Europe’s Young Adults Locked Out of Housing

International Youth Day highlights how rising costs are delaying independence and narrowing opportunity

Europe marks International Youth Day with almost one in four young people in the European Union at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Housing has become central to that insecurity, leaving many young adults unable to move out, accept work in expensive cities or establish the lives they had planned.

The annual observance on 12 August is intended to bring young people’s rights and priorities into public decision-making. In Europe, it arrives amid growing recognition that employment or education alone no longer guarantees access to an adequate home.

According to the latest Eurostat data on youth deprivation, 24.2% of EU residents aged 15 to 29 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025. The corresponding rate for the overall population was 20.9%.

The figures do not mean that every affected young person is homeless or living in severe deprivation. They measure several forms of vulnerability, including low income, material hardship and limited access to work. Nevertheless, the gap between younger people and the population as a whole points to an uneven transition into adulthood.

Independence Delayed by Price

Housing pressures appear in different ways across the continent. Some young adults leave home early but devote a very high proportion of their income to rent. Others remain with their parents because independent housing is unavailable or unaffordable.

In 2024, people in the EU left the parental home at an average age of 26.2. The average was at least 30 in Croatia, Slovakia, Greece, Italy and Spain, while it was below 22 in Finland, Denmark and Sweden.

Those contrasts require careful interpretation. A later departure can reduce a young person’s immediate exposure to rent and utility costs, but it may conceal unmet demand for housing. An apparently low housing-cost burden can therefore coexist with a large population of young adults who cannot afford to establish their own household.

Overcrowding provides another warning. In 2024, 26.5% of people aged 15 to 29 lived in overcrowded accommodation, compared with 16.9% of the EU population overall. Meanwhile, 9.7% of young people lived in households spending at least 40% of disposable income on housing.

Eurofound’s detailed study of youth housing found a persistent mismatch between how young people live and how they would prefer to live. The strain is especially visible in urban employment centres and popular tourist destinations, where wages have often failed to keep pace with rents and property prices.

More Than a Property-Market Problem

Adequate housing affects access to education, employment, healthcare and family life. A graduate who cannot afford accommodation near a suitable job does not enjoy the full benefit of European labour mobility. A student living in an overcrowded household may have less space to study. A young worker paying an excessive share of income in rent has less capacity to withstand unemployment or an unexpected expense.

Housing insecurity can also deepen existing inequality. Young people in precarious work, those without family wealth and people required to provide large rental deposits begin the search for a home from markedly different positions. Policies that rely mainly on home ownership may widen those gaps when prices rise faster than incomes.

The consequences extend beyond individual households. Delayed independence can influence decisions about relationships, children, migration and careers. It can also weaken trust in institutions when young people see economic growth and formal rights failing to produce basic security.

Europe’s Policy Response

The European Commission’s affordable-housing agenda acknowledges that Europe needs to build more than two million homes annually to meet demand, about 650,000 more than the present rate. Its proposals include increased investment in social and affordable housing, action on short-term rentals in areas under pressure and a pilot guarantee intended to reduce or eliminate rental security deposits for young people, students and trainees.

The initiative also envisages a European housing investment platform and an EU summit bringing together national governments, cities, regions and housing organisations. These measures could help mobilise finance and spread workable approaches, but most decisions on planning, tenancy law, taxation and social housing remain national or local responsibilities.

The European Parliament has extended its housing-crisis committee until January 2027, keeping youth housing, affordability and construction barriers on the institutional agenda. Continued scrutiny will be important because announcements about investment do not automatically produce homes in the places, price ranges or tenure types that young residents need.

A credible response will require measurable outcomes: more affordable rental homes, shorter social-housing waiting lists, stronger protection against discrimination, accessible student accommodation and better connections between housing, transport and employment policy. Authorities must also distinguish between increasing the number of buildings and expanding genuine access to secure, adequate housing.

International Youth Day offers Europe an opportunity to move beyond declarations about listening to younger generations. For millions of young adults, participation in society begins with somewhere safe and affordable to live. Whether European governments can provide that foundation will be one of the clearest measures of whether their social commitments reach everyday life.