Worldwide construction of new housing units is forecast to increase 3.0 percent annually to 62.6 million units in 2019. While global population growth is expected to decelerate, declines in average household size will still allow the number of households in the world to increase 1.6 percent annually, boosting demand for new housing. In addition, increased rural-to-urban migration, especially in developing countries, will spur construction of new housing units in urban areas. These and other trends are presented in World Housing, a new study from The Freedonia Group Inc., a Cleveland-based market research firm.
North America and Western Europe are expected to experience the most rapid growth in new housing units through 2019. In both cases, gains will be off a depressed 2014 base, with many countries recovering from the collapse of housing bubbles. Several of the countries that experienced the most severe downturns, including the United States, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, will experience double-digit annual increases in new housing units, although in most cases 2019 levels will remain substantially below those in 2004.