Over 60 OECD Champion Mayors endorse new “Brussels Blueprint for Affordable Cities and Housing for All”

13 June 2023

The OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth gathered today for their sixth meeting at the Brussels Urban Summit. With OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, they endorsed the “Brussels Blueprint for Affordable Cities and Housing for All,” to ease short-term pressures on the cost of living and to ramp up action on housing.

Double-digit inflation across the OECD has disproportionately affected low-income households, deepening pre-existing inequalities. The urban poor, as well as the squeezed middle class, were already struggling to keep up with soaring rents and house prices prior to the cost-of-living crisis. Real house prices rose by 77% between 1996 and 2022 in OECD countries, with the most severe pressures in cities. In 2021, a house in an urban area was around 50% more expensive than one in a remote region[1].

Read the "Brussels Blueprint for Affordable Cities and Housing for All."

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