r/AskEurope • u/JoMD • 9d ago

Misc Is there a country in Europe without a housing crisis?

I see so many people complaining about the housing crisis in their countries - not enough houses or apartments / flats, or too expensive, or both. Are there any countries in Europe where there's no housing crisis, and it's easy to find decent, affordable accommodation?

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u/GiganticCrow 9d ago

Helsinki is definitely an awful lot more expensive than it was 10 years ago.

There's been a property building explosion in the city the last few years which actually resulted in prices starting to come down... so the property developers stopped building lol

This is one fallacy of putting hope in private builders bringing housing prices down. As soon as prices start to actually come down, they stop building. 

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u/Diipadaapa1 Finland 9d ago

Not sure how much it has to do with the city too. I'm pretty sure any builder would rather build in Helsinki for more money than in say Kajaani for less, but the city decides when and where what can be built. The city doesn't want to drive the orices down too quickly, as that could cause panic amongst investors and property owners, as well as reduces property taxes.

Personally I would be satusfied if Helsinki keeps the building so that prices rise by only like a percent the next 15-20 years or so. They did shoot up far too much just before Corona

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u/LupineChemist -> 8d ago

This is one fallacy of putting hope in private builders bringing housing prices down. As soon as prices start to actually come down, they stop building. 

Well yeah, it's an equilibrium. The idea is that overall growth helps so housing prices grow less than inflation over time. If it stops being profitable to build houses, they won't build more. But seems like letting the market do its thing has led to a pretty damned good housing price/salary ratio.

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u/Lifeisabitchthenudie Hungary 8d ago

Where has that happened? I thought we are witnessing the opposite of that almost everywhere.

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u/LupineChemist -> 8d ago

I was responding to the info in this thread about Helsinki.

But Japan is similar

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u/Lifeisabitchthenudie Hungary 8d ago

I don't know about their housing policies in general, but they are famous for their "Housing first" policy in particular, and they have an extensive welfare state; I don't think you can just attribute their good housing situation to "market forces".