Unlocking affordable housing markets through a data revolution

A severe lack of data is inhibiting the growth of affordable housing markets that will deliver for people, profit and planet. Affordable housing data landscapes tend to be fragmented, opaque and inequitable, particularly at provincial and city levels. In a world where at least 1.2 billion people live in substandard housing, often lacking access to basic services and infrastructure, there is a strong need for an improved supply of market intelligence to amplify the case for affordable housing, promote change and convince new actors and investors to enter the space. Investment will only be enabled where there is quality, accessible market data to evidence opportunity, enhance transparency, facilitate risk assessment and inform decision-making.

This challenge is especially acute in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with cumulative housing shortages of at least 80 million and 60 million homes, respectively. With urban population growth accelerating in both regions, this endemic lack of affordable housing is constraining inclusive economic growth and limiting the opportunities to build mitigation and resilience solutions into cities that are on the frontline of the climate crisis.

Moderated by the World Bank who will bring a global view on the role of data, this session will explore the impact of the data challenge for quality public and private sector decision making and investment, and demonstrate how trail-blazing organisations are bridging this gap through innovative approaches and pioneering tech solutions.

Climate Policy Initiative, a climate think tank focused on finance and policy analysis, will speak to the role of data and evidence in leveraging investments and unlocking markets, particularly surrounding green building. Millard Fuller Foundation, a Nigerian housing developer and builder of the most affordable home in Africa in 2019, 2020 and 2021 (housingfinanceafrica.org/document-type/yearbook/), will highlight the challenges that developers face without access to reliable market data. Reall, an innovator and investor in affordable housing in Africa and Asia, will showcase its work with the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) to collate and disseminate Market Shaping Indicators that track affordable housing markets across 11 countries (www.reall.net/msi). Indian tech start-up, Syntellect, will demonstrate its catalytic software tool, RightProfile, which leverages new approaches in client data, including AI, to unlock housing finance to informal sector workers for the first time.

Approaches like these help to crowd investment into the affordable housing market, and create the commercially viable proposition that is needed to bridge the massive and growing gap between housing demand and supply. Through sharing these interventions and the leadership role that organisations in the Global South are playing in them, we take a further step towards building a data and evidence base that gives the necessary confidence to investors.