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Housing

Role of government: Shared Shaped jointly by administrations, markets and society.

66.9Access · regional mean

53.5Experience · regional mean

+13.4Access–experience gap

0.65How closely access and experience move together across countries (correlation)

0.82How closely this domain follows the overall index (correlation)

What the survey asks: access

Availability of suitable housing at an affordable price in the preferred area; a self-contained dwelling.

What the survey asks: experience

Feelings about the accommodation, the preference to stay in the area, views on opportunities to find suitable housing and on the range available.

Findings

Access is high in every state (57.3 in Egypt to 92.6 in Tunisia) and exceeds experience in all ten, by 0.9 points in Morocco and by 15.8 to 26.2 points in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait and Tunisia.

Tunisia leads on both measures (92.6 and 66.4), Lebanon is second (75.2 and 64.8); Kuwait records a large gap (66.4 and 45.0).

What the gap may indicate (inference, not measured)A gap of this kind is consistent with problems of affordability, size, location or neighbourhood quality rather than physical adequacy, which the access items record as high. The survey does not measure which applies.

Administrative implicationHousing policy in the states with the largest gaps can be assessed on affordability and neighbourhood quality, which the access measure does not capture.

Figure 1Housing: access exceeds experience in every country, most in Tunisia

AccessExperienceDotted lines: regional averages

Tunisia92.6 · 66.4 Kuwait66.4 · 45.0 Yemen63.1 · 44.3 Saudi Arabia67.7 · 51.2 Qatar62.2 · 46.4 Jordan65.8 · 53.4 Lebanon75.2 · 64.8 Iraq59.9 · 50.6 Egypt57.3 · 54.4 Morocco58.9 · 58.0

Sorted by the gap between access and experience.

A-SCOPE MENA, Arab Access and Experience Dataset 2026, ten states, N = 1,861. Wave 1 · Release 1.0 · September 2026.Image (PNG)

Figure 2Housing: access and experience rise together

Provision–experience mismatchMaterial-access deficitAdministrative interface deficitCapacity under crisisIntermediate alignment

Dashed line: access equals experienceDotted lines: regional averages

A-SCOPE MENA, Arab Access and Experience Dataset 2026, ten states, N = 1,861. Wave 1 · Release 1.0 · September 2026.Image (PNG)