Increasing numbers of people are struggling to find affordable housing in cities across the developed world. This situation has consequences for the individuals by lowering their quality of life and more widely affects city competitiveness and social cohesion. In particular, households that earn too much to be eligible for social housing and not enough to buy a home are increasingly squeezed in the rental market. This report highlights best practices for increasing housing supply aimed specifically at this group. Such homes are referred to in this report as ‘intermediate housing’. The report focuses on lessons for building new intermediate housing rather than making better use of existing stock. Demonstrating on a place-by-place basis how barriers to intermediate housing related to land availability and pricing, stakeholder trust and engagement, and financing could be overcome, this report looks at lessons for transferring such best practices into different locations to enable intermediate housing to be built at scale.

Across the developed world, increasing numbers of people are struggling to find good-quality homes at a price they can afford. The traditional model based upon the idea of supporting those most in need with specific subsidies and building new homes for the wealthier part of society, which will then free up existing units for others to occupy, has failed. Especially in high-cost cities, too few homes are being built to keep up with growth in demand, and a mismatch often exists between the units that are built and the requirements of those in housing need. This research responds to issues raised by the ULI European Residential Council in its previous analysis of the causes and consequences of a lack of housing affordability and factors affecting city competitiveness. The research is funded by group of sponsoring organizations, each of which had a representative on the project steering committee