World Housing Demand to Exceed 60 Million New Housing Units in 2016

Demand for housing is projected to spur the construction of 60.5 million new housing units in 2016, an increase of 3.5 percent per annum.  Ongoing rural-to-urban migration and increases in the number of households in developing countries will spur construction of new housing units through 2016.  Such urbanization and household formation will generate particularly strong demand for housing in the Asia/Pacific and Africa/Mideast regions.  The Asia/Pacific region will account for 62 percent of the world’s new housing units in 2016, with the Africa/Mideast region comprising an additional 20 percent of the world total. These and other trends, including market share and product segmentation, are presented in World Housing, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.  

The strongest annual growth in construction will be in industrialized countries that had depressed housing markets in 2011.  For most of these countries, the impressive growth rates will still leave the 2016 level of construction below that of a decade earlier, prior to the global financial crisis and resulting recession.  In the US, for example, although new housing construction will advance over 18 percent per year to 1.5 million units in 2016, this figure will represent only 70 percent of the construction activity in 2006.  Western Europe will also experience robust growth in new housing construction over the forecast period that will be roughly two-thirds of the level in 2006.

Multifamily housing units will record faster gains in new construction through 2016 than will single-family units.  Increasing urbanization in developing countries will contribute to the trend. 

The world housing stock was approaching two billion units in 2011, roughly one percent larger than the number of households.  The world stock of housing is expected to increase 1.8 percent per annum through 2016 to 2.1 billion units, a deceleration from the 2001-2011 period as new household formation slows.  The most rapid increases in the housing stock will be in the Africa/Mideast region, fueled by above-average population growth.  Increases in the housing stock in Central and South America will also surpass the world average.  The Asia/Pacific region will retain its position as the leader in housing stock at 1.1 billion units, despite a deceleration in housing construction in China.

The Freedonia Group is a leading international business research company, founded in 1985, that publishes more than 100 industry research studies annually. This industry analysis provides an unbiased outlook and a reliable assessment of an industry and includes product segmentation and demand forecasts, industry trends, demand history, threats and opportunities, competitive strategies, market share determinations and company profiles.