By 2050, the world will have 2.25 billion new urban dwellers, while 1.2 billion people already live in precarious conditions. In this context, access to decent housing for low-income households, which are traditionally excluded from the formal housing market, is a major challenge for social inclusiveness in the countries of the global South, which will be home to the majority of these new urban dwellers. Faced with this rapid growth in demand, many countries have implemented policies to support demand, centered on individual home ownership through purchase, made possible itself by bank loans. However, this model has shown its limits, and it is still inaccessible to low-income households, which are rarely eligible for a mortgage.

The alternative to social or affordable rental housing has only been developed to a very modest extent in the countries of the global South. The lack of incentives in public policies and the scarcity of long-term financial resources may explain the low interest that institutional investors have shown in this sector. However, the rental market, whether formal or informal, is in fact a housing solution for a significant proportion of the population: 20% in Latin America, and up to 40% in the continent’s largest cities. This sector is often expensive and of poor quality in the absence of aid and an incentive-based regulatory framework.