UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UNECE Press conference: Ministerial Meeting on Housing Affordability and Sustainability

Then good morning, everybody.

Thank you very much for joining us today for this press conference in on the occasion of the ministerial meeting on housing for the Unity region.

We're very pleased to have you all here in the room and online.

And affordable housing is an issue which is affecting almost every single inhabitant of our region.

And for those of us who live in Geneva, obviously in this room or online, this has been a very serious challenge when arriving here and looking for accommodation.

So we we understand the magnitude of a problem that our distinguished speakers today will illustrate it from various angles and we're very glad to have them here with us today.

We have let me introduce them quickly.

We have Tatiana Mochan, United Nations Under Secretary, sorry, United Nations Under Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the UNECE.

We have Martin Sheeran, State Secretary and Director General of the Federal Office for Housing of Switzerland, who will be chairing the ministerial meeting.

We have Mr Zhelko Euglia, Secretary of State, Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets of Croatia.

And last but certainly not least, Susan Atkin, Leader of the Glasgow City Council in the United Kingdom and share of the United Nations Forum of Mayors who has just taken place yesterday and on Monday.

So without further ado, I will invite our speakers to make some some statements and obviously after their statements, we will open the floor for your questions both in the room and online.

[Other language spoken]

First of all, I'd like to welcome all colleagues here.

As it was already mentioned, I mean we are gathering today for the meeting, ministerial meeting on housing affordability and sustainability, this time in Geneva.

And this meeting comes at a critical time.

Across our region that spans from North America, Europe, Central Asia, housing costs are rising faster than incomes.

Many families are paying one quarter or even half of their disposable income just to keep a roof over their heads.

So single parents, families with children and young people are especially affected.

We had Unity had report back in 2024 which had data from the majority of our member States which finds that the cost of housing is pushing over 1/3 of low income households into poverty.

So at the same time what we are facing is a pressing challenge of sustainability.

Yes, housing accounts for about 30% of both energy use and CO2 emissions in the region.

Much of our housing stock is ageing and energy inefficient, retrofitting older homes and this can deliver really enormous environment and social benefits.

But municipalities and housing providers often struggle with high upfront costs, unlimited access to finances.

This year marks a milestone.

We have the Geneva UN Chart on Sustainable Housing, and it's for grounding principles.

Environmental Protection, cultural adequacy, social inclusion and economic effectiveness are more relevant than ever.

The chart reminds us that housing is not just a shelter.

Against this backdrop, this meeting comes under the chair of the Chair.

Chairmanship of Switzerland, of the State Secretary comes at a crucial time and the minister, ministers are invited to adopt A set of commitments to address this housing crisis.

So I hope, State Secretary, that under your able guidance, we will be able to come with this new updated commitments, because there is an urgency, but also determination.

It's about integrating National Housing strategies aligned with the Geneva Charter, strengthening the role of local governments.

And I think if there'll be interest, we can discuss a little bit more about the Forum of Mayors, which was just the last today was taking place here in Geneva, bringing local voices to the discussions, to the table, to the decision making table.

Also expanding investment in public cooperative, social and community LED housing, accelerating retrofitting of existing housing to cut emissions and promotive active land policies.

Again, these are all key topics that we hope to address together and have stronger commitment for the benefit of our region.

There are a lot of challenges but also there are good news.

[Other language spoken]

Integrated policy frameworks that links housing, energy and climate.

This is what works and I believe that the ministerial commitments that the Member States are to adopt today will reaffirm that access to adequate, affordable and sustainable housing is a human right and the cornerstone of social equity.

With that, I'll I'll stop here.

If there'll be questions, I'll be glad to reply to them.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Mr State Secretary, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much.

It's a pleasure to welcome you to this press conference on the Ministerial meeting on housing affordability and sustainability, which is taking place just a little bit later today.

Thank you also for attending and for your interest for this meeting and the subject of this of the day.

This is as it was exposed by a pressing issue in many places in the UNEC region and beyond.

During the meeting, ministers and State secretaries will discuss the following topics.

How their countries are addressing housing shortages and affordability issues, how they are invent incentivizing building innovations and reduce greenhouse gas emissions despite tight budgets.

How they are adapting cities, neighbourhoods and buildings to climate change and how they are protecting socially and financially vulnerable people and and their housing while addressing the affordable issues, housing affordability and the quality of housing and surroundings.

Just as neighbourhoods and infrastructure are important issues for everybody, but particularly for vulnerable groups.

These aspects are important with regard to housing as a basic need and as they affect the quality of life of all groups of our society.

However, housing is also central for the functioning of our societies in many ways.

Without general access to affordable, high quality needs based housing, many sociable problems can arise.

These problems can affect different areas of public policy such as education, health, transport and environment.

Furthermore, housing is closely linked to economic growth and development.

The different sectors of the economy can only thrive if their workers can find suitable housing within reasonable commuting distance of their workplace.

We see this in different countries of the UNISI region and also in Switzerland.

Almost all countries are confronted with a shortage or lack of housing in general and affordable housing and housing construction in particular.

In Switzerland, the number of vacant housing is decreasing since 2020 and this this rate of vacant houses, vacant dwellings came to to 1% this year.

That is quite low also in historic perspective.

And what's quite interesting to note is that's not only the big cities like Geneva are affected, but we see this also in mountain regions.

And more and more this problem is expanding to the rest of the country.

This is why international exchange is taking place in Geneva today.

And This is why this is so important.

And it explains why for many years the Federal Office for Housing of Switzerland has collaborated with the Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management to sharing ideas, best practises and insights.

During the ministerial meeting, the Swiss delegation will present the Swiss Action Plan for addressing the current housing shortage.

Agreed at the beginning of 2024, the plan contains over 30 measures.

These measures aim to facilitate high quality densification, strengthen procedures and ensure that there are sufficient affordable needs based housing.

Representatives of all levels of government, together with representatives of the building industry and the civil society agreed to the action plan, while the Federal Office for Housing guided the development of the action plan.

Different partners are responsible for implementing the measures.

Some are being implemented by national government while others are the responsibility of the canton's municipalities or the building industry itself.

I'm convinced that the measures set out in the action Plan will contribute to providing enough affordable needs based housing for all section of society in our country.

And I'm confident that today's Ministerial meeting and the Committee of Urban Development, Housing and Land Management meeting on Thursday and Friday will be highly productive and enhance the common understanding with the issues of housing among UNISI member countries.

I therefore would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Committee, it's it's Secretariat and the unity as a whole for organising this ministerial meeting and creating the opportunity of discussion or for discussion.

The issues we are discussing today, housing affordability and sustainability are indeed very pressing and timely.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr State Secretary, I would now to like to invite the City Leader of Glasgow to take the floor and she will inform the US and the meeting after that of the deliberations and the and the recommendations of the Forum of Mayors.

Thank you very much.

Yes, it was my honour to chair the fifth meeting of the Forum of Mayors in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday of this week under a range of themes grouped under Cities Shaping the Future.

There were over 80 cities represented, with fifty of those represented by mayor or deputy mayoral level, with Member states from across the UN, the United Nations Economic Committee for Europe Region, but also from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

And housing was one of our key themes.

Perhaps the unifying theme of the discussion was the agreement that housing must be seen as much more than just the provision of shelter.

Housing is a catalyst for achieving better health, education, employment, gender equality, carbon emissions reductions and economic growth.

Inclusive economic growth and it is a pillar for advancing the Sustainable Development goals of the 2030 Agenda.

Housing really is central to our shared challenges, but also our collective ambitions.

But cities and local governments across the the the range of cities represented in over the past two days are all at the front line now of a housing crisis, a crisis in housing supply and availability and a crisis in affordability.

With a number of related challenges having significant impact.

Whether those are migration, the displacement of people, climate related challenges and rising building costs, inflationary building costs.

All of those are converging to create significant challenges for local governments.

But look, at the same time, local governments also and lack the the fiscal capacity in particular to be able to respond as quickly as we would like to those challenges.

And we can see that those challenges around housing, lack of supply and lack of affordability pose considerable risks within our cities, including risks to social cohesion as well as to creating humanitarian crises of homelessness or people living in deeply unsuitable conditions which cause enormous risk to their their health and well-being.

Nonetheless, despite those challenges, despite the the the constraints that cities face, we are very clear that it is also cities who are the engines of innovation and creativity in responding to those housing challenges.

And the the range of solutions that are being developed within cities often rely on what we call the small sea of cities.

So communities creating for example housing cooperatives, community LED housing associations, reclaiming and and buying empty homes that are no longer fit for purpose and turning those into suitable homes to be re entered into our housing supply.

There are a whole range of solutions being put forward.

Some cities are are creating their own housing development corporations so that they can build at pace.

But all of us do face constraints.

But we're very clear that that's why the multi level cooperation and multi level discussions that this meeting affords.

And I'm extremely honoured to be able to be part of this meeting to to represent local government and to represent cities and to ensure that that multilateral discussion takes place.

Because without local governments who are both at the sharp end of the crisis, experiencing the, the daily impacts of it, but also generating the then we will not be able to deliver the action plan as effectively as we need to.

So I'm, I'm very grateful to be able to emphasise the, the pressing need for that multilateral multi level cooperation on housing.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.

I would now like to invite our last speaker, Mr Mr State Secretary, to take the floor, please.

The floor is yours.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for opportunity and I am very honoured to speak about housing in UNSC.

In recent years, social and economic circumstances have changed significantly in both in both in our country and across Europe.

Specifically in Croatia, the cost of construction and material transport, shortage of workers, tourism pressures, together with an undeveloped financial market that channels capital into real estate and the result is constant rising real estate prices.

All this called for strategic approach to addressing housing issues.

Therefore, in March this year, the Ministry of Construction proposed in the Government of Republic of Croatia adopted the National Housing Policy Plan of the Republic of Croatia until 2030.

The National plan was developed on the basis of in depth scientific and professional research on housing, which quantified the matter and showed a shortage amount of 10% of our housing stock.

On the other hand, 40% of the housing stock is not used for residential purposes, while 25% of the housing stock has been vacant for over a year according to housing affordability indicators.

There are large differences across regions of our country in terms of the ability to purchase apartments for one annual local average salary.

In the region of Slavonia, a person can purchase 21 square metres of an apartment and in the region of Dalmatia a person can purchase 3.8 square metres of an apartment for one annual average salary.

The housing policy of each state is specific in terms of heritage needs and available resources.

Our housing policy is based on numerous foraging experiences while taking into consideration national particularities.

It has three objectives, affordable housing, sustainable housing and managing space for housing purposes.

These three objectives can be achieved SO4 State levers, financial tax, land and ecological energy lever across 9 measures.

The realisation of these goals requires of synergic action from various department of government and of course local municipalities.

Currently, intensive efforts are made to establish a legal and managerial framework in order to build a system for affordable housing in our country.

At this beginning of the year, new tax obligation for vacant housing units entered into force as well as the new Act on Building management and Maintenance which hinders short term apartment rentals in multi apartment buildings.

The new programme for assisting young people in purchase their first residence and real estate now applies and by the end of this year a new affordable rental programme will start aimed to activating as many vacant housing units as possible.

By the end of this year, a new Apartment Rental Act will be developed for the purpose of improving legal certainly for both landlords and tenants.

Also, the development of the Affordable Housing Act is in final stages.

The ACT will ensure new models for affordable housing which would be implemented in urban, very urban and rural areas.

In total, six are 6 Acts are planned to be amended and several programmes are planned to be adopted based on this Act to establish a long term and stable system for affordable housing in the Republic of Croatia, whose main goal is to increase supply in cooperation to demand.

Finally, given that affordable housing is expensive, as the difference between cost and affordability needs to be covered, we welcome EU decision to help citizen address this basic human need.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much to our speakers.

I would like like to open the floor to your questions.

We will start with the with the room and then move on to online questions if there are any at Swiss news agency at the S Yeah, thank you for the the press conference.

A few questions to Martin Sheeran, first as Chair of the Ministerial.

How much are the the commitments that are about to be adopted a game changer to tackle the the problems of affordability and sustainability?

And then two questions with your hat of director of the Federal Office of Housing.

First, after the recent popular vote, vote in Switzerland, which effects do you see on, on investment for greener and, and more sustainable housing in Switzerland?

And then you're coming today to international Geneva and we know that there is a housing crisis in Geneva.

Do you see any impact of the massive layouts here within the international Geneva on the, the, the, the volume of housing available in Geneva and the, the prices that might be affected in this and in a way or another by, by this crisis?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for these questions.

The question about the game changer of the commitments, I think commitments, they are very important in the sense that we agree on the problem and we, we, we, we, they give us a, a, a direction for us all that in, in which direction we want to, to work.

But we have to be, we have to be in, in certain sense also realistic that it's, it's the responsibility of every country to, to resolve the problems that are in, in, in, in the, in the respective country.

And we don't have the same situations in, in, in, in the, in the region of the UNEC countries.

And there is not as, as we heard already on on the podium, it is not Croatia as some other problems and some other situations than Switzerland has.

But nevertheless, we, we can learn from each other.

And that's from from in my perspective, the value of this, of these commitments that we see that we are first, first of all, not alone with our problems.

Secondly, that we we can learn from other.

Possibilities and and and solutions that are that are tested in other countries and, and we can and and we can therefore it's it can be a game changer.

But because housing and construction is something that is it's not changing from today to tomorrow, then you will certain will will only see in in some years time if there if there was really a game changer of of this of this commitment.

But I can I think, although I'm convinced that they can't contribute to to solve these problems and to to make the situation for for housing better than it up till now.

The second questions about the vote we had in Switzerland on the 28 eight of September, for those who are not familiar with this, it we the Swiss population decided to abolish a fiscal scheme that had that was the taxed.

In fact, the the the property.

It was introduced in the 1930s and it's the fourth time that it was tried to to abolish it.

And now it it's these people said yes to abolish it.

It's in fact in in in the first first perspective.

[Other language spoken]

It will certainly give a certain relief to to homeowners they have to payless taxes.

If although I I don't think it will change the, the, the, the, the big picture of, of investments in, in housing in general.

There are certain fears that investments in, in, in, in in adapting housing stock in more climate friendly perspective could be endangered.

That because in the old system, you know, it, it was, you could deduce and the, the, the cost it could be.

But from from the side of the, the homeowners association that were very, very much in favour of this, of this vote.

They, they, they, they say that responsible homeowner will will nevertheless take care of of his of his property.

Time will tell if, if how this will how this will affect this, this, this issue.

And then the last issue about Geneva.

Yes, we also in, in burn also in, in at the, at the federalism administration.

We follow very closely what's happening in Geneva and, and what's what's happening with the also in, in, in international Geneva.

I don't think so that will affect the housing market in Geneva very strongly because the, the demand for housing in Geneva is so high that even if there are maybe less people who are looking for a, for a, for housing in, in, in the region, in, in, in the region, there will be maybe the, the pressure will be lower a little bit, but I think demand is still much larger than than what's offered.

Thank you very much.

Before we turn to the next question, I would give the floor to the Executive secretary for comment.

Comment on the, on the commitments.

[Other language spoken]

And I know it was not directed to me, but I cannot not comment on this because this question commitments, our commitments bringing come in, we just come, discuss, sit together and then we'll even do our jobs.

First of all, when it comes to this commitment, you know, in Unicy, we've been working on the housing for many years, decades I would say.

So there is not legally binding, but a type of soft regulations and guidelines and standards in this field.

And up until recently, Unicy was the only one even in the EU we were discussing.

This has become now a priority.

So everyone now understands that housing is an emergency.

And I think the commitments that will be endorsed today have twofold impact, direct impact on how it will make.

They are game changer.

First, it's the political attention.

We need this political attention and by the way, the media, the journalists have also an role to play here that you know and you can highlight that there are solutions that are best practises because all of this guidelines, standards and procedures.

This is the works of experts, not UC Unity Secretariat.

Of course Secretariat is working, but experts from different countries bring together best models or options that can function.

So putting this on the table and putting the not only the pressure, but the availability and also looking at this as an emergency situation.

It's really an emergency situation.

We have two of this points that after discussing with mayors, some mayors by the way, not from low income countries, the neighbourhood, the immediate neighbourhood.

I I won't tell which which ones, but in discussions with the mayors of some of the quite resourceful cities, they told us we are waiting for this ministerial.

We need governments and authorities, but even UN us UN we need clear recommendation, even if it's not a legally binding.

But when you say on retrofitting of buildings in for example, it's a very difficult and sensitive subject.

And when mayors do this or encourage, they have quite some issues with the private sector.

But if you have guidelines, if you have a commitment, it's easier to enforce.

These are not easy policies, not popular all the time, but it also gives leverage to the local authorities central as well.

But to the local authorities, first of all, to be more active in everything.

That means efficiency climate in mitigating some of the climate issues and also when it comes to land policy.

I think the biggest advantage is that by bringing together so we have countries that already know and have certain experience, some are best, some are maybe functioning.

Very interesting always to to follow the tax and the vote.

We were struggling those non Geneva and non Swiss to understand what is the vote about.

[Other language spoken]

So when it comes to land policy, taxation and different models, we have countries with rich experience, but then we have countries that do not know how to address this.

And like this you have a blueprint.

This is a big impact for countries in particular Central Asia, Eastern Europe, but also Western Balkans.

So some of the countries that have a relatively recent market or how should I say in, in when it comes to housing?

Thank you very much.

Spanish news agency FA please, yes, please use one of the microphones.

My question was for the Mayor of Glasgow.

Did you talk about the importance of cooperatives and associations?

Could you give us one example of this, this use of cooperatives and associations?

And also could you tell us how Glasgow is helping or collaborating with these organisations?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for the question.

Yes, my my own city of Glasgow is actually a very good example of this.

Just over 20 years ago the the then City Council was perhaps one of the the worst landlords in Europe.

Our social housing stock was of incredibly poor quality and there was a vote among tenants and they voted to transfer that housing stock to community LED housing associations.

And that has led to a transformation not only in the quality of our social rented housing stock, also in in building new homes, but also in regeneration of places and neighbourhoods, many of which had been neglected and abandoned in during the de industrialisation of the city in the 1970s and 80s.

So we we have seen first hand in Glasgow housing can create serious problems for a city, but then also how housing can be the solution for addressing often very long standing challenges facing a city.

But the, the reason that it's worked in Glasgow in the past 20 years where it didn't before is because of community leadership.

So we have a network of over 60 local housing associations which have boards, tenant LED boards that are elected by other tenants and they drive the decisions that are made.

As the city, we remain the strategic Housing Authority and we work with those local housing associations to identify areas of land that we can build on, that we can build new homes and, and, and we make sure that the the funding that we receive from the Scottish Government for affordable house building reaches those communities, goes to the right places.

We work with them to ensure the standards, quality standards in our social rented housing stock, particularly around energy efficiency, but also space standards and standards that mean that housing can be adapted as people grow older and perhaps develop disabilities or mobility issues.

And what we have seen is that those standards applied to affordable housing in our social rented stock has started to lift standards right across the city, including in private development.

And we also work closely to create mixed tenure communities so that we don't have divisions between social housing and and privately owned housing.

But in actual fact, communities where there are some people who own their homes, there are some people who pay market rent for their homes and there are some people who pay social rent for their homes.

But you can't tell the difference the the homes all look the same.

And so we still have a long way to go in Glasgow.

We still have some housing stock which remains to be improved.

We still have a lot of vacant and dirty land that we can build on.

And and we are ourselves facing a housing crisis as a city right now, primarily driven by by refugees coming to Glasgow, displaced people coming to Glasgow and, and we are are struggling to find homes for all of them right now.

But but we we also know that we have within the city the solutions to not only that housing crisis that we're facing right now, but actually really long standing challenges of of inequality and of neglect of place.

But we know that the crucial aspect to that, the reason why it's worked this time when it didn't in the past is because it's been led by communities and by people within that community, those communities having democratic oversight and a see in what happens in in their own neighbourhoods.

Thank you very much, Monsieur.

Thank you very much.

I would like to add to this question about cooperative housing cooperatives, that in my opinion, housing cooperatives are a very important partner for affordable and sustainable housing.

We have in in Switzerland one instrument to support them.

It's a revolving fund for the whole more.

And just 26th of September, the federal government decided to stock up this fund for another 150 million from 2030 onwards.

That shows that that it's Swiss government is is determined to to support also cooperative housing in Switzerland.

Mercy Boku in question in Salom Malo Resmond Devoir closet conference.

The press rapid moment.

[Other language spoken]

Boris yes, Boris Engelson, the local freelancer.

I'm not sure how I should phrase my question, so I will do it paralleling with other social emergencies.

When we talk about school for all.

It is a rather clear concept in a school, in a teacher, in a textbook.

The same with health for all.

When it comes to food for all and housing for homework, it's very it's much more hazy.

It addresses different type of roofless population, different types of demography.

It involves land and construction and renting issues.

So how do you react to my I don't know if it's a question, but which and and also housing is not a public service, a government service, not like a school.

So how do you cope with this different parameters which make it much more complex than for health for all or school for all.

Thank you Boris, distinguished panellists.

Who would want to address that or answer that question or start?

Thank you very much for this question.

You're right to address the needs of different groups of population in with regard to housing is, is not evident.

And I think it's it's then it's, it's not not easy to find a clear answer on your on your question.

But maybe we should also think about we, maybe we should turn the the, the the terminology a little bit different in the sense that we could talk about that housing is a kind of our social and economical infrastructure.

And I think we all in in in our countries, we have a lot of experience with infrastructure.

We know that infrastructure is important.

And when we talk about infrastructure, housing as an infrastructure that has to be here, that for, to, to, to, to that our society and our economy can function, then it gets another way of thinking about it next.

So I would add to that, that this is where the local is absolutely crucial and the so housing for all is the principle, but the responses have to be flexible, they have to be adapted and they have to be targeted to local circumstances.

Housing is a government responsibility at local level and it always has been.

So cities and local governments have always known about housing challenges and and the need for housing.

That's one of the reasons why we're we're so pleased at the commitments that are being made by member states now that that are coming in behind us.

If you like to see, yes, we, we, we need to, we need, we need to see this as a pressing issue and as a priority as well.

But there is certainly not a single solution to give, you know, just a couple of examples from the discussions at the the Forum of Mayors over the past couple of days.

So, you know, to use my own city as an example again, we have an enormous energy retrofit challenge among our existing buildings.

The vast majority of people live in buildings that have already.

Have been built and and I have 70,000 of my my city population live in in sandstone tenements that were built over 120 years ago and which are very energy inefficient.

My colleague, the mayor of Lusaka in Zambia has millions of her residents who live in informal settlements who who barely have proper homes at all.

These are are very distinct challenges.

They're both very significant challenges within the context of our different cities.

Clearly they require different solutions and different approaches.

But the principle of housing for all, and I would add to that, decent housing for all is exactly the same.

So we apply that principle, but apply in ways that are flexible and and responsive.

And I would argue that the way to do that is for national governments, for Member states to put at the disposal of local governments the tools and capacity that they need to to respond to local circumstances.

And particularly the fiscal tools and capacity to ensure that international and national development banks and investment banks and infrastructure banks, for example, are all directing resource towards the local level.

So that there's that a de risking public finance going into then investment partnerships with institutional investors and private investors who are willing to invest in affordable housing, but are looking for a financial, the sharing of risk and a financial stake from the public sector, which at the moment local government finds very, very difficult to to put forward itself.

So that that would be my high argument.

The local is absolutely crucial in translating that principle to actually working effectively in different circumstances.

Thank you very much Mr State Secretary, Please, I can agree about this, said Miss Susan.

Etiquette about different programmes for different groups because in housing issues, the rule one size fit all cannot, cannot be available.

Thank you very much.

I'm afraid colleagues that we will need now to come to a close because they are distinguished speakers will need to move to the ministerial for the year for the opening.

I'm just turning up to them just to see if any of them would want to have some add anything to what they've just said.

No, then I would like to thank them very much for being with us this morning.

[Other language spoken]

And I would like to stress that the author of the study that is informing the debates of the ministerial meeting, Professor Taltavul from the University of Alicante, is here with us in the press conference room and at your disposal to answer questions.

And of course, we are looking forward to seeing you all on at the ministerial meeting as of 10 today in the room or online.

Thank you very much and have a good day.

UNECE Press conference: Ministerial Meeting on Housing Affordability and Sustainability - 08 October 2025