February 2026

Review of Public-Private Partnerships Across Building Sectors in Nine European Countries: Key Adaptations for PPP in Housing

Eoin Reeves (ed), University of Limerick, Ireland

Original study by Ritika Batra

Housing sectors around the world are in crisis due to ever-increasing unaffordability and deteriorating condition of the existing building stock at a time when demand for social (public) housing is increasing.  This context provides the rationale for this paper which seeks to assess the potential for PPPs to provide a solution to the problems of the European housing sector.

The paper begins with a review of the literature on the theory and practice of PPP usage for housing and finds the literature is scarce in this domain.  In practice, there are very few countries, apart from the UK and Ireland, that demonstrate significant experience and insights into the use of PPP for social housing.  This scarcity of literature on housing PPPs leads to author to review literature on existing PPP practice in the wider building sector in Europe (for example, hospitals, prisons and schools).  The main objective is to draw lessons that can be applied to the use of PPP for the provision of housing.

The review of academic and grey (e.g. governmental and consultant’s reports) literature covers nine EU countries for which sufficient data is available.  Thematic analysis of the collected data is conducted using NVivo software.  PPP practices and trends across building sectors are reviewed in terms of four main themes: (1) institutional arrangements, (2) procurement procedures, (3) financial structure and (4) value for money.

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