{"id":104609,"date":"2026-05-22T17:29:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=104609"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:29:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:59:38","slug":"world-cities-report-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/world-cities-report-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cities Report 2026, 40% Global Population Faces Housing Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The World Cities Report 2026, released by UN-Habitat at the World Urban Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, highlights a deep and widening global housing crisis. The report states that around 40% of the world\u2019s population (about 3.4 billion people) is affected by inadequate housing, rising costs, and poor living conditions, making housing one of the most critical urban challenges today.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>World Cities Report 2026 Key Findings\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report shows that the crisis is both widespread and structural in nature, affecting both developed and developing countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Around 40% of the world\u2019s population, approximately 3.4 billion people, are impacted by a housing crisis <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that includes affordability, shortage and poor quality of homes, as well as poor access to clean water and sanitation,\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Housing prices are increasing faster than incomes worldwide<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, making home ownership increasingly unaffordable for middle and low-income groups.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>global price-to-income ratio rose from 9.3 in 2010 to 11.2 in 2023<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, showing declining affordability over time.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The price-to-income ratio measures housing affordability by comparing average house prices with average household income.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>Central and South Asia (including India), the price-to-income ratio reaches 16.8<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, indicating severe stress on housing markets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Around 44% of households globally spend more than 30% of their income on housing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, showing rising rental burden.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Homelessness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> remains a significant concern, with rates such as <\/span><b>India: 13 per 10,000 people, USA: 20 per 10,000, and China: 21 per 10,000.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, as many parts of the world struggle with high or rising construction costs, the <\/span><b>per-square-meter costs in India and China are lower,<\/b> <b>due to economies of scale,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> than in Chad, Zambia, or Ghana, where construction industries and supply chains are less developed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Cities are expected to absorb an additional 2 billion people by 2050, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">increasing pressure on land, infrastructure, and housing systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>India-Focused Findings:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Mumbai and Delhi have price-to-income ratios of 14.3 and 10.1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, making home ownership unaffordable for households earning the median income.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>In India\u2019s eight largest cities, the share of affordable housing in new construction fell sharply from 52% in 2018 to 17% in 2025<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, due to developers shifting toward high-margin luxury housing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has <\/span><b>improved housing access by expanding coverage from 0.3% of households in 2010 to 7% in 2023<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with around 12 million houses sanctioned to support low-income groups.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Ahmedabad Slum Networking Project<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> shows that upgrading existing slums through community participation and small financial contributions can improve living conditions without full relocation or high government expenditure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Major Causes of Housing Crisis<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rapid Urbanisation and Population Pressure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Large-scale migration to cities and expected addition of 2 billion urban residents by 2050 is increasing housing demand far beyond supply capacity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Income Housing Price Mismatch<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Housing prices are rising faster than incomes globally, steadily reducing affordability for middle- and low-income households.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Market Shift Towards Luxury Housing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Real estate developers are prioritising high-profit luxury and mid-segment housing, reducing the supply of affordable housing units.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rising Cost of Land and Construction Inputs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Escalating land prices and rising construction material costs are making housing development economically unviable for low-cost segments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Limited Access to Housing Finance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Limited access to formal mortgage systems restricts home ownership opportunities for large sections of the population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Climate-Induced Housing Stress: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increasing frequency of disasters is causing large-scale housing losses, with US$280 billion damages in 2023 alone, mostly uninsured.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Impact of the Housing Crisis<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rising Homelessness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Housing shortages and unaffordability are increasing homelessness.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Growth of Informal Settlements<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Lack of affordable formal housing pushes vulnerable populations into slums and unplanned urban settlements.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Deepening Social Inequality<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Unequal access to housing is reinforcing socio-economic divides within rapidly growing urban areas.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Financial Stress on Households<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: High housing costs reduce disposable income, with a large share of households spending over 30% of income on rent or housing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Strain on Urban Infrastructure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Rapid expansion of informal housing increases pressure on basic services such as water supply, sanitation, and transport.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>However, the housing sector has major economic potential:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In South Asia, every US$1 spent in the housing sector can generate up to US$5 in income.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, an additional\u00a0 \u20b9100,000 in demand for residential construction generates an estimated 2.61 new informal and 0.04 formal jobs, rising to 4.06 jobs (3.95 informal and 0.11 formal) when induced effects are included.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is much more than the United States, where building a typical single\u2011family home is estimated to support 2.9 jobs, while an average rental apartment generates 1.25 jobs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>World Cities Report 2026 Recommendations\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report emphasises that the <\/span><b>state must take primary responsibility in ensuring adequate and affordable housing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as market mechanisms alone are insufficient to address the crisis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It recommends a <\/span><b>collaborative framework<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> involving government, private sector, and communities to mobilise resources and improve housing delivery.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It suggests adopting <\/span><b>innovative models such as pay-as-you-go housing, rent-to-buy arrangements, and community cost-sharing mechanisms <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to enhance affordability and access.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It calls for <\/span><b>expanding non-profit affordable rental housing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, particularly for urban poor and migrant populations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It highlights the need to <\/span><b>strengthen access to formal housing finance systems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, reducing dependence on informal credit channels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It supports <\/span><b>community-led housing initiatives and in-situ slum upgrading<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as effective and cost-efficient approaches to improve living conditions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It stresses <\/span><b>integrating climate resilience into housing and urban planning<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to reduce vulnerability to increasing climate-induced risks.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World Cities Report 2026 highlights global housing crisis affecting 40% population due to rising costs, poor affordability, homelessness, and urbanisation pressures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":104605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[7671],"class_list":{"0":"post-104609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-world-cities-report-2026","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104610,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104609\/revisions\/104610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}