Housing is something all your cities in Civilization 6 need to grow. You must have two more houses than the overall population total in a city to sustain s 100 percent growth from food in Civilization 6. An insufficient amount of housing can considerably slow a city’s population growth by 75 percent. Thus, it’s important to increase housing to sustain good population growth in your nation’s cities. These are the numerous ways you can increase housing in Civilization 6.
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Establish Settlements Beside Rivers
The starting point for increasing housing in Civilization 6 comes when you establish a new settlement. Establishing a settlement beside a river gives it five houses to start with. However, inland cities that aren’t by rivers or coasts only start with two houses. So, try to establish your cities by rivers whenever possible to give them a freshwater source that increases their housing in Civilization 6.
A city by a river
Build Neighborhood Districts
A Neighborhood district is the best source of housing in Civilization 6. Building this district on a city’s tile can increase its housing by between two to six. The amount of housing a Neighborhood district provides depends on the appeal rating of its tile. So, build a Neighborhood on a more appealing tile to get the most houses from it.
To increase the appeal of all a city’s tiles for a Neighborhood, build the Eiffel Tower wonder of the world. The Eiffel Tower increases the appeal of all tiles in your civilization by +2, making it a good wonder for increasing Neighborhood housing in Civilization 6. Planting trees around a Neighborhood district tile will also increase its appeal for housing after unlocking the Conservation civic.
A Neighborhood district
Build Buildings That Increase Housing in Civilization 6
There are numerous buildings you can build that increase housing in Civilization 6. Some of those buildings require districts and others don’t. Build more of these buildings to increase a city’s housing:
- Granary: +2 housing
- Sewers: +2 housing
- Lighthouse (Harbor district): +1 housing
- University: (Campus district): +2 housing
- Barracks (Encampment district): +1 housing
- Pagoda (Holy Site district): +1 housing
Granary building info
Add Improvements to Cities’ Tiles
Farms, plantations, camps, fishing boats, and pastures are all non-unique tile improvements for terrain and resources that provide a small amount of additional housing in Civilization 6. Adding any of those tiles gives your city a +0.5 housing increase. Thus, two such tile improvements amount to one extra house for a city.
India also has a unique Stepwell tile improvement that provides a bigger housing increase. A Stepwell provides at least +1 housing for a city. This increases to +2 housing with the Sanitation technology researched.
A Builder unit
Activate Great People Who Increase Housing
There are three great engineers in the base Civilization 6 with which you can increase housing. Those engineers have effects that grant a city additional housing and amenities when activated. You can increase housing in Civilization 6 with these great people:
- Jane Drew: +4 housing and +3 amenities
- John Roebling: +2 housing +1 amenity
- Mimar Sinan: +1 and +1 amenity
Select Policies for Increasing Housing
You can increase housing with three policy cards in the vanilla Civilization 6 game. However, those cards do have district requirements for boosting housing in cities. These are the policies you can select for increasing housing in Civilization 6:
- Insulae: +1 housing for cities with two districts or more
- Medina Quarter: +2 housing for cities with three districts or more
- New Deal: +4 housing, +2 amenities, and -8 gold for cities with three or more districts
The New Deal policy card
Build Wonders of the World With Housing Bonuses
Angkor Wat and Hanging Gardens are two wonders of the world in the base Civilization 6 that increase housing in all cities. Hanging Gardens is the best one to build for that purpose because that gives each of your cities two more houses and increases population growth by 15 percent. Angkor Wat gives each city one more house and an additional citizen.
Select the Monarchy Government
Selecting the Monarchy government for your civilization enables you to increase housing with city walls. This government has an effect that gives a city +1 housing for each level of wall it has. You can build Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance walls in one city with the required technology researched. All three levels of walls in a city will give it a +3 housing increase when Monarchy is your selected government.
The Monarchy government
Become the Suzerain of Mohenjo-Daro
The cultural city-state of Mohenjo-Daro has a good Suzerain bonus that increases housing in cities. Becoming Suzerain of Mohenjo activates a bonus that gives all your cities the full +5 housing from water. This can amount to a +2 or +3 housing increase in cities that aren’t beside rivers in your civilization. So, it’s worth becoming the Suzerain of Mohenjo if you haven’t been able to establish cities beside many rivers.
The City States sidebar
Increasing housing in Civilization 6 in the ways outlined above will keep your cities’ populations growing steadily so long as they have sufficient food yields. This will enable you to build new districts sooner since they have population caps. You’ll also reap the benefit of having generally bigger cities, such as higher science and cultural output. So, don’t let a lack of housing hold back growth in your civilization.
