Young people cannot be expected to stay, work and start families in their home regions if access to housing remains too expensive, too slow and too complicated. This was the message delivered by Borboly Csaba, Vice-President of Harghita County Council and member of the European Committee of the Regions, in the context of the [Y] Factor: Housing for You[th] initiative.
The project, prepared by the Autumn 2025 trainees of the European Committee of the Regions, draws attention to the housing difficulties faced by young people across the European Union. It looks at affordability, living conditions, the impact of tourism, rural challenges and discrimination, while also presenting local and regional examples and personal testimonies.
Speaking about Harghita County, Borboly Csaba stressed that the housing crisis is not limited to Europe’s large cities. In rural, mountain and smaller regions, many young people want to remain at home after finishing their studies and finding work, but they are blocked by high costs, difficult access to credit, long permit procedures and a lack of affordable housing options.
He recalled the case of a young father from Harghita County who wanted to build his future at home with his family. Although he had completed university and found a local job, the lack of access to affordable housing eventually forced him to leave again for work abroad. As a result, he missed precious moments in the early life of his child.
For Borboly Csaba, this is not an isolated story, but a reality faced by many young families in Harghita County and in other rural and mountain regions of Europe.
“Housing is not a comfort issue. For young people, it is often the condition that decides whether they can build a family life at home or are forced to leave”
he said.
He underlined that Europe needs a place-based approach to housing policy. The challenges are different from one region to another. In large cities, young people are often pushed out by speculation and short-term rentals. In tourist areas, local workers can no longer afford to live near their jobs. In rural and mountain regions, the problem is often linked to empty but unrenovated buildings, weak rental markets, poor transport connections and limited access to bank loans.
According to Borboly Csaba, European, national and local policies must respond to these different realities. Small towns and villages need affordable housing for young professionals, faster renovation of empty buildings, simpler administrative procedures and EU funding that reaches local and regional authorities more directly.
“There is no single European answer to the housing crisis. Local problems need local solutions. We must stop making policies for young people without young people”
he said.
Borboly Csaba also stressed that housing must be treated as a key condition for territorial cohesion. If young people cannot find a home in their region, then rural and mountain communities lose not only population, but also their future workforce, families and local vitality.
The message is clear: young people are not statistics. They are Europe’s future. If Europe wants them to stay in their home communities, especially outside the big cities, housing must become a real political priority.
Background
The [Y] Factor: Housing for You[th] project was developed by the Autumn 2025 trainees of the European Committee of the Regions. It presents the youth housing crisis through five main dimensions: affordability, living standards, tourism pressures, rural challenges and discrimination.
The initiative also connects to the wider work of the EPP-CoR on housing, including the EPP-CoR Network on Housing and the Badalona Declaration, which call for practical, place-based housing solutions, stronger support for local and regional authorities, more investment, reduced bureaucracy and faster housing construction and renovation.
Read the related EPP-CoR article here: Youth housing is not a comfort issue – it is the condition for young families to stay in their home regions