As they seek to absorb and serve their expanding and ever more prosperous citizens, many cities of the emerging world have already engaged in a residential and commercial building and infrastructure boom. Although the global economic downturn has delayed some investment projects and has created a highly uncertain near-term investment climate, vigorous capacity building is set to resume. We expect cities to need to build more than 80,000 square kilometers of residential and commercial floor space by 2025 including building replacement— equivalent to the entire land area of Austria. This new building capacity is only one part of a range of physical capital investment in cities globally that is estimated
to rise from nearly $10 trillion per year today to more than $20 trillion per year in 2025.