Affordable and sustainable housing

The EIB is involved in social housing for two main reasons:

• First, there is a lack of decent, safe and energy-efficient housing for lower income and marginalised populations. This can be attributed to incomplete or missing markets and coordination failures, which can have wider negative consequences, such as public health and safety issues, a shortage of workers, inefficient labour markets, poor use of energy and low energy efficiency.
• Second, decent housing can help reduce inequality in society and defuse potential social tensions, which may be ignited by geographically polarised concentrations of different population groups and a poor social mix.

The boundaries between affordable and sustainable housing are not clear-cut and may vary from country to country. The EIB addresses this by lending to the social and affordable housing sector in order to:

• redress the lack of affordable and sustainable housing;
• strengthen equity and cohesion.

EIB activities support the implementation of the EU Urban Agenda. We invest in regions and nations where there is a clear policy and a regulatory housing framework.

Housing eligible for EIB financing includes all non-market or regulated accommodation and housing. That includes:

• social housing and affordable housing for rent;
• refugee accommodation and reception centres, and associated infrastructure and start‑up costs (typically provided during an asylum process);
• student accommodation and accommodation for apprentices;
• care homes and assisted living facilities.

The EIB checks affordable and sustainable housing projects against their eligibility criteria, income related and other social criteria, such as: rent setting, administration of waiting lists, transparency of the allocation process, market functioning across public and private providers, potential state aid issues and procurement arrangements for housing construction. Where some of these elements are not in place, the Bank seeks to incorporate appropriate safeguards on a project‑specific basis and provides advice if needed.