A recent study by the Colombian Chamber of Construction (Camacol) reveals that the percentage of people living in informal housing in Bogota has grown considerably and alarmingly over the past seven years. In this regard, the document states that the number of households considered informal — stemming from illegal invasions or constructions without essential services and established legality — rose from 22% in 2018 to 35% in 2025.
This increase — 13 percentage points in seven years — reflects profound transformations in the urban structure, driven by the economic and social dynamics of Colombia’s capital. The implications go beyond the physical lack of housing: There are effects on access to services, legal security, educational opportunities and, in many cases, on the dignity of those who live in these true shelters of misery.
Informal housing and its risks are increasing in Bogota, Colombia
The analysis by Camacol takes into account five dimensions to define what constitutes informal housing, which is not only housing built illegally on occupied public land. In this sense, it considers access to public services, material conditions, formal tenure, occupancy density (overcrowding), and the safety of the environment.
According to its assessment, the city has 12,324 blocks classified as of informal origin, areas where many homes lack official water, sewage, or electricity connections, are built with nonregulatory materials, and in some cases are erected on land with physical risks, such as mountainsides or near water sources.
This expansion is not limited to the traditional and peripheral edges of the city. Although informality has historically been concentrated in marginal settlements, the report warns that it is also observed in intermediate areas, where urbanization processes have taken place without fully complying with technical standards or guarantees of efficient services.
Demographic pressure, limited availability of formal land for construction and, especially, the limited payment capacity of many households combine to foster this mode of occupation. With an insufficient formal supply, more and more citizens choose — or are forced — to live in informal housing.
In this respect, it is also necessary to consider the number of people who arrive in Bogota every day, victims of forced displacement from the interior of the country, particularly due to the internal armed conflict.
Although the figure has dropped considerably since the signing of the 2016 peace agreement — from 150 people per day in 2013 to about 115 today — the absorption of internal migration by Bogota and other large cities, coming from rural areas, remains very high and is, along with Venezuelan migration, the main migratory flow arriving in the Colombian capital.
Social and economic gaps behind the walls
Living in informal housing is not only a matter of physical structure: It involves a series of inequalities that affect people’s lives. In this regard, the study reports that monetary poverty is nearly twice as high in households living in informal housing compared to those in formal housing. This difference translates into lower disposable income, fewer possibilities to improve housing conditions, and limitations in covering basic needs.
The impact on education is also alarming: School absenteeism in households with informal housing is 2.4 times higher than in formal households. This limits the opportunities of children and adolescents to develop sustainable life projects and puts their social mobility at risk.
Beyond economic and educational factors, there are also legal and social aspects. Many homes lack property titles or formal contracts, preventing residents from accessing loans, improvement programs, or subsidies, and limiting their ability to invest in their housing.
Although institutions have legalized entire neighborhoods that were originally informal over the past decades, the situation continues to grow. In addition, precarious infrastructure — water, sanitation, electricity — and possible overcrowding worsen health and well-being issues.
The potential of formalization: an opportunity amid the crisis
Although the situation is serious, the Camacol report identifies a possibility for change. According to its data, around 492,000 families currently living in informal conditions would have the economic capacity to cover the monthly payment for a formal home — particularly one of the so-called priority interest housing (VIP) — as long as they gained access to available public subsidies.
This suggests that lack of demand does not seem to be the main problem, but rather the limited adequate supply, informality in titling processes, and the insufficient coverage of subsidies compared to real demand. If public policies manage to align these subsidies with the social housing market, a path could open toward reducing informality.
Camacol’s manager, Edwin Chirivi, has pointed out that formal housing is an essential tool for closing social and economic gaps. For this, he argues, effective coordination is required between public entities and the real estate sector to increase the production of social housing with appropriate technical standards and a realistic offer for those currently living on the margins.
Today, 35 out of every 100 households in Bogota live in informal housing, a 13-point increase in the last seven years. The increase is worrying, especially in a context of crisis in the construction sector — particularly hard-hit over the past four years — which also affects social housing. This is why the work of institutions — which has proven insufficient so far — must focus on something as basic as the dignity of housing for an excessively large portion of the capital’s residents.