This article aims to contextualize the housing policies of the last years in Brazil and South Africa with the changes observed from the globalization of the economy and the influence of these global processes on the housing policies of both countries. In this sense, the text begins with an understanding of the transformations of the globalized world and how neo-liberal policies have driven urban structures mainly in the global South. From that moment, the text proposes to outline a panorama of the housing policies and their advances in the countries in order to finally understand the differences between these policies, their positive and negative aspects, and what steps still need to be taken so that Brazil and Africa countries to actually establish inclusive social housing policies.