After years of urban exodus, our cities are growing rapidly again, causing growing pains in the housing market. Prices for buying, renting, building and renovating are rising sharply. Recent developments such as inflation in material and labour costs and rising interest rates are exacerbating the effect. One figure sums up the complex urban housing crisis: 50 per cent. Half of city dwellers rent their homes, while urban housing policy has to contend with regional and federal frameworks that focus on ownership. Half of the rental properties are in poor condition. Half of tenants have to make ends meet on a single income and spend too much on housing costs in relation to their income. This is out of necessity, because the urban housing market has become 50 per cent more expensive in the last ten years. In short, half of city dwellers cannot find affordable housing, even though housing is a basic right. In addition, half of all families consist of single people, single-parent families or large and/or newly formed families, while spatial policy remains geared towards the traditional model.

All of this together – a shortage of supply, unsuitable housing types, excessive rents and purchase prices, and substandard quality – makes affordability a complex challenge, while the housing market is evolving very slowly.