Perform a systematic literature review concisely addressing the following research questions:

1. How effective are housing affordability metrics such as the price-to-earnings ratio, rent-to-income ratio, and surplus to live on method in accurately reflecting the housing affordability challenges in the USA, UK and Australia?
2. What are the distributional effects of housing affordability challenges on different socioeconomic groups, particularly vulnerable and marginalized communities?
3. Based on the analysis of housing affordability metrics and distributional effects, what evidence-based policy recommendations can be formulated to promote inclusive and sustainable affordable housing solutions for present and future generations?

The search strategy and inclusion and exclusion criteria should be as follows:

Search Strategy: A comprehensive search strategy was developed to identify relevant literature from electronic databases, academic journals, grey literature repositories, and conference proceedings. The keywords used for the search included variations related to "affordable housing," "sustainable development," "housing affordability metrics," "implications," and the specific countries of interest ("USA," "UK," "Australia").

Study Selection Criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

Studies addressing the implications of affordable housing scarcity on sustainable development.

Research focusing on the USA, UK, or Australia.

Literature discussing housing affordability metrics and their applicability.

Studies conducted within the last 10 years to ensure relevance.

Exclusion Criteria:

Studies not available in English.

Studies focusing solely on technical aspects of housing construction.

Literature outside the specified timeframe.

Develop a PRISMA flowchart to present results of the same.