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Housing affordability is deteriorating worldwide, with 44% of households spending over 30% of their income on rent.
Sub-Saharan Africa is hardest hit, with 55% facing excessive housing costs.
Crisis linked to structural issues, rapid urbanisation, climate shocks and inequality.
Inclusive, non-market-driven housing policies needed urgently.
Housing affordability pressures are intensifying worldwide, with nearly half of all households now spending a significant share of their income on rent, according to a new report released by UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency for sustainable housing and urban development.
The report, World Cities Report 2026: The Global Housing Crisis: Pathways to Action, warned that the global housing crisis is deepening as rising rents, rapid urbanisation, climate shocks and widening inequality place millions of people under severe financial strain.
Released on May 19, 2026 during the 13th session of the World Urban Forum 13 (WUF13) at Baku in Azerbaijan, the report paints a stark picture of growing housing insecurity across the world.
Some 44 per cent of households globally spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, a benchmark widely used to define housing unaffordability, according to the report. The burden is even greater in sub-Saharan Africa, where 55 per cent of households face excessive housing costs, making it the region with the highest affordability burden.
The report attributed these challenges to deep structural problems in housing systems. In many countries, the price of formal housing has risen far beyond average household incomes due to escalating land prices, high construction costs, limited infrastructure and fragmented land governance systems.
Over the past decade, housing prices and rental costs have increased faster than incomes in many parts of the world, pushing low-income families farther away from city centres into peripheral settlements with poor transport links, fewer jobs and limited public services. Young people, migrants and informal workers are among the worst affected.
UN-Habitat estimated that some 3.4 billion people worldwide still lack access to adequate housing. Many are forced to live in overcrowded homes, informal settlements and poorly serviced neighbourhoods with limited access to clean water, sanitation and basic infrastructure. More than 1.1 billion people now live in informal settlements, the highest figure ever recorded.
The crisis is particularly severe in rapidly urbanising African countries. The report highlights housing shortages of around 28 million units in Nigeria and 19.5 million units in Egypt, and millions more in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.
Rapid population growth and migration to cities are placing increasing strain on already stretched urban housing systems. By 2050, an additional 1.7 billion people are expected to live in urban areas globally, bringing the total urban population to 6.5 billion, with most growth concentrated in Africa and Asia.
The report also warned that housing unaffordability is fuelling insecurity of tenure. Nearly one in four adults across 108 countries fear losing their homes or land rights, particularly renters and younger urban residents facing rising rents and mortgage costs.
To address the crisis, UN-Habitat has urged governments to move away from market-driven housing policies and adopt more inclusive strategies, including expanding affordable housing programmes, strengthening rent regulation, improving land governance and increasing investment in social housing and urban infrastructure.
Without urgent intervention, the report cautioned, housing inequality could deepen further and threaten social stability and sustainable development worldwide.
