Anaclaudia Rossbach: Housing crisis deepens, informal settlements at risk

The housing crisis is deepening, homes are unaffordable, and informal settlements are at risk, Anaclaudia Rossbach, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), said during the presentation of the World Cities Report 2026.

According to her, housing prices are currently very high, and a large number of people around the world do not have enough money to buy or pay for housing:

"At the same time, countries have very different fiscal capacities to fill this gap. Therefore, markets cannot solve the problem 'at the lower end,' and public supply is not as comprehensive as expected."

Rossbach noted that while access to services for people is a serious issue for the Global South, this problem is now becoming relevant in the Global North as well:

"Now everywhere, people cannot find money to buy or rent a home, and this has become a problem for young people and urban populations as well. On the other hand, informality has reached such a scale that it can no longer be tolerated. People are living in very dangerous conditions. During natural disasters, the first to suffer are those living in informal settlements who lose their homes. Therefore, the urgency of the informality issue in this report is clear, and we must respond promptly to it as a central component of the housing crisis we are facing."