Overview of Housing Finance Sector in Zambia
FinMark Trust held a seminar on housing finance in Zambia, on the 14th of May 2013 in Lusaka, Zambia. The seminar was held to launch a study recently commissioned by FinMark Trust and undertaken by Knight Frank, Planet Finance and the Peoples Process on Housing and Poverty in Zambia. This document is the presentation given by Russell Drummond of Knight Frank.
The study found that the residential mortgage sector in Zambia is enjoying rapid growth. Between 2008 and 2012, the commercial banks mortgage portfolio grew from ZMW 698 million, ($139.6 million), to ZMW 1.208 billion, ($241.6 million); a 256% increase. This is only part of the picture of the housing finance landscape. Conventional (i.e. secured) mortgage finance remains comparatively expensive, with interest rates averaging 18.8% (2011), and leading to most groups seeking alternative, cheaper options. The most common route to home ownership is the incremental self-build route, often with individuals using cyclical loans to reduce the overall cost of borrowing. The study reveals that there are a multiple of supply-side actors engaged in the sector, from public, private and tertiary spheres, with non-conventional products, reaching even the low-income sectors. Access to finance is by no means universal, with individuals across all income groups subject to constraints of varying degrees. Sector risk and market constraints have limited the channelling of funds towards housing finance, and kept borrowing costs high. Nevertheless, there is the potential for market expansion, and evidence of existing innovations with the potential to be scaled up to serve a wider cross-section of the population.
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