UN-Habitat: Location factor weakly integrated into national housing policies

The location factor is weakly integrated into national housing policies, Matthijs van Oostrum, representative of the Global Research and Analytics Division of UN-Habitat, said during the event From Policy to Impact: Scaling Up Housing Provision held within the 13th Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, Report informs.

According to him, most national housing policies primarily focus on housing affordability: "And this corresponds with what we know about how the global housing crisis is often expressed. It is frequently seen first and foremost as a problem of affordability. But of course, we must not forget that adequate housing has many dimensions. Issues such as cultural suitability and location are often poorly addressed.

In national urban policies, you can see that the location factor is actually well reflected, can't you? From an urban planning perspective, this factor comes to the forefront. However, if you look at specific national housing policies, you will see that the location aspect is not well integrated. Thus, this is also an argument for countries to take their national urban policies and national housing policies and integrate them better, ensuring that their processes are aligned."