Celebrating a decade of impact: The value of a sustained approach

An important part of CAHF’s story is found in its South Africa programme, which started long before CAHF itself, and was inspired by colleagues at the FinMark Trust and the opportunity to track democracy in action in South Africa’s affordable housing sector. From a first study into township residential property markets, each question answered gave rise to new insights, and new questions further as we have continued to explore what it means to make housing finance markets work for the low-income. Twenty-one years later, the programme has grown into so much more and has further inspired our work in Kenya and Nigeria. None of this would have been possible without a sustained approach, enabled by very patient funders, that has truly altered how policymakers, investors, lenders, developers, and others see and work in affordable housing in South Africa. This journey is the compounding of lessons and experience gathered along the way, leading to deeper and more sophisticated insights in support of our mission.