Track: Housing - Urban Planning & Land Policy

Land supply is consistently identified as the primary structural bottleneck for housing delivery, especially in cities where demand, affordability pressures, and planning constraints converge. The session will examine the tools cities use to activate land for housing, addressing how land can be identified, planned, governed, and mobilised through public action, regulatory frameworks, and strategic coordination. It will also consider the role of public land, zoning, land value capture, and inter-institutional cooperation in creating housing opportunities that support affordability, urban quality, social value, and long-term public interest.

Public tools to increase land supply for housing, including land banking, activation of underused land, use of public land, and strategies to generate housing capacity within consolidated cities.

Planning strategies to increase housing supply without urban sprawl, including gentle density, mixed-use development, and transformation of existing urban fabric.

In Japan, the growing number of older people who live alone has made it increasingly difficult for them to find rental housing. Landlords may hesitate because of concerns about isolation and changes in a tenant’s daily life. Tsukuba, one of Japan’s leading science and technology cities, sees this as a challenge that extends beyond housing. It concerns health, security, and human connection. Under the Tsukuba Super Science City initiative, the city aims to use residents’ insights, big data, and advanced technology to expand everyday choices and build an inclusive future city, where housing is better connected to services, community support and residents’ daily needs. This session will explore Tsukuba’s approach to connecting housing, health, and community support, so that older residents and others can continue to live safely and comfortably in the communities they know, while contributing to more inclusive, connected and liveable neighbourhoods that support ageing in place.

Growing housing supply does not always mean expanding cities outward. Densification and mixed-use development can help cities make better use of land, expand housing options, and create more liveable neighbourhoods, but denser cities are not automatically more equitable. If not carefully planned, intensification can accelerate displacement, strain public services, and generate social tensions in existing communities. The session will explore what successful densification looks like in practice, and how cities can integrate affordable housing, public space, and essential services into denser development patterns while maintaining social cohesion and neighbourhood stability.

Public land can play a strategic role in expanding affordable housing, but turning land assets into housing outcomes requires more than land availability. It depends on planning tools, legal frameworks, institutional capacity, and cooperation between public authorities, the construction sector, and social actors. The session will open a reflection on how land policies can support affordable housing delivery while ensuring construction feasibility, urban quality, social value, labour considerations, and long-term public interest, identifying the conditions needed to move from public land ownership to actual housing outcomes.

Planning tools, public land, land banking, and public-private cooperation to turn urban land assets into affordable housing outcomes at scale.

Making land available for affordable housing requires more than identifying suitable sites. In the Barcelona metropolitan context, the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) and the Generalitat de Catalunya play complementary roles in aligning urban planning, land management, infrastructure, regulation and investment to turn available land into housing development opportunities. The dialogue will examine the main barriers that delay or prevent land activation and how both administrations can strengthen coordination to create clearer, faster and more predictable pathways for affordable housing delivery.

Housing markets do not stop at municipal boundaries, but governance often does. As affordability pressures are increasingly shaped by dynamics that extend beyond city limits, it becomes essential to coordinate planning, land strategies, and housing targets across jurisdictions. When land use decisions, planning priorities, and fiscal incentives are not aligned, delivering affordable housing where it is most needed becomes more difficult. The discussion will focus on regional planning tools, shared housing targets, and coordinated land strategies as ways to align local interests with broader metropolitan housing goals, while opening a reflection on the role of inter-municipal cooperation.

Regional planning tools and cooperation across municipalities to address housing challenges at metropolitan scale.

Housing pressures increasingly unfold at metropolitan scale, requiring coordination across municipalities, levels of government and sectors. Drawing on the work of the National Housing Crisis Task Force, Bruce Katz will reflect on the US housing crisis and emerging responses, while Claudio Orrego will bring the perspective of the Santiago Metropolitan Region. The dialogue will explore how metropolitan leadership can align housing, land, infrastructure, and investment around shared territorial goals, and build the institutional cooperation and cross-sector coalitions needed to move from fragmented action to coordinated delivery.