The Belgian Green Building Council recently participated in an expert workshop organised for the European Commission (DG Environment), exploring how Europe can make better use of its existing building stock to provide more affordable and sustainable housing.
Discussions highlighted a striking imbalance in Europe's housing market. Around one-third of homes are currently under-occupied, while 17% of households live in overcrowded conditions. Emerging findings suggest that addressing this mismatch could potentially accommodate up to 77 million people without the need for significant new construction.
The concept of "better use" goes beyond renovation alone. Several strategies were discussed, including:
- Encouraging new forms of shared living and rightsizing
- Dividing larger homes into smaller residential units
- Bringing vacant homes back into use
- Converting underused offices and other non-residential buildings into housing
- Expanding existing buildings through additional storeys or infill development
Despite this potential, such approaches remain relatively limited in scale across Europe. Participants identified a range of barriers, including regulatory frameworks that favour new construction, building codes that can complicate conversion projects, limited incentives to reactivate vacant buildings, and a lack of accessible data on vacancy rates.
Belgium already offers several promising examples, including vacancy taxes, vacancy detection tools in Brussels and local initiatives such as the participatory inventory of vacant buildings in Seraing. However, many of these measures remain fragmented across different levels of government.
As Europe seeks solutions to both its housing and climate challenges, making better use of existing buildings represents a largely untapped opportunity. Unlocking that potential will require coordinated efforts across policy, finance, data collection and market practices.
At BGBC, we look forward to continuing the conversation with our members and stakeholders on how existing buildings can play a greater role in delivering affordable, low-impact housing for all.