| HOWS BARCELONA |

Welcome to the first edition of the HOWS Barcelona - Housing World Summit, the new global meeting point for those shaping the future of housing. This opening session will bring together high-level representatives to set the stage for three days of dialogue, ideas and action around one of the defining urban challenges of our time. From affordability and land availability to new housing models, financing, innovation and regeneration, HOWS Barcelona starts with a shared ambition: turning the global housing challenge into concrete pathways for more accessible, resilient and inclusive cities.

Urgent action is needed to address the housing affordability challenges and there is no single magic bullet solution: we need a combination of boosting supply, mobilising public and private investment, and supporting vulnerable groups. The housing challenge is a global phenomenon, and to deliver results in the EU means navigating the complexities of multiple levels of government. The housing affordability crisis is most affecting cities, including right here in Barcelona, but they operate within constraints defined by national frameworks, global capital flows and market dynamics while they need to serve the interest of their citizens. How can the EU help?

Public tools to increase land supply for housing, including land banking, activation of underused land, use of public land, and strategies to generate housing capacity within consolidated cities.

Land supply is consistently identified as the primary structural bottleneck for housing delivery, especially in cities where demand, affordability pressures, and planning constraints converge. The session will examine the tools cities use to activate land for housing, addressing how land can be identified, planned, governed, and mobilised through public action, regulatory frameworks, and strategic coordination. It will also consider the role of public land, zoning, land value capture, and inter-institutional cooperation in creating housing opportunities that support affordability, urban quality, social value, and long-term public interest.

Cooperative housing, co-housing, community land trusts, and alternative housing models to foster social cohesion, emerging as responses to affordability challenges and changing social structures.

Innovative housing models are emerging in different contexts, but they develop from very different institutional traditions. The dialogue will bring together the more established Dutch experience and the evolving Spanish model to explore how public policy, social organisations and new forms of housing provision can respond to needs that conventional market and public-housing pathways do not fully address.

Not all affordable housing has to be publicly delivered. Across the world, cooperative housing, community land trusts, co-housing, and other collaborative models are offering alternatives to both the market and the state, fostering affordability, social cohesion, and resident agency. Where they thrive, these models can provide stable, community-oriented, and democratically managed homes, supported by legal frameworks, access to land and finance, technical capacity, and long-term governance structures. Drawing from international cooperative networks, local housing federations, and emerging delivery actors, the conversation will look at how these models can grow, what conditions they require, and how their lessons can inform broader housing policy.

Modular construction, off-site fabrication, and enabling technologies —from digital design and AI-assisted planning to industrialized delivery systems— to build housing faster, more efficiently, and at scale

Meeting housing demand at the pace required in many cities calls for a fundamental shift in how homes are produced. Industrialised construction, modular systems, and digital tools can help build faster, more consistently and with greater efficiency, while improving quality control, reducing waste, and optimising site conditions. Scaling these approaches, however, requires the right procurement models, regulatory frameworks, technical standards, and public sector capacity. The conversation will focus on how industrialised housing can move from isolated pilots to reliable delivery systems, without compromising quality, sustainability, social standards, affordability requirements, or urban integration.

Barcelona’s approach to complex housing renovation, combining public support, building rehabilitation, neighbourhood regeneration, and community engagement.

Some buildings cannot be effectively rehabilitated through conventional grant schemes alone. Fragmented ownership, vulnerable households, technical deficiencies, limited management capacity and wider neighbourhood challenges can combine to prevent renovation from taking place. Barcelona’s approach to complex buildings addresses these barriers through a more intensive model of public intervention, combining technical, social and financial support to make rehabilitation possible. This presentation will explore how public authorities can intervene when building renovation becomes not only a construction challenge, but also a question of governance, social support and long-term neighbourhood regeneration.

Barcelona’s experience in housing rehabilitation brings together many of the challenges cities face when upgrading existing homes: ageing buildings, complex ownership structures, vulnerable households, limited investment capacity, and the need for coordination between public authorities, property managers, and residents. Through the city’s work on complex buildings and neighbourhood regeneration, the session will explore how local tools, public support, and community engagement can make rehabilitation more feasible, inclusive, and effective, turning Barcelona’s practice into a broader conversation on urban housing renewal.

Regulatory frameworks to protect affordability and availability, including rent control, shortterm rental regulation, and anti-speculation policies.

Housing affordability is a growing challenge across European cities, with important implications for social inequality and urban sustainability. Budapest illustrates this wider European challenge, as affordability has deteriorated and the private rental sector has become increasingly expensive and often insecure. The touristic use of residential properties has contributed to touristification and further pressured scarce urban housing, prompting responses such as stricter short-term accommodation regulation. Alongside these measures, Budapest is expanding its housing-policy toolkit through initiatives ranging from the conversion of vacant properties to measures addressing energy poverty and homelessness. Drawing on this experience, this talk will explore the scope for local action within limited municipal competences and resources, while reflecting on how national policies and an emerging European housing agenda can better support housing affordability.

Rental markets are under growing pressure from rising rents, tourism-related uses, short-term rentals, and speculative dynamics, making it harder for many households to access and remain in affordable housing. As regulation becomes a central tool to respond to market distortion, the session will look at how cities and governments are working to restore balance between tenant rights, housing supply, and long-term urban liveability, while bringing together local, regional, and international perspectives on rent affordability.

Global trends in housing affordability, financialization, and supply shortages, and how cities and governments are responding through policy and innovation.

Europe’s housing crisis requires stronger coordination between European policy frameworks and the challenges cities face on the ground. Bringing together European and city-level perspectives, this dialogue will explore how local governments are responding to growing housing pressures and how European institutions can better support their efforts through policy frameworks, regulation and financing. The discussion will address the opportunities and challenges of translating European housing priorities into concrete local action, while considering how cities’ experiences and needs can contribute to shaping a more effective and coordinated European response to the housing crisis.

Housing affordability has become one of the defining political and economic challenges of our time, affecting cities across Europe and beyond. Addressing it requires moving beyond emergency responses towards more structural, coordinated, and rights-based housing policies. At the same time, moving from emergency responses to more structural action requires stronger public leadership, coordination, and a clearer understanding of housing as a social, urban, and political priority. Bringing together international, local, policy and civil society perspectives, the session will reflect on how cities can respond to housing pressure with more ambitious, long-term, and systemic strategies, examining how different governments are advancing policy innovation, institutional reform, and regulatory action.

Housing has become one of the most urgent challenges facing cities worldwide, affecting affordability, social cohesion, economic opportunity, and the residents’ ability to remain in their neighbourhoods. While the pressures may differ across local contexts, cities need to provide immediate responses while also advancing the structural changes needed to expand housing supply, protect residents, and secure long-term affordability. Bringing together mayors from different cities, this high-level roundtable will provide a space to explore how urban governments are addressing housing challenges across different local contexts.

Planning tools, public land, land banking, and public-private cooperation to turn urban land assets into affordable housing outcomes at scale.

Making land available for affordable housing requires more than identifying suitable sites. In the Barcelona metropolitan context, the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) and the Generalitat de Catalunya play complementary roles in aligning urban planning, land management, infrastructure, regulation and investment to turn available land into housing development opportunities. The dialogue will examine the main barriers that delay or prevent land activation and how both administrations can strengthen coordination to create clearer, faster and more predictable pathways for affordable housing delivery.

Public land can play a strategic role in expanding affordable housing, but turning land assets into housing outcomes requires more than land availability. It depends on planning tools, legal frameworks, institutional capacity, and cooperation between public authorities, the construction sector, and social actors. The session will open a reflection on how land policies can support affordable housing delivery while ensuring construction feasibility, urban quality, social value, labour considerations, and long-term public interest, identifying the conditions needed to move from public land ownership to actual housing outcomes.

Net-zero buildings, energy-efficient construction, climate-resilience housing, naturebased materials, and reducing emissions across the building lifecycle.

Housing policies play a central role in addressing climate change, strengthening urban resilience and advancing sustainable urban development. As cities face increasing environmental pressures, the housing sector must respond not only by reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency, but also by adapting buildings and neighborhoods to climate-related risks. The dialogue will explore how public policies, climate adaptation strategies, and sustainable urban planning can work together to create more resilient, affordable, and inclusive housing.

Housing is central to the climate transition, both because of its contribution to emissions and because of the opportunity to improve homes, neighbourhoods, and living conditions. Decarbonising housing requires action on two fronts: embedding net-zero performance in new construction through passive design, low-carbon materials, and integrated energy systems, and retrofitting the vast existing stock that will still be standing in 2050. This conversation will explore technical and policy approaches across both dimensions, asking how to make climate-compatible housing affordable, scalable, and accessible across different income levels.

International public housing models, governance structures, and long-term stock management, exploring how public housing systems can respond to diverse housing needs while ensuring accessibility, inclusion, and long-term social value.

Some cities and countries have managed to build and sustain public housing systems that provide stable, affordable, and quality homes for significant shares of their populations. Their experience points to the importance of sustained political commitment, strong public institutions, long-term financing structures, clear allocation models, and housing management systems that keep homes affordable and well-maintained over time. This conversation will move from project delivery to system-building, looking at how cities can strengthen public housing through different models of delivery, stewardship, and cooperation between public authorities, housing providers, and social actors.

Planning strategies to increase housing supply without urban sprawl, including gentle density, mixed-use development, and transformation of existing urban fabric.

In Japan, the growing number of older people who live alone has made it increasingly difficult for them to find rental housing. Landlords may hesitate because of concerns about isolation and changes in a tenant’s daily life. Tsukuba, one of Japan’s leading science and technology cities, sees this as a challenge that extends beyond housing. It concerns health, security, and human connection. Under the Tsukuba Super Science City initiative, the city aims to use residents’ insights, big data, and advanced technology to expand everyday choices and build an inclusive future city, where housing is better connected to services, community support and residents’ daily needs. This session will explore Tsukuba’s approach to connecting housing, health, and community support, so that older residents and others can continue to live safely and comfortably in the communities they know, while contributing to more inclusive, connected and liveable neighbourhoods that support ageing in place.

Growing housing supply does not always mean expanding cities outward. Densification and mixed-use development can help cities make better use of land, expand housing options, and create more liveable neighbourhoods, but denser cities are not automatically more equitable. If not carefully planned, intensification can accelerate displacement, strain public services, and generate social tensions in existing communities. The session will explore what successful densification looks like in practice, and how cities can integrate affordable housing, public space, and essential services into denser development patterns while maintaining social cohesion and neighbourhood stability.

Building-scale rehabilitation of existing housing stock, addressing energy efficiency, accessibility, housing quality, thermal comfort, and the financial mechanisms needed to make those renovations viable.

The majority of the homes that will exist in most cities in 2050 have already been built. Rehabilitating them —improving energy performance, accessibility, structural safety, and housing quality— is one of the most pressing and complex challenges of urban housing policy. At the same time, ageing housing stock is both a social challenge and a climate opportunity, especially when inefficient or inaccessible buildings are occupied by lower-income or elderly households with limited capacity to invest in improvements. The session will address how cities can scale renovation and retrofit through coordinated action between governments, building owners, residents, finance institutions, and the construction sector, ensuring that upgrades improve affordability, quality of life, and neighbourhood resilience.

Governance models, allocation systems, and long-term management tools to ensure affordable housing remains accessible, wellmaintained, and socially valuable over time.

Barcelona Social Inclusion Housing Network combines access to housing with social support for people experiencing or at risk of residential exclusion. The dialogue will examine how the network is organized, how public institutions and social organizations share responsibilities, and how housing provision is coordinated with personalized support and pathways towards greater autonomy.

Delivering affordable housing is only part of the challenge. Ensuring that it remains accessible, well-managed, and socially valuable over time requires strong governance, transparent allocation systems, maintenance capacity, and coordination between public administrations and housing operators. Bringing together local, metropolitan, and cooperative housing perspectives, the session will address how affordable housing can be managed as a public service, with attention to long-term stewardship, tenant needs, operational capacity, and social value.

Regional planning tools and cooperation across municipalities to address housing challenges at metropolitan scale.

Housing pressures increasingly unfold at metropolitan scale, requiring coordination across municipalities, levels of government and sectors. Drawing on the work of the National Housing Crisis Task Force, Bruce Katz will reflect on the US housing crisis and emerging responses, while Claudio Orrego will bring the perspective of the Santiago Metropolitan Region. The dialogue will explore how metropolitan leadership can align housing, land, infrastructure, and investment around shared territorial goals, and build the institutional cooperation and cross-sector coalitions needed to move from fragmented action to coordinated delivery.

Housing markets do not stop at municipal boundaries, but governance often does. As affordability pressures are increasingly shaped by dynamics that extend beyond city limits, it becomes essential to coordinate planning, land strategies, and housing targets across jurisdictions. When land use decisions, planning priorities, and fiscal incentives are not aligned, delivering affordable housing where it is most needed becomes more difficult. The discussion will focus on regional planning tools, shared housing targets, and coordinated land strategies as ways to align local interests with broader metropolitan housing goals, while opening a reflection on the role of inter-municipal cooperation.

Public-private partnerships, institutional investment, land value capture, and financing models to scale affordable housing.

Drawing on a study conducted for the European Parliament, this keynote will examine the different forms of rental housing speculation across Europe and their implications for housing affordability. It will explore the role of housing financialisation and large publicly listed landlords in shaping European housing markets, highlighting the challenges of balancing investment dynamics with the need for affordable housing. The presentation will introduce four key pathways towards greater affordability: strengthening financial regulation, reinforcing institutions capable of delivering affordable housing, regulating speculative practices, and improving coordination at the EU level. These perspectives will provide a framework for reflecting on the policies and institutional responses needed to address Europe's housing affordability crisis.

Delivering affordable housing at scale requires more than political commitment. It demands financing models that can mobilise public and private capital at sufficient volume, distribute risk appropriately, and keep homes affordable over time. As public budgets alone are often insufficient, the session will focus on how cities, development banks and investment institutions can combine funds, guarantees, and public-private partnerships to make projects viable, manage risk, and ensure that investment supports long-term affordability rather than short-term market dynamics.

Integrated regeneration strategies at neighbourhood scale, combining housing, public space, services, social inclusion, and communitybased approaches, while addressing the financing tools needed to make transformation viable in vulnerable areas.

The most challenging housing conditions are often concentrated in specific neighbourhoods, where poor building quality, limited services, social vulnerability, and urban disconnection overlap. Addressing them requires more than physical rehabilitation and construction investment: it calls for integrated regeneration strategies that combine housing, public space, services, mobility, community engagement, and long-term public investment. The session will focus on how cities can design and deliver neighbourhood-scale regeneration that addresses both the physical and social dimensions of urban vulnerability, improving living conditions, strengthening local communities, and avoiding displacement.

Three days of conversations, experiences and perspectives come together in this closing session of the HOWS Barcelona - Housing World Summit. After a programme addressing housing from multiple angles —from planning and regulation to affordability, financing, construction and regeneration— this final session will bring the first edition of HOWS Barcelona to a close, reinforcing its ambition to foster dialogue, collaboration and action around the future of housing.