75% of Latin Americans cut other expenses to cover housing costs, according to a study
Housing costs are leading three out of four people in Latin America and the Caribbean to cut back on other expenses, use their savings, or take on additional jobs, according to a study by the NGO Habitat for Humanity.
The research ‘A home, but at what cost?’, provided to EFE, adds that in Latin America and the Caribbean there are other complications, such as informal employment, the qualitative housing deficit and difficulties in accessing financing.
The study, which in its global version gathers experiences from 30,758 people in 22 countries, indicates that 75% of respondents reduced at least one expense during the last year to cover housing costs: 33% cut spending on food, 32% used savings or emergency funds, and 13% delayed or avoided medical care.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the problem develops in a housing structure marked by a deficit.
According to Ernesto Castro, Habitat for Humanity’s Area Vice President for the region, it affects more than 40% of the population; some 120 million people live in informal settlements, and more than 78% of the economically active population works in the informal sector.
“Families don’t have the resources to access housing or often even rent, and due to the extremely high level of informality, they can’t access financing. So, this becomes a double exclusion,” Castro explains to EFE.
According to the study, the pressure extends to long-term decisions: 56% of respondents in those countries say that housing costs make it difficult to consider starting a family, a percentage that rises to 62% among Generation Z and millennials.
Castro also notes that the Latin American housing deficit is mainly qualitative, tied to housing materials and access to basic services, and highlights affordability, urban location, climate vulnerability, and institutional weakness as other gaps that worsen the problem.
According to Castro, more than 80% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean lives in urban or peri-urban areas, so rising housing costs in cities push many families to peripheral areas, far from their jobs, forcing them to pay more and spend more time commuting.
Between 2000 and 2022, disasters affected some 190 million people in the region, the Vice President for Latin America of Habitat for Humanity added.
Latin American research conducted in Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago also shows that 74% believe many people live in unsafe buildings and that 18% say their home does not adequately protect them from heat, cold or floods.
For Castro, part of the problem lies in public policy design, since some households exceed the limits to access subsidies but still lack sufficient income to obtain formal financing.
In that case, the expert proposes reviewing those criteria and considering family income regardless of whether it comes from formal or informal employment.
