Fix Europe’s housing crisis or risk fuelling the far-right, UN expert warns

Unaffordable rents and property prices risk becoming a key political battleground across the continent

• Higher costs and cramped conditions: the impact of Europe’s housing crisis
• ‘Everything’s just … on hold’: the Netherlands’ next-level housing crisis

Spiralling rents and sky-high property prices risk becoming a key battleground of European politics as far-right and populist parties start to exploit growing public anger over the continent’s housing crisis, experts have said.

Weeks before European parliament elections in which far-right parties are forecast to finish first in nine EU member states and second or third in another nine, housing has the potential to become as potent a driver of far-right support as immigration.