IDB indicates that 45% of households in Latin America and the Caribbean do not have decent housing

Mexico City—The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) organized the Third Housing Forum this Thursday. The meeting addressed the housing deficit in Latin America and brought together authorities from Paraguay, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Panama, El Salvador, and Argentina.

In a panel led by Tatiana Gallego, Head of the IDIDB’s Housing and Urban Development Division, the heads of housing of these nations discussed the housing situation and the results of the studies that the multilateral organization has carried out in the region.

“Latin America and the Caribbean have a dynamic housing backlog, which we at the IDB estimate affects 45% of the population,” Gallego told EFE. As the IDB’s head of housing says, this figure is more important from a qualitative than a quantitative point of view.

“We estimate that 95% or so of the total is qualitative and is also very urban, if only because more than 80% of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean lives in cities,” Gallego stressed.

However, these figures show a regional reality that is disparate depending on each country, giving as an example Costa Rica where it is estimated that approximately 11% of the population is lagging behind compared to others such as Nicaragua where it is estimated to be above 80%.

“From the IDB, we believe that we need to design housing policy solutions that respond to this changing face of the region and that involve both the public and private sectors,” said Gallego, referring to possible solutions to this regional problem.

In this regard, the Minister of Urban Planning and Housing of Paraguay, Juan Carlos Baruja, explained during his presentation that the housing deficit in his country is currently estimated at 1,100,000 homes.

The representatives of all the countries agreed that the reason for the difficult access to housing is the high level of informal labor in their countries.

Erick Hernán Rosales, Vice Minister of Urban Planning of Guatemala, put the figure at 69%, while the Vice Minister of Housing of the Dominican Republic, Vivian Reyes, raised it to 70% and mentioned the difficult bureaucracy as another impediment to reducing the housing deficit.

El Salvador’s Minister of Housing, Michelle Sol, spoke of the security reforms that the Central American nation’s president, Nayib Bukele, is implementing as key to improving the housing situation.

Lastly, the Undersecretary of Habitat and Housing of Argentina, Santiago Sánchez Sorondo, alluded to the “account organization” being carried out by the government of Javier Milei in his country as fundamental to address a problem that, in his opinion, can be solved by the private sector with the State as the guarantor of fair conditions.