Ipsos Group S.A., whose name derives from the Latin expression, ipso facto, is a multinational market research and consulting firm headquartered in Paris, has issued its first edition of the Ipsos Housing Monitor. This 30-country study explores people`s perceptions of their own personal housing situation and aspirations, and what they think about efforts to improve things. The survey has been prepared in response to the growing attention given to housing and the influence it has on economies, societies and politics.

For several years it has become common to hear and read about national housing crises and the World Economic Forum has described a “global housing crisis.” Public opinion matters to people as consumers of housing and citizens paying taxes and benefiting, or not, from government action. The housing crisis is related to several factors including the supply of new housing, rising house prices and rents, poor housing conditions, insufficient protections for renters, and rising homelessness. The nature and extent of these varies between different regions and markets (as well as within them), but our survey finds much commonality in public opinion. For example, housing aspirations are broadly similar across different countries and generations; home ownership is the dream. All age groups, everywhere, think rising house prices are not a good thing. Housing ‘haves’ are able to see the bigger picture and are sympathetic to the plight of pricedout ‘have nots’.

The sharpest difference exists between homeowners and renters. Tenants of private and public sector landlords are less likely than homeowners to say they are happy with their own housing situation and that of their country’s. They are also more likely to be worried about affordability despite the high rates of interest and borrowing faced by mortgage-holders in many countries. Again, there is some nuance. For example, the gap in satisfaction is much narrower where renters have relatively strong rights, such as in Netherlands, Germany and Sweden.

See IPSOS Housing Monitor 2025

Watch video: Generation rent: How youth are battling the global housing crisis (Aljazeera)