaways and emphasized the need for context-specific solutions. 

Looking Ahead 

The workshop concluded with a commitment to continue the dialogue on housing affordability. With the House4All report set for publication in 2025, BECP plans to host another event to delve deeper into the report’s findings and their implications for Belgium and Europe. However, before this time there will be other events hosted by the Belgian ESPON Contact Point focused on different ESPON Thematic Action Plans and bringing it to the Belgian context.