Housing policies for sustainable and inclusive cities: how national governments can deliver affordable housing and compact urban development. The housing is an important human need that affects the well-being of all citizens and has profound social and economic impacts on people’s lives and to provide adequate and affordable housing is a core national policy of every county.

Most of the cities face particularly strong demand for housing, partly due to the global trend of urbanization. Urban areas are already home to more than half of the world’s population, and by 2050 are expected to house 6.7 billion people – nearly 70% of the global population.  The urban space is growing faster than the population: the overall built-up area around the globe has increased 2.5 times over the last 40 years, while the population has raised  1.8 times. In fact ,the impacts of national housing policy instruments on urban form and housing affordability are diverse and complex, and there is not a direct relationship between compact urban development and house prices.

The increasing difficulty many households face in accessing adequate and affordable housing occurs in a context where physical urban space is growing faster than the population. Worldwide, the overall built-up area has increased 2.5 times over the last 40 years, while the population has increased 1.8 times (although more built-up space does not directly translate into broader housing access). Urban sprawl has numerous socio-economic and environmental repercussions. For example, the cities of Pittsburgh (United States (US)) and Stockholm (Sweden) have roughly the same population (1.7 and 1.5 million respectively), but the former occupies five times as much land area and generates more than five and a half times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per capita than the latter, largely due to urban sprawl. Urban residents in Pittsburgh need to travel longer distances to access jobs, schools, healthcare facilities and other public services at greater personal and environmental expense. These financial and time costs exclude many from economic and social opportunities.