Assemblies - Business Assembly: Delivering Against…

How can the private sector transform the housing value chain to deliver at scale?

The global challenge of delivering adequate housing is intensifying. By 2030, 3 billion people will require access to safe, affordable, and climate-resilient housing, placing pressure on governments, cities, markets, and institutions. Addressing this challenge goes beyond increasing supply to transforming the housing value chain, including regulations and planning , delivery systems, and operations and maintenance. It represents a critical development challenge and one of the largest underserved markets in the global economy, requiring private-sector capacity alongside public action.
This Business Assembly complements the Business Roundtable, which focuses on private capital mobilization and de-risking, and positions the private sector as a driver of housing solutions that are adequate, resilient, and environmentally responsible. Businesses contribute to housing delivery through planning, design, construction, materials, and essential services such as energy, water, digital infrastructure, and transport. Large firms, SMEs, cooperatives, startups, and informal actors together shape housing outcomes, particularly where public resources are constrained.
Housing delivery is being reshaped by innovation across the value chain, including AI-enabled planning, modular construction, digital infrastructure, and circular materials. Scaling these innovations requires enabling conditions such as land and planning readiness, infrastructure provision, regulatory processes, and integrated low-carbon solutions, supported by closer coordination between public authorities and market actors.

Designed as a journey through the housing construction value chain, the Assembly focuses on delivery challenges, with attention to Central Asia and Azerbaijan, where housing systems are transitioning toward market-based models. It offers participants a strategic platform to engage with policymakers and peers, translating innovation and operational expertise into tangible delivery outcomes aligned with global priorities and feeding into the Baku Call to Action.
As a key partner in delivering the New Urban Agenda, the private sector is essential to driving its next decade of implementation by translating policy commitments into scalable, market‑ready housing solutions.

Guiding questions

1. What pre-planning bottlenecks most delay housing delivery, and how can private actors reduce early-stage risk?
2. How do developers, SMEs, cooperatives, and informal builders create value across different market contexts?
3. How are affordability, speed, and low-carbon performance balanced in real projects?
4. In what ways can coordinated service models better integrate water, energy, transport, and digital connectivity with housing construction from the outset?

Expected outcomes

1. Shared, evidence-based understanding of barriers and enabling policy reforms for affordable housing delivery.
2. Proven innovations reducing cost, time, and environmental impact under real market conditions.
3. Strengthened multi-stakeholder collaboration and private-sector commitments for follow-up action.
4. A practical contribution to WUF13 and UN-Habitat's housing agenda.

1. Frame housing delivery as an integrated system, examining how planning, construction, services, and long-term performance interact to determine affordability, resilience, and scale.
2. Identify delivery conditions that enable or constrain private-sector contribution across a diverse ecosystem, including large firms, SMEs, startups, cooperatives, and informal builders, particularly where housing is incremental and self-built.
3. Clarify where private actors deliver value across the housing value chain and what policy and institutional arrangements allow these contributions to scale while safeguarding public interest.
4. Examine how affordability, sustainability, and resilience trade-offs are managed in practice, grounded in regional delivery realities, including Central Asia and the South Caucasus.