The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has launched C Change for Housing, a major new pan European programme designed to mobilise the real estate industry around two of society’s most urgent and interconnected challenges: the climate crisis and housing affordability.

The housing sector lies at the crossroads of escalating environmental and social pressures. The built environment is responsible for 37% of global carbon emissions, while housing unaffordability affects nearly 15 million people across Europe—with almost 1 million facing homelessness. Many approaches to decarbonisation in the housing market favour high value assets and prime locations, which risk exacerbating social inequities, and despite a surplus of underutilised housing stock, systemic barriers continue to block the path toward equitable, net-zero housing. Tackling these dual crises in isolation is no longer viable.

C Change for Housing seeks to unify these efforts by bringing together industry experts to identify and remove the barriers that prevent scalable, inclusive, and sustainable housing solutions. The programme will focus on:

• Identifying systemic barriers preventing progress in achieving net-zero, affordable housing.
• Developing practical, scalable solutions to overcome these obstacles, with a focus on investors, developers and managers of real estate;
• Educating and building the capacity of the industry through awareness raising and providing tools and guidance and;
• Showcasing best practice across the housing sector to drive action.

Building on the success of ULI’s flagship C Change programme, launched in 2021 to mobilise the real estate industry to decarbonise, C Change for Housing will adopt both top-down and bottom-up approaches. It will engage public and private sector practitioners and leaders to identify the most significant barriers to progress, prioritise them and co-create and incubate practical solutions. This top-down approach is complemented with bottom-up advisory services to test and feed into the solutions, as housing is predominantly local and ensure a just, inclusive and scalable transition process.

ULI is calling for input from experts and practitioners in residential development, investment, research, policy, and decarbonisation experts – as well as anyone passionate about advancing sustainable, affordable housing. Participants can take part in upcoming research, workshops, or interviews and keep updated on the programme’s success by registering their interest to join the movement.  In addition, a dedicated C Change for Housing Forum will take place on Monday, 16 June 2025, 15:00–17:00 BST at the ULI Europe Conference in London where those attending the conference are invited to be part of a collective effort to unlock scalable, sustainable housing solutions.

Having assembled a high-profile steering committee of industry leaders spanning housing, sustainability, investments, development and policy across Europe, the programme’s foundational phase is now underway. Global built environment consultancy Arup and consultants Dark Matter Labs are leading a comprehensive landscape review to identify the systemic barriers to housing decarbonisation and affordability, map existing initiatives to avoid duplication and highlight gaps where actionable intervention is most needed.

The new programme is supported by funding from Laudes Foundation.

Lisette van Doorn, CEO, ULI Europe comments, “As commented on many times before, the climate crisis is not only an environmental crisis, but risks becoming a social crisis, disproportionately affecting vulnerable people in society and their health and wellbeing. Tackling the decarbonisation of social and affordable housing should be a number one priority but the difficulty in building the business case with rent and value uplifts being limited often stalls any action.”

“We are proud to now launch C Change for Housing and are grateful for the support from Laudes Foundation to tackle this important priority and call on all relevant stakeholders to participate in the programme and especially this first phase aimed to identify the systemic barriers to progress. We can only solve these two interlinked crises by working together, with effective and increased collaboration between the public and private sectors to efficiently decarbonise existing social and affordable housing and provide new housing within planetary boundaries. Our vision for C Change for Housing is to provide an actionable, practical route to identify and deliver the urgent solutions that are needed, and I look forward to a fruitful collaboration right across the value chain.”

Register your interest to participate at https://urbanlandinstitute.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3fRrMlg3DPJoQnQ or contact [email protected] if you’re interested in supporting the development of C Change for Housing or would like to find out more.

Visit: https://europe.uli.org/programmes/c-change/c-change-for-housing/

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For further information, contact [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

C Change is a ULI-led programme to mobilise the European real estate industry to decarbonise. We’re a movement empowering everyone to work together for a sustainable future. We connect the brightest minds from across the value chain. We challenge barriers, share expertise, and champion innovation to move swiftly to accelerate solutions that will transform our industry and protect our planet. C Change means real change. C Change was formed in late 2021 by a group of leading real estate players that was united in its aim to focus on collaboration to ensure companies large and small have access to practical solutions and education on decarbonisation.

C Change for Housing is a major new pan European programme funded by the Laudes Foundation which focuses on the dual crises of housing affordability and climate change and the need for urgent, bold, and systematic action.

Visit: C Change and C Change for Housing.

The Urban Land Institute is a non-profit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the institute has over 48,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.

ULI Europe has over 5,500 members across 15 National Council country networks and 13 Product Councils visit https://europe.uli.org