#Housing2030 report by Housing Europe, UNECE and UN-Habitat

15.10.2021

At least 100 million low and middle-income people in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region are housing cost overburdened; they spend more than 40 per cent of their disposable income on housing. Housing affordability is an important element of the right to adequate housing but is often a challenge for groups of the population facing vulnerabilities. These include young people, senior citizens, large families with children, and people who suffer from limited access to healthcare, fuel poverty, and price inflation of essential goods and services. Housing affordability remains a major challenge also for middle income earners, especially in many large cities where rents are skyrocketing, and the quality of available housing is often low.

New publication – #Housing2030: Effective policies for affordable housing in the UNECE region – explores housing affordability
challenges and existing policy instruments for improving housing affordability in the UNECE region; it facilitates the exchange and dissemination of good practices in improving housing affordability among countries and cities of the region. The study addresses the following four topics: (1) housing governance and regulation; (2) access to finance and funding; (3) access and availability of land for housing construction; and (4) climate-neutral housing construction and renovation.

The study supports the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the New Urban Agenda, the Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing and other relevant international commitments. The study builds upon the four principles of sustainable housing, as outlined in the Geneva UN Charter: (a) environmental protection; (b) economic effectiveness; (c) social inclusion and participation; and (d) cultural adequacy.

Read the publication #Housing2030 – Effective policies for affordable housing in the UNECE region