In parallel to a sweeping structural reform agenda, Mexico announced in 2013 a new
approach to housing and urban policy. Calling for a more explicit qualitative focus
on housing and the urban environment, the policy shift is a welcome development. Mexico
urbanised more rapidly than most OECD countries in the past half-century, in part
as a result of the expansion of housing finance led by INFONAVIT and facilitated by
policies aiming to expand access to formal housing. Yet the quantitative push for
formal housing came with quantitative costs: inefficient development patterns resulting
in a hollowing out of city centres and the third-highest rate of urban sprawl in the
OECD; increasing motorisation rates; a significant share of vacant housing, with one-seventh
of the housing stock uninhabited in 2010; housing developments with inadequate access
to public transport and basic urban services; and social segregation. How can the
Mexican authorities “get cities right” and develop more competitive, sustainable and
inclusive cities? How can they improve the capacity of the relevant institutions and
foster greater collaboration among them? How can INFONAVIT ensure that its lending
activities generate more sustainable urban outcomes as it also fulfils its pension
mandate and help Mexicans save more for retirement?