Kuwait's Answer to Scarce Housing: More Villas, More Sprawl

Kuwait’s government is incredibly generous with its 1.3 million citizens. It provides not only health care and education through the university level, but also employment in the public sector and a house for every family for a nominal price. And not just any house—a villa built on a 4,300-square-foot plot of land.

Kuwait’s oil wealth has allowed the government to create such a welfare state, and for decades it has functioned pretty well. But in recent years, the number of requests for houses has far outstripped the number of houses being built. At present, more than 100,000 people—particularly young people, as more than half of Kuwaitis are under 25—are waiting for their government-supplied abode. (Though the government offers a 4,300-square-foot apartment as an alternative to a villa, few Kuwaitis are interested in this option.)