A common sight on the outskirts of many of Mexico’s cities is thousands of small, single-family houses sitting isolated inside gated communities. Often disjointed and disconnected, these housing developments stretch for kilometers and, until recently, extended into rural and undeveloped lands as well. For the last few decades, these types of developments have been a leading cause of unchecked urban sprawl in Mexico. This growth is also the reason behind a substantial increase in carbon emissions from the transport and construction sectors nationally. The vast majority of these housing developments have been financed by the Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers (INFONAVIT), the Government of Mexico’s main housing lender and the third largest mortgage institution in the world.
The post Reshaping Mexico’s Approach to Housing and Urban Sprawl first appeared on Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.
