Happy holiday reading list
This has been a busy year and there have been lots of developments at FinMark Trust’s Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa. As you wind down the year and think of the holidays, I thought you might be interested in a holiday reading list… Here are some recommendations:
We’ve just launched the Housing Subsidy Assets study. The documents are the culmination of an 18-month research programme, and offer extensive analysis of the performance of government-subsidised housing assets in South Africa. Visit http://staging.signpost.co.za/housingfinanceafrica-old/projects/rdp-assets-study/
You can also find the 2011 edition of the Housing Finance in Africa Yearbook. This is the second edition, and provides profiles of 28 countries and one region. This is a nice report to keep at your bedside, or the poolside: short profiles exploring the state and opportunities of housing and housing finance markets across Africa. Download the yearbook from http://staging.signpost.co.za/housingfinanceafrica-old/document/2011-housing-finance-yearbook/
A particularly interesting and innovative piece of research undertaken this year, was the analysis of credit bureau data to determine loan performance by market segment. The short report suggests that loans in the affordable (former Financial Sector Charter target) market do not perform worse than the wider market – and in fact in some instances, may perform better. Visit http://staging.signpost.co.za/housingfinanceafrica-old/document/housing-finance-fsc-mortgage-loan-performance/
If it catches your fancy, you can also spend some time exploring property price dynamics in South Africa’s affordable neighbourhoods. Visit our Affordable Land + Housing Data Centre on www.alhdc.org.za and see how the 58% of the property market that is not so often reported in the press actually functions.
There’s lots more, and I invite you to explore our website to find more. I would also be grateful for your recommendations – other work that we should be reading, websites we should be surfing, organisations we should be following…
May your holidays be happy, warm and peaceful. We are looking forward to working with you again in 2012.