Europe faces both widespread vacant living space and an acute housing shortage simultaneously.

Even with limited affordable options throughout the region, around one-third of EU inhabitants reside in properties featuring extra bedrooms, based on Eurostat data. These numbers point to a disconnect between available housing and actual household requirements, alongside notable variations in living arrangements from one country to another.

Under-occupation describes residences exceeding what residents require, usually due to surplus bedrooms. This stands in contrast to overcrowding and frequently involves seniors remaining in larger family properties once offspring have departed.

Although poor housing conditions affect nearly every EU member state, the extent of the problem and its root factors differ markedly, per the European Council.

Which nations register the top shares of under-occupation? EU-wide, 33.4 percent of residents occupy under-occupied units, yet this spans from 8.1 percent in Romania up to 69.4 percent in Cyprus.

Eastern Europe shows the smallest shares of under-occupation

Under-occupation occurs much less often throughout eastern and south-eastern Europe compared to other parts of the continent.

Following Romania at 8.1 percent, the portion of people in under-occupied homes stays under 15 percent in Serbia at 8.2 percent, Turkey at 10.3 percent, Latvia at 10.5 percent, Greece at 12.5 percent and Croatia at 14.7 percent.

The portion also stays fairly low in Bulgaria at 15.8 percent, Slovakia at 15.9 percent, North Macedonia at 17 percent, Poland at 17.9 percent, Lithuania at 18 percent and Italy at 18.2 percent.

These nations form the bottom group in Europe, with Estonia, Czechia and Hungary close behind near 27 percent.

Where under-occupation appears most often

Cyprus leads Europe with the highest under-occupation rate at 69.4 percent, next come Ireland at 66 percent and Malta at 63.2 percent. All three happen to be islands.

The share of residents with extra rooms exceeds 50 percent in the Netherlands at 58.5 percent, Belgium at 57 percent, Spain at 54.3 percent, Luxembourg at 52.2 percent and Norway at 51 percent.

Among Nordic states, Finland at 46.6 percent and Denmark at 42.4 percent sit well above the EU mean.

The situation varies greatly among the bloc's four biggest economies.

Spain posts one of the larger rates at 54.3 percent, while Italy shows just 18.2 percent. France reaches 40.4 percent, and Germany aligns almost precisely with the EU mean at 33.3 percent.

Southern Europe presents contrasting housing patterns

Although rates stay lower across much of south-eastern and eastern Europe, southern Europe divides clearly. Cyprus, Malta and Spain rank high, whereas Italy, Greece, Turkey and much of the Balkans rank low. This indicates the pattern resists a basic north-south explanation.

Can policy address under-occupation?

The European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless notes that the key issue involves whether existing stock and fresh construction align with rising demand for compact homes.

"Do those smaller homes truly exist and remain within reach?" a FEANTSA representative stated to Euronews Business.

Citing the UK bedroom tax from 2013, the group noted its limited impact since suitably sized units often proved scarce, leading to income reductions for households forced to stay put.

The organisation maintained that returning vacant properties to affordable and social housing could prove more useful than focusing on under-occupation.

"Penalising under-occupation without tackling deeper structural issues behind housing costs, such as insufficient investment in real social housing plus asset growth and speculation, amounts to an incorrect assessment," the representative added.

The role of homeownership

Eurostat data shows the share of people in under-occupied dwellings stands at 14.2 percent among renters versus 40.5 percent among owners.

Professor Sebastian Kohl of Berlin's Free University observed that national differences stem largely from institutional factors, chiefly ownership rates and population makeup.

"Institutional factors such as tenure matter greatly. In our analyses, homeownership emerges as the strongest single indicator of measured under-occupation," he noted to Euronews Business.

Which groups tend to occupy under-occupied homes?

Work by Jonas Lage and team revealed close ties between household composition and under-occupation.

Most extra rooms appear in single- and two-person households. Rates also tend to run higher for homes without children.

Across the EU, 41 percent of under-occupied units sit in cities, with roughly 30 percent each in rural zones and towns.

In most countries and on average EU-wide, higher-income households show greater likelihood of under-occupation and represent a bigger share of such rooms.

Room definitions vary by nation

Kohl also notes difficulties in standardising data due to differing national rules on what qualifies as a room.

He points out that Spain, Ireland and Finland include kitchens as rooms in their surveys.

He further highlights the gap between objective measures and personal views. Researchers discovered only two in five people viewed their home as oversized, even when official figures classified it as under-occupied.