Mirador Housing Project by MVRDV in Spain aligns with McKinsey s goals for affordable housing. Image © Flickr User Wojtek Gurak; Licensed via Creative Commons

According to global consultancy firm McKinsey Company. the projected cost of providing affordable housing  to 330 million households around the world currently living in substandard accommodation is $16 trillion USD. The firm s latest report, A Blueprint for Addressing the Global Affordable Housing Challenge. assesses critical pathways for providing housing to families across a range of socio-economic backgrounds and nationalities. According to the report, adequate and affordable housing could be out of reach for more than 1.6 billion people within a decade. The comprehensive report examines everything from income to cost of heating, boiling down the data into four key mandates aimed at solving the global housing crisis.