Global construction of new housing is expected to increase by 2.0% per year through 2026 to 60.4 million units, according to the newly published “Global Housing Market 2023-2026” report from ResearchAndMarkets.com.
Overall, the report predicted multifamily housing will outpace single-family housing on a global basis – at the moment, single-family dwellings accounted for nearly two-thirds of the global housing stock and are the most prevalent type of housing in rural areas.
The report predicted growing demand for urban multifamily housing in the Asia-Pacific and Africa-Middle East markets based on increasing migration from rural areas into big cities.
However, the report also predicted slower housing growth in North America and Western Europe based on rising construction costs, high mortgage rates, construction project delays based on labor shortages and weaker population gains. China’s housing market is forecast to suffer from population loss, defaults by large building developers and attempts by the government to stave off a housing bubble while stabilizing a shaky housing market.
As for new housing construction, most countries moved beyond the Covid-induced slowdown of 2020 with new activity in 2021, only to stall in 2022 based on rising inflation and supply chain hiccups. The report added that new global housing is not expected to surpass the pre-pandemic 2019 levels until this year.