(November 2013) While developing regions will be the largest markets for new housing construction through 2017, North America and Western Europe are expected to have the fastest growth in construction of new units. Many countries in these regions, including the US, Spain, and Italy, are forecast to post double-digit annual increases in new housing construction from depressed 2012 levels. Despite these rapid gains, new housing construction in 2017 in both North America and Western Europe will remain below 2007 levels. These and other trends are presented in World Housing, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.

 

Worldwide construction of new housing units is expected to increase 3.3 percent per annum to 60.9 million units in 2017. Even though expansion of the world population is projected to decelerate, a declining average household size will still allow the number of households in the world to grow 1.5 percent annually. That increase in households will add to demand for new housing units. In addition, increased rural-to-urban migration, especially in developing countries, will spur construction of new housing units in urban areas.

 

Through 2017, more than 80 percent of new housing construction is projected to take place in the Asia/Pacific and Africa/Mideast regions.

 

In China, the pace of housing construction is expected to decelerate from that of the 2007-2012 period. Nevertheless, China will still have the world’s largest housing stock and is fore-cast to remain the world’s largest market for new housing units through 2017.