UN: Ukraine faces unprecedented housing crisis due to war
17 November 2025 02:17
During the full-scale war in Ukraine, more than 236,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged, and more than 2.5 million housing units (about 10 percent of the housing stock) were damaged or inaccessible to varying degrees due to the armed conflict.
This is stated in a report published on Sunday, November 16, by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at the UN, which characterizes the situation as an “unprecedented housing crisis,” "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The report indicates that the availability and price of housing has been affected by a lack of municipal housing, combined with an insufficiently regulated rental market and massive flight from the war.
According to IOM experts, about 10.6 million Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes, almost a quarter of the country’s pre-war population. Most of them went abroad. Two-thirds of the 3.7 million refugees who have not left the country are having difficulty paying for new housing. Many have exhausted their family savings as a result of their dependence on the rental market,” the report’s authors note.
The report also notes that the financial burden of renting continues to weigh heavily on people who have fled their homes, as they need to spend 50 percent or more of their income on rent.
