Developers need to build almost 100,000 homes a day, warns UN

MIPIM 2024: Developers need to deliver 96,000 new homes around the world a day, if the global housing crisis is to be eased. That was the chilling fact delivered on day one of MIPIM this year at a new housing-focused kick-off conference. Michal Mlynár, United Nations assistant secretary general and acting executive director of UN human settlements programme UN-Habitat, said 2.8bn people were experiencing some sort of housing inadequacy globally, a number that is rising continually as the issue remains unresolved. Mlynár admitted that the 96,000-homes-a-day figure, estimated by UN-Habitat, was unrealistic, however it was aimed at making the world “understand and to realise the scale of the problem”. He said: “While there is a challenge, there is great opportunity as well for us to do something important which can transform the situation, and which can bring new economic and social opportunities. But an opportunity to do things right.” Mlynár said the industry needed to “accelerate construction, build sustainably, with new materials in a new way and build taking into consideration climate change and decarbonisation”. He also pointed out that Europe was lagging behind Africa in its response to the crisis. Photo © United Nations