The State of Housing Microfinance: A Snapshot of Housing Microfinance Practice around the Globe
This is a publication from the Center for Innovation in Shelter and Finance, Habitat for Humanity International.
‘This report assesses the current state, trends and challenges of housing microfinance based on the answers of 48 financial institutions located across four regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, or LAC; Asia and the Pacific, or AP; Africa and the Middle East, or AME; and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, or ECA. An online survey was used to gather information from the institutions regarding their borrowers, characteristics of the housing microfinance products, performance of their housing portfolios, and prospects for the future of housing microfinance within their institutions. The survey was timely because housing microfinance is an emerging sector within microfinance that has not yet been considerably researched. The data were analysed to determine common themes among the institutions surveyed and further examined to identify any distinctions based on the geography, legal structure and so forth. Furthermore, responding institutions had opportunities to comment, providing the report with qualitative material to support the quantitative findings.
On balance, a majority of responding institutions see housing microfinance as one of their fastest growing products, so opportunities currently outweigh the challenges. Finally, many institutions recognise that housing microfinance is generating social impact that allows low-income families to improve their homes, land rights and living conditions.’