As anyone who has recently attempted apartment-hunting in a major urban area will know, reasonably-priced housing can be difficult to come by for many and salaries don’t always seem to match the cost of living. This gap is contributing to housing crises in developed and developing countries worldwide. People are simply being priced out of cities, where housing has become a commodity instead of a basic human right. Financial speculation and states’ support of financial markets in a way that makes housing unaffordable has created an unsustainable global housing crisis.
Earlier this year the 13th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey was released for 2017, revealing that the number of “severely unaffordable” major housing markets rose from 26 to 29 this year; the problem is getting worse. The study evaluates 406 metropolitan housing markets in nine of the world's major economies and uses the “median multiple” approach to determine affordability. By dividing the median house price by the median household income of an area, this method is meant to be a summary of “middle-income housing affordability.”
If the price of housing continues to rise at the rate that it has, it could have drastic consequences for our cities. Unfortunately, while a collective paradigm shift may be necessary to address the overarching problem of how governments and investors approach housing, often each city also has other unique factors influencing its housing market, so there is likely not a one-size-fits-all solution to the crises. Unattainably high housing prices should not be considered an indication of a city’s success or desirability, but instead as a failure to respond to its given conditions and to provide the housing its citizens need.
