Special issues

Introduction to the Special Issue: ‘Facing the Housing Affordability Crisis in Southern Europe: Housing Policies in the Spotlight’.

For decades, the analysis of housing policies in Portugal has focused on its distinct trajectory compared to those of other countries in western and northern Europe. However, the rise of the housing affordability crisis and the civic, media and political prominence that the housing issue has acquired in recent years have highlighted important similarities (despite some key specifics) with the dynamics that have been occurring internationally. This article discusses Portuguese political reactions to the affordability crisis. It presents a critical discussion of the ambitious multi-measure policy package ‘Mais Habitação’ (More Housing), including its content, the political conditions of its introduction, and its public reception - in the light of the recent international debates on the paths, possibilities, and obstacles to the post-neoliberalisation of housing policies.

Housing is increasingly playing a key role in the global economy, acting as a catalyst for capital expansion, international investment, and wealth accumulation. The transformation of the Portuguese housing system, which has been influenced by financial actors, illustrates the expansion of finance into housing systems. This paper unpacks recent housing policy and reports on the dimensions of the changes and alterations in financial actors, markets, practices, measurements, and narratives dominant in Portugal. We find that while the liberalisation of the rental market has sparked interest from private sector investors in recent years, the anticipated improvements in housing provision and affordability have not been realised thus far. These findings shed new light on the key features of the financialisation of the Portuguese housing sector and the extent of the political power of financial actors in promoting the financialisation of housing.

The sharp rise in rental prices in the absence of a decommodified housing sector has led to a growing mismatch between the Spanish housing system and households’ needs, especially in large cities. This article analyses the impact of recent housing market dynamics on housing access problems faced by young people in Madrid and Barcelona and the implications of Spain’s recently approved Right to Housing Law. Empirical evidence suggests that young people are increasingly facing exclusion from access to housing, as well as rising inequality in relation to the process of leaving the parental home, which varies depending on where they live. In this regard, the new Housing Law sets the course towards a more balanced and fair housing system. While it generates controversies and challenges, it also reflects the need for multifaceted and multi-scalar measures to address the current housing emergency, requiring greater cooperation between different levels of government.

The research aims to shed light on the case of a medium-sized town in the northeast part of Italy, where a semi-central neighbourhood, encompassing a triangle of streets and hundreds of apartments, has recently acquired the reputation of being an ‘urban social problem’, and is described by the local media as a ‘drug-dealing suburb’. Specifically, since 2021, most of the state- and company-owned buildings have been completely bricked up, families evicted, and apartments and gardens left in a state of complete abandonment, without giving residents any explanation, and without a plan for the future, except demolition. Using ethnographic and qualitative methodologies, this study seeks to investigate the reasons why such negative narratives have quickly become established in common discourse and are then immediately amplified by the media until they remain the only description of the neighbourhood, and to examine how residents have strived and worked to restore the centrality of their ‘sense of place’. In the conclusions, an attempt will be made to sketch out an answer to the classic question of whether a turnaround can be more easily brought about by large urban renewal plans, or whether community involvement in a network of ‘small plans’ might be more effective.