This resource, “#Housing2030: Effective policies for affordable housing in the UNECE region”, is a 2021 study published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in partnership with UN-Habitat and Housing Europe. The principal authors are Julie Lawson (RMIT University), Michelle Norris (University College Dublin), and Holger Wallbaum (Chalmers University of Technology); the publication also draws on contributions from a large group of researchers, policymakers, housing providers, and advocates across the UNECE region.
Housing affordability is presented as a major challenge across the UNECE region, with the foreword stating that at least 100 million low- and middle-income people are “housing cost overburdened”, spending more than 40% of their disposable income on housing. The report links affordability pressures to vulnerabilities affecting groups such as young people, older people, and large families, and it situates the issue within wider trends including rapid and unplanned urbanization, urban sprawl, climate change, financialization of housing, ageing societies, and migration.
The study frames affordable housing as central to international commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals (notably SDG 1 on poverty eradication and SDG 11 on inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities, with SDG 11.1 focusing on access to adequate, safe and affordable housing by 2030). It also references the New Urban Agenda and the Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing, and describes housing policy as a long-term, system-shaping effort requiring capable implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and adaptation over time.
Rather than prescribing a single model, #Housing2030 is explicitly positioned as a “toolkit” that policymakers can adapt to local conditions. It argues that unaffordable housing is a symptom of dysfunctional housing systems, and that effective treatment requires understanding root causes that vary across countries, cities, and neighbourhoods. The report highlights the interaction of land, investment and labour markets as key drivers of (un)affordability and inclusion, and encourages coordinated use of multiple policy instruments rather than reliance on a “one best policy”.
One major theme is governance: the report describes good governance as shaping how housing-system actors function and enabling well-informed, participatory, accountable, and transparent decision-making. It sets out governance tools commonly used by governments and housing organizations, including strategic frameworks (such as national housing strategies), institutional capacity-building, multi-level governance and partnerships, housing standards setting and monitoring, evidence-based policymaking, supervision and accountability mechanisms, dedicated social and affordable housing providers, and tenant and owner-occupier involvement frameworks.
A second theme is finance and investment, covering tools intended to expand and protect affordable housing opportunities. The report lists approaches such as regulating financial institutions, non-profit provision models, rent subsidies, rent setting and indexation policies, microfinance, savings-based circuits, public loans and grants, interest-rate subsidies, guarantees and insurance, special-purpose intermediaries, shared-equity and cost-sharing schemes, revolving funds, and taxation measures designed to guide investment toward affordability and inclusion.
A third theme is land policy, described as essential for affordable and sustainable housing provision. The toolkit includes instruments such as public land banking and leasing, land readjustment, land value capture, comprehensive city and neighbourhood planning, land-use regulation and inclusionary zoning, and land value taxation. The report emphasises that land and planning instruments are often combined with finance and regulatory measures to shape housing outcomes over time.
A fourth theme addresses climate-neutral housing construction and renovation, presenting policy tools that combine regulation and incentives while aiming to align decarbonisation with affordability. The report identifies measures including energy-performance-related building regulations, regulation of the urban environment for energy efficiency, non-regulatory climate policy initiatives, funding and financial incentives, and awareness-raising and training. Across these themes, the report highlights the need for long-term cooperation among governments, housing experts, providers and stakeholders to deliver affordable, adequate, healthy, and climate-neutral housing and neighbourhoods across the UNECE region.
