While there is currently a significant over-supply of upscale or luxury housing in many markets, there remains a shortage of more than 3.5 million affordable dwellings across the major markets within MENA. The demand for affordable housing is forecast to increase ahead of the supply in all the major markets over the next 5 years, resulting in a widening of the current gap. Delivering sufficient product to meet this growing need constitutes one of the major opportunities for the real estate industry in the region over the next few years. While the largest current shortfall is concentrated in four markets, Egypt (1,500,000), Iraq (1,000,000), Morocco (600,000) and Saudi Arabia (400,000), there is a shortage in all of the markets studied, with the GCC markets of UAE, Bahrain and Oman also requiring more dwellings in this sector of the market.