9 - The Impacts of UN Peace Operations on Local Housing Markets

Summary

Introduction

This chapter addresses the impacts of UN peace operations on local housing markets. These impacts encompass the effects, both negative and positive, that the presence of highly paid international staff – often associated with UN peacekeeping missions and other field operations – may have on local housing markets. Indeed, anecdotal evidence from peacekeeping mission personnel, as well as many UN staff living “in the field,” suggests that the marked disparity that exists in income levels between “internationals” and “locals” leads to local economic inflation in a number of sectors. By many accounts, the housing sector has been no exception.

This phenomenon amounts to what may be called a kind of “UN inflation” in local housing markets. This trend, while often spurring housing renovation and restoration, at the same time can increase housing costs to such an extent that the housing market becomes skewed, catering to the desires of more affluent renters and owners. Moreover, this initial inflation may be compounded further down the road by foreign investments and intensified real estate developments that are spurred on by higher levels of economic and political stability once hostilities in a country have ended. In these cases, the inflation effect may be so strong as to affect all categories of housing stock – from affordable housing and rental units, to moderate income homes, to luxury housing – raising the cost of housing to such an extent that it is increasingly out of economic reach for average locals.