More than 1.1 billion people now live in informal settlements, the highest figure on record. Among the reasons, UN-Habitat lists unplanned urbanisation and inequality, but also something rarely counted as a housing problem: bureaucratic frameworks that make formal housing harder to deliver. When the rules move too slowly, people do not stop needing a home. They find another way, or they wait.

Waiting is the hidden cost of housing. Every home travels a long road, from plan to permit, from permit to construction, from an empty flat to the household that needs it, and time can be lost at every stage. In Cologne, drawing up a development plan alone takes three to four years on average. In Oslo, around 12,400 homes already have approved plans but still lack a building application. In New York, more than 6,000 empty public housing apartments were waiting to be readied for new tenants in late 2025, and turning one around took almost a year on average. Delays like these are part of why the global housing shortfall grew from 251 million homes in 2010 to 288 million in 2023, even as vacant land and housing persist alongside unmet need.

The answer is not to lower standards, but to find where time is lost and win it back. UN-Habitat points in that direction: the countries that expanded supply most successfully combined sustained investment with stronger planning institutions and more efficient regulation, while also improving the stock that already stands. The European Union is preparing its own package to speed up both permitting and renovation.

The six cities in this chapter each work on a different stretch of that road. Cologne starts with the rules themselves and what they add to the cost of a home. Los Angeles has cut the permit to 60 days, Atlanta has built a new institution to move faster on public land, and New York has rewritten its zoning rulebook. Oslo shows the gap that remains between approval and construction, and Barcelona works on the final stretch, between residents and public housing. Speed is not the goal in itself, only the condition for homes to arrive while they are still needed.

• What cities can learn: Time is a cost, and the permit is where a city controls it. Fast-tracking approvals works, but it only pays off if financing and construction can keep pace.

Los Angeles has turned speed into policy. Since December 2022, projects in which every home is affordable must be approved within 60 days — other multifamily projects usually take six to nine months —, without public hearings or council votes. By late 2025, 490 projects with more than 40,000 affordable homes had used the fast track, and the city council unanimously made it permanent. Speed, however, exposed the next bottleneck: only 44 of those projects have reached construction, as many entitled projects lacked the number to secure financing.

Learn more: Los Angeles City Planning: Executive Directive 1

• What cities can learn: Rules can shape the cost of a home as much as materials or land. Reviewing standards together with those who build, and giving the changes an expiry date, makes simplification measurable and reversible.

Cologne started from an uncomfortable diagnosis: high building standards meant that new homes for ordinary earners were only affordable with public subsidies. In January 2026 it brought around 150 experts from the administration and the housing industry to the same table. Together they identified potential savings of up to €2,700 per square metre of living space — spread across federal, regional and local rules — without compromising safety, sustainability or usability. The measures that depend on Cologne itself — 22 in total — are now before the council. They would apply until the end of 2030, when they will be evaluated before deciding whether to keep them. In parallel, in March 2026 the council approved the so-called Bau-Turbo, a fast-track procedure that allows the city to approve housing projects much sooner than before.

Learn more: Stadt Köln: Affordable building

• What cities can learn: It points at the right problem. Oslo has room for the homes it needs, and its new plan tries to make it easier to actually build them.

Oslo knows it has room to build. Around 12,400 homes sit in approved detailed plans that only need a building application, and around 38,500 more are included in area plans still awaiting detailed zoning. As the city’s own planners point out, a growing reserve can reflect a slowdown in construction as much as new approvals. Its response is a shorter, simpler and more flexible land-use plan, designed to make it easier to take projects from idea to construction. On paper, it makes room for up to 121,000 new homes, with a buffer of 17,000 to 44,000 above estimated needs to 2040. The proposal went through public consultation until August and still awaits a final vote by the city council.

Learn more: Oslo kommune: A simpler plan for more homes

• What cities can learn: When ordinary procedures move too slowly, a dedicated public developer with land, financing tools and a clear mandate can move faster. Bringing every public landowner around one table, and one target, matters just as much.

In Atlanta, the city has built new tools to speed up housing on public land. In 2022, the mayor brought together the housing authority, the transit agency, the school district and other public bodies in a strike force designed to break down silos. The city then partnered with the housing authority to create a public development corporation that turns publicly owned land into mixed-income housing. In 2025, the city council approved a $10 million loan for the corporation to accelerate affordable housing on public land, along with an agreement to develop surplus city-owned sites. All of it serves a single target, 20,000 affordable homes by 2030.

Learn more: City of Atlanta: Putting public land to work

• What cities can learn: Sometimes the obstacle is not the procedure but the rulebook itself. A citywide zoning reform allows a little more housing in every neighbourhood, from homes above shops to smaller apartments.

In New York, the city went after the rulebook itself. Approved in December 2024, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity updates zoning so the city can build a little more housing in every neighbourhood. Getting there took time: the proposal went to more than 175 community board meetings and a 15-hour public hearing. The reform lets buildings add at least 20% more homes if the extra ones are affordable, allows housing above shops in some lower-density areas and eases parking requirements. The city expects around 82,000 new homes over 15 years, and one year on it reports nearly 23% more homes permitted than the year before approval.

Learn more: NYC Planning: City of Yes for Housing Opportunity

• What cities can learn: Bureaucracy also stands between people and the homes that already exist. Making it simple, clear and fully online to apply for public housing is part of housing policy, not an afterthought.

In Barcelona, the city has turned its attention to the final stretch of the road: the one between residents and the public housing system. In June 2026, it relaunched its housing website with a simpler structure and plainer language, and made registration for the city’s register of applicants for protected housing fully online. Its virtual assistant, HABOT 2.0, developed by the municipal technology and housing institutes, answers questions on rental rules, rental assistance and calls for protected housing using only official, validated sources, and reached an 85.49% acceptance rate in testing with users. The project is part of Barcelona Fàcil, the city’s plan to simplify administrative procedures. ●

Learn more: Ajuntament de Barcelona: new housing website and HABOT 2.0