France has launched a new national “hub” designed to help social, intermediate and sustainable housing projects tap European funding and technical support, after a declaration of intent was signed at the annual French HLM Congress.
The agreement was signed by France’s Ministry for the City and Housing, Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), the Union sociale pour l’Habitat (USH), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), the European Commission announced on Wednesday.
The hub is intended to act as a shared platform to make European financial tools such as loans and guarantees more visible and easier to access for housing and accommodation projects, and to provide technical support to those developing projects.
Partners will also share indicative projections of investment needs and planned volumes in social and intermediate housing, and exchange expertise to identify obstacles to delivering projects.
Building on an earlier French — European housing alliance
The initiative builds on the “European Alliance for Sustainable and Inclusive Social Housing in France”, launched in 2020 by USH, CDC, the EIB and the CEB, which has already been used to mobilise European resources for social housing and specialised accommodation through CDC’s Banque des Territoires arm.
Social housing organisations in France started construction on 94,400 new homes and accommodation centres in 2025, and they own and manage 4.9 million rental homes, housing about 10.4 million people, USH figures show.
France has been the leading beneficiary in Europe of EIB financing for the housing sector over the past five years, receiving €3.4 billion, EIB vice-president Ambroise Fayolle stated.
The CEB has approved nearly €1 billion in financing in France since 2015 alongside the Caisse des Dépôts Group for social and affordable housing, Johannes Boehmer, vice-governor of the CEB, said.
