Policy Paper: For the right to affordable rental housing

Dimitra Siatitsa
PhD in Architecture – Urban and Regional Planning, Researcher in urban and housing issues

Dimitris Balampanidis
PhD in Urban Social Geography & Researcher, Department of Geography, Harokopio University of Athens (HUA)

Eva Papatzani
PhD Candidate in Urban Studies and Urban Social Geography, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)

Stefania Gyftopoulou
Architect and Urban Designer

Since the mid 2010’s there has been a significant rise in rental costs across Greece. This fact, combined with the continuous increase in the overall housing costs, the stagnant low incomes and the high levels of unemployment, as well as the degradation of the already inadequate social housing policies, render this issue vitally important for a large part of the country’s population.

The present policy paper focuses on the high levels of housing insecurity in the rental sector in Greece. Drawing inspiration from the multiple efforts to address the housing crisis in cities and countries across Europe, it suggests specific interventions and political demands. While some are more immediately implementable and others more long-term, they are complementary, forming a comprehensive grid of actions that aims at the gradual development of an integrated institutional framework, mechanisms and policy tools that would ensure an affordable and secure rental housing in Greece.

Our objective is for this policy paper to serve as a source of knowledge and to provide context for demands concerning the right to housing and the assertion of policies for the rental housing sector, thus aiming to activate political will and mobilise civil society.

Download the Policy Paper: For the right to affordable rental housing.

The members of the research team responsible for formulating the present policy paper are the following:

Dimitra Siatitsa, PhD in Architecture – Urban and Regional Planning, Researcher in urban and housing issues
Stefania Gyftopoulou, Architect and Urban Designer
Dimitris Balabanidis, PhD in Urban Planning and Geography, Researcher in housing and immigration issues
Eva Papatzani, PhD candidate and researcher in Urban Studies and immigration issues

Read also:

– Eteron Research | Sky-high rents: Focusing on renters

– Sky-high rents: In search of solutions

– Executive Summary: For the right to affordable rental housing

– Energy poverty, housing and policy tools: Reproducing inequality