AI-generated summary
Anita Roth of Airbnb’s policy research team notes that cities will need between 200 million and 1 billion new homes by 2050 as the UN projects a global population of 9.7 billion. A major challenge is gentrification: affluent residents moving into central, often under-served neighborhoods drives up housing costs and displaces long-time inhabitants. Jens Schulte-Bockum of MTN Group warns that the interaction of demographic growth and unequal wealth distribution can radically reshape urban social structures.
Emerging work and mobility models may help ease pressure on cities. Remote and hybrid work, alongside platform-driven services like Uber, Airbnb and WeWork, create alternatives for commuting, living and working that let people live farther from dense urban cores, says Kyle Corkum of LStar Ventures. Still, if urban populations continue to rise, proactive public policies are essential to preserve social cohesion. Governments must promote affordable housing and targeted measures so disadvantaged groups retain access to city life and services, mitigating displacement and ensuring inclusive urban development.
The cities of the future face the challenge of access to housing and gentrification.
According to Anita Roth, head of policy research at Airbnb, it is estimated that cities will need between 200 and 1 billion new homes by 2050, when the UN expects the world’s population to reach 9.7 billion souls. Gentrification, which consists of wealthy citizens settling in central neighborhoods, but little equipped with services or with some urban abandonment, produces an increase in the price of housing and makes the natural inhabitants of such neighborhoods have to move away or relocate. Gentrification happens because people are continually looking for better and cheaper places to live.”The combination of large demographic trends and the distribution of wealth can lead to a radical change in the social development of cities,” says Jens Schulte-Bockum, head of operations at South African telecommunications company MTN Group and patron of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation.
Some of the solutions to access to housing go through hibric-working, as it contributes to more and more professionals working remotely, so that they do not need to move to large cities. “Uber, Airbnb, Wework… We are creating new paradigms for transport, accommodation or work that can transform cities,” says Kyle Corkum, co-founder and CEO of developer LStar Ventures.
If more and more people are going to live in cities, it is necessary to carry out active policies that promote social cohesion, facilitating access to housing for the most disadvantaged groups.
Directora de Policy Research en Airbnb
