Affordable housing emerges as a cornerstone of Catella’s House View for 2026, reflecting both the structural urgency and the strategic opportunity shaping Europe’s residential markets. Across Europe, housing has become an increasingly tangible constraint in everyday life. Rising rents and house prices are part of this story, but they are not the only signals. Affordability pressures manifest differently across markets: young adults remaining longer in the parental home, households living in overcrowded conditions – particularly in the rental sector – and a growing share of tenants who struggle to cover their housing costs. Taken together, these developments paint a picture of housing markets that are no longer merely expensive, but socially consequential. All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of declining residential construction activity across Europe (see Exhibit I).

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