ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview and analysis of housing and social-economic issues in the group of 10 countries, such as: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, Belgium, France, UK, Estonia, and Bulgaria. The economic recession following the financial crisis has affected all of the 10 countries with different intensity. The result was a drop in the economic activity, falling or stagnating house prices and a drop in the construction of new dwellings. This has, among other things, led to rising unemployment, especially among young people. Converted to Euro, there is a large difference between the GDP per capita in the Nordic countries at the top and Estonia and Bulgaria at the bottom. Until 1960 housing and urban policies were designed to manage the existing housing stock, to implement urban and housing renewal in older city quarters built before World War I and to expand the housing stock.
