First Report on The Affordable Metropolis Initiative is Out

Jan 22, 2019 Latest News

As real estate markets are expected to represent a total of more than 4,2 trillion USD of investments globally by 2025, our urban world is plagued by rapidly
growing imbalances severely affecting housing affordability and threatening long term sustainable development and the realization of the UN Agenda 2030.

The Affordable Metropolis Initiative aims at understanding, through dialogue and research, why urban inequalities are rising so much and so quickly and at
providing and showcasing concrete solutions turning housing as a driver for social, economic and environmental sustainability. This is the goal of the Global
Dialogue on Affordable Housing which focused so far on: Policy, Finance, Technology and Shelters.

In 2018, many new global initiatives have been launched to tackle widening economic gaps in cities around the world such as the Bloomberg New Economy Forum or the Coalition on Urban Transition. These initiatives convened undisputed power and focused mainly on macroeconomic issues.

In contrast, the Affordable Metropolis Initiative builds on real urban economicsand metrics. The world over, there are over 1,000 metro areas of 500,000 inhabitants or more, and over 4,500 cities of 100,000 inhabitants or more. As illustrated by Steering the Metropolis (2017), governance of contemporary urban systems is often scattered and weak, making it all the more difficult for integrated, robust urban and housing policies to be actually implemented.

The Affordable Metropolis Initiative Global Dialogue on Affordable Housing is a voluntary effort mobilizing dozens of policy makers, experts, government representatives, international institutions, professional organizations, civic groups, start-ups and cooperatives, urban planners, bankers, investors, architects, designers and brokers… on all continents.

Started at the WUF9 in Kuala Lumpur and exploring the connectivity between density, prosperity and affordability in metro areas in February 2018, the
initiative took the form of a second dialogue series for the World Habitat Day 2018 (Oct. 1), with meetings held (following the same agenda) in Paris at the
French Builders Federation (FFB), New-York at the headquarters of Bank of America, Taichung (Taiwan), Philadelphia and Honolulu (Hawaii), and in several
other cities around the world during the whole Urban October month. A third dialogue series took place in Paris in November 2018 at the annual general
assembly of the Grand Paris Alliance held at Deloitte headquarters. Building on the 2018 achievements, the initiative will continue its rapid development in 2019, combining advocacy and outreach and the quest for concrete initiatives, case studies and best practices.

The present report highlights solutions gathered so far through FIABCIʼs World Urban campaign “The City We Need is Affordable”, by the Grand Paris Alliance for Metropolitan Development, as well as during The Affordable Metropolis Initiative Global Dialogue on Affordable Housing held throughout Urban October 2018 on the following four topics:

Local, regional and national policies encouraging construction and
renovation of affordable housing for rent or for sale.
Financing solutions for developers and users.
Technologies, construction techniques and materials making it quicker, less expensive and better to build affordable housing.
Shelters for victims of natural catastrophes, migrants and homeless people.

The Affordable Metropolis Initiative was launched in February 2018 in Kuala Lumpur (Malysia) at the World Urban Forum 9 (WUF9). It is a joint effort by the
International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), the Grand Paris Alliance for Metropolitan Development and the General Assembly of Partners (GAP), supporting the concrete implementation of the Habitat III New Urban Agenda and the territorialization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Agenda 2030.

Read the full report here.