Projects

Housing Finance Sector Studies

A series of studies that explore access to housing finance in various African countries, with a particular interest on the link between the functioning of the wider financial market and the performance of housing finance initiatives that meet the immediate housing needs of the poor in Africa.

Pension Assets and Housing

Pension funds often represent the largest portion of domestic savings and, therefore, offer a substantial source of capital for investment in housing. They, unlike banks and some other large institutions, fall into that small group of asset holders with long-term investment horizons, a natural counter-point to the needs of borrowers for housing, who seek long-term finance.

Housing Finance Access Frontier

In 2004, CAHF commissioned the first paper on South Africa’s Housing Finance Access Frontier.  Based on a methodology developed by David Porteous, these reports (published almost annually) explore the extent to which housing loans are accessible to the low-income, Financial Sector Charter target market in South Africa.

Savings

Despite most households in Africa financing their housing through savings, savings for housing is an under-developed area of product innovation and development. There is little research on the scope of savings, currently, for housing purposes and how this is organised by service providers and the savers themselves.

Access Housing

The purpose of the newsletter was to test our collective vision for enhanced access to housing finance in South Africa, and to regularly ask “what would it look like when it works?”.

RDP Assets in South Africa

In 2004, the (then) Department of Housing issued its new policy, Breaking New Ground (BNG), that aimed, among other targets, to unlock the asset value of government subsidised houses, ensure the functioning of the entire residential property market, and create a link between government subsidy markets and the private market so that subsidy beneficiaries could use their houses as a step-up onto the property ladder.

Housing Entrepreneurs in South Africa

In 2006, the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) published a study into housing entrepreneurs in South Africa. The central question of the research was: If the housing asset is not performing as a financial asset for low income earners, might there be a different way homeowners can make money from their housing?

Township Residential Property Markets in South Africa

What role does the resale market play? What are the key challenges that undermine performance? How do we overcome these so that, over time, township properties become part of the wider residential property market?