Far-Right Gains Traction as Europe’s Housing Crisis Deepens, Researchers Warn
Oxford, Vienna, Zurich – A deepening housing crisis across Europe is providing fertile ground for far-right political movements, according to new research by academics at the University of Oxford, Central European University in vienna, and the University of Zurich. Tarik Abou-Chadi, Björn Bremer, and Silja Häusermann argue that progressive parties’ failure to adequately address housing affordability and accessibility has created an opening for the far-right to exploit anxieties around scarcity, ofen through the scapegoating of immigrants.
The researchers contend that housing policy must move beyond a simple “market versus state” debate, advocating for strategic leveraging of private investment tied to social and ecological criteria. This includes conditions such as reinvesting profits, providing cost-based rents, respecting limited-profit constraints, and meeting specific social and environmental standards.
“Housing policy is not simply about market v state, but about steering both toward social ends,” the authors write in an article published by The Guardian.
They warn that offering only market solutions and “technocratic supply-side fixes” will continue to fuel the far-right’s narrative, which they deem “both morally and economically wrong.” The core issue, they emphasize, is one of distribution and social rights, not merely increasing construction. A progressive agenda, they argue, must challenge the commodification of housing and build broad coalitions to support sustained public investment. Their research indicates that such policies are both viable and publicly supported.
The authors – Tarik Abou-Chadi (Professor of European Politics, University of Oxford), Björn Bremer (Assistant Professor, Central European University Vienna), and Silja Häusermann (Professor, University of Zurich) – call on progressive parties to demonstrate the “will to fight” for a real alternative to the far-right’s politics of scarcity and blame.
