Europe has an empty space problem and a severe housing crisis at the same time.
Despite shortages of affordable housing across the bloc, one in three people in the EU live in homes with spare bedrooms, according to Eurostat. The figures highlight a mismatch between housing supply and household needs, as well as stark differences in housing patterns across Europe.
Under-occupation refers to homes that are larger than their occupants need, typically because they have more bedrooms than required. It is the opposite of overcrowding and is often linked to older people continuing to live in family homes after their children have moved out.
While inadequate housing remains a challenge across almost all EU countries, the scale of the crisis and its underlying causes vary significantly, according to the European Council.
So which countries have the highest rates of under-occupation? Across the EU, 33.4% of people live in under-occupied dwellings, but the figure ranges from 8.1% in Romania to 69.4% in Cyprus.
Eastern Europe records the lowest rates of under-occupation
Under-occupation is generally far less common across eastern and south-eastern Europe than elsewhere on the continent.
After Romania (8.1%), the share of people living in under-occupied homes remains below 15% in Serbia (8.2%), Turkey (10.3%), Latvia (10.5%), Greece (12.5%) and Croatia (14.7%).
The share of people living in under-occupied homes is also relatively low in Bulgaria (15.8%), Slovakia (15.9%), North Macedonia (17%), Poland (17.9%), Lithuania (18%) and Italy (18.2%).
Together, these countries make up the lowest-ranking group in Europe, followed by Estonia, Czechia and Hungary, where rates are all close to 27%.
Where under-occupation is most common
Cyprus records the highest rate of under-occupation in Europe at 69.4%, followed by Ireland (66%) and Malta (63.2%). Notably, all three are island nations.
The share of people living in homes with spare rooms is also above 50% in the Netherlands (58.5%), Belgium (57%), Spain (54.3%), Luxembourg (52.2%) and Norway (51%).
Among the Nordic countries, Finland (46.6%) and Denmark (42.4%) also rank well above the EU average.
The picture differs sharply among the EU’s four largest economies.
Spain has one of the highest rates of under-occupation at 54.3%, compared with just 18.2% in Italy. France stands at 40.4%, while Germany is almost exactly in line with the EU average at 33.3%.
Southern Europe tells two different housing stories
While the rate is much lower across much of south-eastern and eastern Europe, southern Europe itself is split. Cyprus, Malta and Spain rank high, while Italy, Greece, Turkey and much of the Balkans rank low. This suggests the trend cannot be explained by a simple north-south divide.
Can policy reduce under-occupation?
The European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) points out that the crucial question is whether the housing stock, and new supply in particular, meets the growing demand for smaller homes.
“Are those smaller homes actually available and affordable?” a FEANTSA spokesperson told Euronews Business.
Referring to the ‘bedroom tax’ introduced in the UK in 2013, the organisation said it was ineffective because appropriately sized homes were often unavailable, resulting in income losses for households that had little choice but to remain where they were.
The organisation argued that bringing empty homes back into use for affordable and social housing may be more effective than targeting under-occupation.
**“**Penalising under-occupation while not addressing the more structural causes leading to housing unaffordability, such as underinvestment in genuine social housing and housing assetization and speculation, entails a misdiagnosis,” the spokesperson said.
The homeownership effect
According to Eurostat, the share of people living in under-occupied dwellings is 14.2% among tenants, compared with 40.5% for homeowners.
Professor Sebastian Kohl from Berlin’s Free University said that cross-country differences are heavily driven by institutional setups, primarily homeownership rates and demographic composition.
“Institutional structures like tenure play a massive role. In our models, homeownership is the single strongest predictor of objective under-occupation,” he told Euronews Business.
Who is most likely to live in an under-occupied home?
Research by Jonas Lage and colleagues found that household type is closely linked to under-occupation.
Most under-occupied rooms are found in one- and two-person households. Rates are also generally higher for households without children.
Within the EU, 41% of under-occupied dwellings are located in cities, with approximately 30% each in rural areas and towns.
In most countries, and on average across the EU, households with higher incomes are more likely to under-occupy and account for a larger share of under-occupied rooms.
What counts as a room depends on the country
Kohl also highlights a challenge in harmonising measurements, stemming from country-specific definitions of what constitutes a room.
He argues that Spain, Ireland and Finland explicitly count kitchens as rooms in their surveys.
He also draws attention to the deep divide between objective metrics and subjective human perception. The researchers found that only two in five people considered their home too large, despite it being classified as under-occupied according to official metrics.