Listen to Earle Arney on the podcast here

A major new international report warns that housing shortages in global cities have reached a critical stage and calls for governments to treat housing as essential infrastructure — on par with transport, energy and water — if they are to prevent deepening economic and social damage.

The report, SyLon: Housing as Infrastructure, Lessons from two global cities, by AFK Studios and NLA, compares the housing systems of London and Sydney, and concludes that both cities are facing a structural delivery failure. Ambitious housing targets exist on paper, but the systems needed to turn those targets into homes are breaking down. 

The analysis argues that housing policy must undergo a fundamental shift: away from episodic planning negotiations and toward long-term infrastructure-style investment and delivery frameworks capable of building homes at scale. Without that shift, the report warns, the housing crisis will continue to reshape who can afford to live in major cities, pushing workers further from jobs, straining public finances and undermining the long-term competitiveness of global urban economies. 

“The housing shortage is, at its core, a failure of delivery,” says Earle Arney, who is the founder and CEO of AFK Studios. “We have the demand, the capital and the capability — yet we fall short because our systems are not aligned to act at pace or at scale. Until we treat housing as essential infrastructure, build pipelines that endure beyond political cycles, and align planning, funding and delivery into a single, coherent path, the crisis will deepen — and the cost will continue to fall on those least able to afford it.” 

Meanwhile, the gap between housing targets and actual delivery is widening each year. London needs to deliver around 88,000 homes per year, yet actual delivery has stagnated to between 30,000 to 45,000 homes annually for the past decade. This year is markedly worse, with just over 18,000 homes expected to be completed — highlighting how the transition to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) regime in 2023 has introduced significant friction into the system at a time when delivery needs to accelerate. 

The human and financial consequences are mounting rapidly: one in 50 Londoners is now homeless, or living in temporary accommodation, with London boroughs spending £5.5 million every day to manage the crisis. This is the cost of delay, measured not just in broken budgets, but in lives disrupted. Money is being spent firefighting, not building. 

Sydney is facing a similarly dramatic affordability crunch. With 64 per cent of homes now worth more than $1 million, the city’s housing pipeline is forecast to produce just 28,800 homes annually, barely half of what is required to meet demand. 

The report argues that governments are not short of housing targets or policy announcements; they are short of systems capable of turning ambition into actual homes. It’s a question of system failure, not a lack of ambition.

Across both cities, several structural barriers are slowing or stopping housing delivery, keeping tens of thousands of potential homes from being built, including: 

• Rising construction costs that undermine project viability;
• Planning systems where delays have become routine;
• Regulatory uncertainty that discourages investment;
• Infrastructure and housing planning that operate in isolation.

The report shows how Sydney and London can learn from each other to improve housing delivery. Sydney’s planning reforms, streamlined approvals and state-led zoning are reducing risk and accelerating development, offering a compelling model for London. Strategic zoning within targeted growth and Opportunity Areas is being used to remove uncertainty, while density bonuses are unlocking additional affordable housing by aligning viability with public policy objectives.

Sydney also demonstrates that speed and quality can coexist through pre-approved design templates. Conversely, London’s introduction of the Building Safety Regulator in 2023 underscores how major reform, when it outpaces system capacity, can increase uncertainty and stall momentum in delivery. 

Together, these lessons point to a more balanced, effective approach to delivering housing at the pace and scale that both cities now require.

Report summary provided via AFK Studios and NLA. Read the full report here.

AFK Studios
afkstudios.com

NLA
nla.london