Designing Policies for Efficient, Inclusive and Sustainable Housing

Housing has become an increasingly pressing economic, social and environmental challenge in OECD countries. Rising house prices and rents have undermined affordability and resulted in social exclusion. This chapter documents these trends and discusses their main drivers by pulling together key findings from the OECD Horizontal Project on Housing. It shows that inefficiencies in housing markets can have adverse consequences for the economy at large, including macroeconomic instability and impaired labour mobility. Cost pressures also exacerbate the challenge of upgrading the housing stock to comply with environmental objectives. The chapter concludes by reviewing the evidence on policy instruments that can improve housing outcomes and describing the policy indicators used to assess progress and gauge the scope for further policy action. An online dashboard and country snapshots provide easy ways to compare indicators of outcomes and policy settings across countries. The conclusion summarises synergies and trade-offs of different policy interventions with respect to the objectives of housing inclusiveness, efficiency and sustainability.