The “emerging futures” of cities will largely depend on whether urban housing is cast in decent buildings or in loads more unsustainable, ramshackle shelter. Housing determines the mutual relationship between every single human being and surrounding physical and social space. This involves degrees of exclusion or inclusion in terms of collective and civic life which, together with socioeconomic conditions, are the essence of urban dynamics. That is why the fate of housing will largely determine the fate of our cities. The sustainable future of cities and the benefits of urbanization strongly depend on future approaches to housing.

Housing accounts for more than 70 per cent of land use in most cities and determines urban form and densities, also providing employment and contributing to growth.1 That it has not been central to government and international agendas over the last 20 years is evident in the chaotic and dysfunctional spread of many cities and towns. Since 1996, in Europe and the US, housing has become more of an asset for investment than a place to live, but when the property bubble burst in 2007-08, housing investment stalled in many countries, despite soaring demand, and trust in the market was severely dented. In the face of unprecedented urbanization and population growth many cities developing and emerging have accrued huge housing shortages. This chapter reviews the housing sector since Habitat II in 1996 and offers ways forward.