With the increasing number of Urban Dwellers in Asian cities and increase in per day to an unprecedented level, the cityscape in the Asia is in need of meticulous planning and innovative affordable housing schemes to meet people’s ever rising demands.

The twenty first century is poised to be an Asian Century, with Asia becoming the world’s dormant economic powerhouse. With the globalization of economies, the trend towards economic growth and urbanization are more dominant in the Asia than anywhere else in the world. In the past 3 decades, the urbananized population in the APAC region has gone up by more than 260% and in the coming 3 decades, it is set to increase by a minimum of another 250%.

This exponential increase in urbanization is fueled by historic economic growth and even more rapid industrialization. With the increase in the number of mega-cities and large cities ever increasing, this trend will only see continued positive momentum.

With this trend leading to growing number of urban poor, most governments have attempted implementing housing programs aimed at this category. The rapidly deteriorating housing conditions in slum and squatter areas, among other factors, however, have negated such efforts to improve their quality of life.

What comes to fore from these stories is the need for appropriate planning and land policies to effectively provide housing to the poor. In addition, the need for city-planning and management policies to be in sync with the designed policies is crucial to obtain and maintain the adequate shelter necessities to the urban poor.

How well Asian Cities of the present function as a system will determine the future of Asia.