Housing finance

Housing is a key object of financialization. There is a small but growing literature on the financialization of housing that has demonstrated how housing is a central aspect of financialization. Despite the varied analyses of the financialization of housing and the importance of housing to financialization, the relations between housing and financialization remain under-researched and under-theorized. The financialization of housing is not so much a specific from of financialization, as it transcends several of the different forms of financialization. Housing systems, in particular, differ widely across the globe, which implies that housing financialization will be inherently variegated, path-dependent and uneven. In this introduction to the Symposium, I will discuss how the articles in this Symposium contribute to the literature on the financialization of housing. Housing has entered a post-Fordist, neoliberal and financialized regime. Both mortgaged homeownership and subsidized rental housing increasingly are there to keep financial markets going, rather than being facilitated by those markets. There is little evidence that the global financial crisis has resulted in a de-financialization of housing. There are common trajectories within uneven and variegated financialization rather than radically different and completely unrelated forms of housing financialization.
Key words: housing, financialization, mortgage markets, rental housing, home ownership, state and public sector

Purpose -The main purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of mushā rakah mutanā qisah (MM; diminishing partnership) technique and its potentials for Islamic financial institutions. Design/methodology/approach -Based on an extensive literature review, this paper aims to highlight, explain and discuss the basic principles underlying implementation of MM and its distinctive features when compared to other modes of finance. Findings -Islamic banks, throughout the years, developed several modes of finance which are more or less similar to their conventional counterparts. In fact, al-Bay c bithaman al-ā jil (BBA) and murā bahah are the two instruments most commonly used by Islamic banks and financial institutions. Investment and financing through the profit and loss sharing instruments is almost nonexistent within the Islamic financial system. MM technique is an alternative financial instrument available for Islamic banks. It is a relatively new and very little used product available for Islamic banks. The paper claims that MM is more in line with Shari'ah teachings and as such should be used more by Islamic financial institutions. The study indicates that MM possibly has a comparative advantage for both financier and the customer when compared with conventional loans and BBA. Research limitations/implications -As a relatively new and untested mode of finance, the paper offers a theoretical overview only. Further studies should discuss more practical issues that keep banks away from utilizing MM more efficiently. Originality/value -The comprehensive overview of the MM and underlying issue discussed in this paper is a very good foundation for further studies on the topic. It gives a clear theoretical base for practical implementation of MM.

A building construction project is a high risk activity which must be managed effectively in all stages, in order to avoid delays and cost overruns, which in most cases are part of it, and a common problem. These problems occur frequently during project lifetime leading to disputes and litigation. There are numerous factors causing delays and cost overrun in building construction projects, and in order to mitigate these causes; the study aimed at identifying the mitigation measures in dealing with delay and cost overrun in public building project in DarEs -Salaam, Tanzania. This research presents a list of construction delay and cost overrun causes and mitigation retrieved from literature. The feedback from building construction experts was obtained through questionnaires. Subsequently, a questionnaire containing list of construction delays and cost overrun mitigations retrieved from literature was prepared. The questionnaire survey was distributed to 75 building construction experts, from the clients, consultants, and contractor's organizations side. Out of 75 distributed questionnaires, only 49 were returned. The data were analysed using Microsoft excel and ranked according to mean score for contractor, consultant and client. The general response from both parties were analysed, high scored factors were discussed. Effective project planning and scheduling; design change should be controlled; effective coordination and communication between parties; client, promptly paying the parties progressively; having accurate cost estimates; appoint competent site and project manager; comprehensive contract administration; ensuring prompt resolution in design change queries, issues and authorization report; efficient and effective planning time schedule for material procurement delivery process; developing effective strategic planning for solving identified risks; and ensuring on the timely availability of finance; were identified as the most effective mitigation measures in dealing with delay and cost overrun in public building project, due to having a mean score above 4.00.

This paper aims is to provide an understanding of the housing market situation in Ghana, the financing instruments available and the challenges faced by low-income households in accessing housing finance. The gap between incomes and house prices is shown to be huge across different groups in Ghana. It is also demonstrated that conventional mortgage finance is inaccessible to low-income households due to high payment-to-income ratio, the lack of cash for down-payment and long repayment period. Three alternative housing finance strategies are proposed. First, practical approaches to financing housing development through the spatial planning system are discussed.  Second, strategies to develop and make Housing Microfinance accessible to low income households are discussed. Third, strategies to mobilize labour for housing development at reduced costs through community-based initiatives have been recommended. Together, these alternative strategies can provide sustainable and affordable housing finance options for low-income housing development in Ghana.

There are two dominant discourses on finance: in the first, finance is the great enabler; in the second, finance is the great divider, the driver of social exclusion. What starts out as finance as an enabler can easily turn into finance as a divider. If someone's mortgage loan application is accepted, they may see finance as the enabler of homeownership, but if the loan conditions are predatory in nature, finance becomes a means of extraction. This paper focuses on two ways in which housing finance creates harm: redlining and predatory lending. This paper does not discuss new empirical research on redlining or predatory lending, but provides a selective overview of studies documenting these two forms of housing finance as harm. These two forms of housing finance share a number of characteristics related to exclusion, social groups, geography and local impact. Mortgage redlining is a form of place-based discrimination from housing finance. By delineating neighborhoods in which lenders do not grant mortgage loans they exclude households who want to buy a house and those who cannot sell their house. Predatory lending is a subset of subprime lending. Predatory loans are designed to exploit vulnerable borrowers. The rise of predatory lending had little to do with the mantra of emerging homeownership markets. In conclusion, mortgage lenders have the power to harm potential borrowers through direct exclusion (mortgage redlining) or indirect exclusion through overpriced loans (subprime and in particular predatory lending). 
Keywords: mortgage finance, redlining, subprime lending, predatory loans, social exclusion, homeownership

This is a paper prepared by me for the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore-CRERI Real Estate Research Initiative. The paper is intended as a overview of the affordable housing sector with special emphasis on India. Affordable Housing is fast taking centrestage in the national agenda. In India, affordable housing is a term largely used in the urban context.Affordable housing refers to any housing that meets some form of affordability criterion, which could be income level of the family, size of the dwelling unit or affordability in terms of EMI size or ratio of house price to annual income.
The demand drivers for affordable housing are several.Alongside the growth of the urban population, rising incomes have led to the expansion of the middle class. This has led to a spike in demand for housing that is affordable but includes basic amenities. The agencies working in the affordable housing sector can be classified into . the public sector and the private sector. Both are dogged by issues such as scarcity of land,scarcity of marketable land parcels,titling Issues, rising costs and regulatory concerns. The way forward calls for a collaborative multi-pronged multi-stakehoder approach.

The housing crisis of the 2000s exposed fissures in the U.S. financial system. These shortcomings allowed the system to become encumbered with excessive risk and ultimately triggered the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. In the wake of the deep recession, many academics and researchers wrote post-mortems identifying key causes of the crisis. In 2010, Congress passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, also known as Dodd-Frank, and President Obama signed it into law. It sought to address many of the identified problems by reforming regulations pertaining to mortgage lending, securities trading, banking, insurance, consumer protection, and corporate governance. This chapter explores three causes of the crisis that the regulatory reforms have yet to fully address. First, we highlight challenges that prevented credit rating agencies from being a useful source of information for mortgage-backed securities investors to impose effective market discipline on issuers. Second, we show the failure of several institutional arrangements designed to prevent firm owners and managers from looting the institutions over the short run at the expense of shareholders, who are expecting a maximization of profits over the longer term. Finally, we consider markets from the consumer perspective. We note the tension between overcoming market tendencies to ration credit and exposing households with limited resources to risks associated with products that can broaden access to credit by easing borrowing constraints. In each case, we offer possible strategies for more effectively tackling these problems. Regarding ratings agencies, we propose a new structure where agency-investor conflicts of interest are removed and agencies only assess " ratings eligible " products. Reforms in executive compensation, covenant banking for investment banks, and increased penalties for looting that make criminal liability a real deterrent for firm owners and managers are possible avenues to reduce the likelihood of looting by insiders. Third, we argue that significant investments should be made in financial education to make consumers an additional bulwark – to go with laws and regulations – against abuses and bad outcomes.

Many scholars interpret the contraction in social housing and the expansion of home ownership as reflections of a reduced role for the state and an increase in the marketisation of housing. This paper challenges this interpretation by pointing to two weaknesses in its conceptual underpinnings. One is its failure to distinguish between housing as capital (traded in the purchase market for dwellings) and housing as a service (traded in the rental market for accommodation), leading to an underestimate of the extent and diversity of continuing state intervention in housing. The other problem is a narrow focus on the balance between market and state which neglects the role of self-provisioning in the household as a form of production. The alternative view proposed here is, first, that forms of state intervention in the markets for housing capital and services are so diverse and complex that a more comprehensive analysis is needed before conclusions on trends in the state's overall role can be reached, and, second, that while home ownership reflects a dominant role for the market in the distribution of housing capital, it reflects a familialisation of housing services -it enables households to self-provision themselves with accommodation and thereby remove this service from the realm of both market exchange and state provision. The paper also suggests that the welfare benefit of home ownership lies not only in its widely recognised social insurance effect but also in the efficiency and cost-reduction effects which self-provisioning of housing provides.

AbstractDo globalization and Europeanization lead to the deterritorialization of European mortgage markets? Neither economic globalization nor EU policies have resulted in one European mortgage market. The various European mortgage markets are still quite different from one another in many respects. In most countries national lenders continue to dominate the market even though regulation itself has been internationalized to some extent. Deterritorialization has been slow for various reasons: tax, law, cultural and structural differences play a part, but the limited market share of mortgage intermediaries and the unequal treatment of foreign mortgage lenders in some countries also form a barrier. Path-dependent trajectories are highly important, but can sometimes be bypassed by global processes or downplayed by the entry of foreign firms. The secondary mortgage market is increasingly becoming globalized, while most primary mortgage markets remain largely national. The financial crisis may temporarily slow down securitization, while simultaneously both decreasing and increasing the globalization of mortgage regulation, firms and markets.Do globalization and Europeanization lead to the deterritorialization of European mortgage markets? Neither economic globalization nor EU policies have resulted in one European mortgage market. The various European mortgage markets are still quite different from one another in many respects. In most countries national lenders continue to dominate the market even though regulation itself has been internationalized to some extent. Deterritorialization has been slow for various reasons: tax, law, cultural and structural differences play a part, but the limited market share of mortgage intermediaries and the unequal treatment of foreign mortgage lenders in some countries also form a barrier. Path-dependent trajectories are highly important, but can sometimes be bypassed by global processes or downplayed by the entry of foreign firms. The secondary mortgage market is increasingly becoming globalized, while most primary mortgage markets remain largely national. The financial crisis may temporarily slow down securitization, while simultaneously both decreasing and increasing the globalization of mortgage regulation, firms and markets.RésuméLa mondialisation et l'européanisation conduisent-elles à la déterritorialisation des marchés hypothécaires européens? Ni la mondialisation économique ni les politiques de l'UE n'ont produit un marché unique européen du crédit hypothécaire. Au sein de l'Europe, les marchés hypothécaires restent très différents à plusieurs titres. Dans la plupart des pays, les établissements de prêt nationaux dominent encore le marché, même si on a relativement internationalisé la réglementation. La déterritorialisation se fait lentement pour plusieurs raisons; fiscalité, législation, différences culturelles et structurelles pèsent, mais la part de marché restreinte qu'occupent les intermédiaires en prêts hypothécaires, ainsi que le traitement inégal réservé aux prêteurs étrangers dans certains pays, constituent également un obstacle. Les chemins de dépendance sont particulièrement importants, bien qu'ils puissent parfois être contournés par des processus mondialisés, ou être minimisés par l'accès de sociétés étrangères. En matière de crédit hypothécaire, le marché secondaire se mondialise de plus en plus, tandis que les marchés primaires demeurent en grande partie nationaux. La crise financière va peut-être ralentir temporairement la titrisation, tout en atténuant et renforçant parallèlement la mondialisation de la réglementation, des sociétés et des marchés du crédit hypothécaire.La mondialisation et l'européanisation conduisent-elles à la déterritorialisation des marchés hypothécaires européens? Ni la mondialisation économique ni les politiques de l'UE n'ont produit un marché unique européen du crédit hypothécaire. Au sein de l'Europe, les marchés hypothécaires restent très différents à plusieurs titres. Dans la plupart des pays, les établissements de prêt nationaux dominent encore le marché, même si on a relativement internationalisé la réglementation. La déterritorialisation se fait lentement pour plusieurs raisons; fiscalité, législation, différences culturelles et structurelles pèsent, mais la part de marché restreinte qu'occupent les intermédiaires en prêts hypothécaires, ainsi que le traitement inégal réservé aux prêteurs étrangers dans certains pays, constituent également un obstacle. Les chemins de dépendance sont particulièrement importants, bien qu'ils puissent parfois être contournés par des processus mondialisés, ou être minimisés par l'accès de sociétés étrangères. En matière de crédit hypothécaire, le marché secondaire se mondialise de plus en plus, tandis que les marchés primaires demeurent en grande partie nationaux. La crise financière va peut-être ralentir temporairement la titrisation, tout en atténuant et renforçant parallèlement la mondialisation de la réglementation, des sociétés et des marchés du crédit hypothécaire.

Given the large size of India’s population, housing has become a general necessity but it also has
the potential to pull the economy on a faster growth track. Housing construction sector is one of
the most important and fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy. This study looks at urban
housing that is dependent on availability of low cost land, credit & finance for construction and
legal issues. Inadequate availability of land is a major factor affecting housing construction. This
is due to complex regulations, various legal procedures and controls that restrict efficient
functioning of land markets. In addition, the existing structure of housing finance is inadequate
to meet the needs of such high demand for housing. Thus, the private sector is becoming
increasingly important. The section on financial issues discusses the reforms and concessions
that the government has introduced to make financing cheaper and easier. Chapter 4 of the study
first reviews the existing land related laws and then examines the success or failure of the recent
reforms in these laws. Besides the above core issues related to housing sector, the study also
looks at the Indian model of housing development and compares it to other international
models. The last section of this study suggests reforms to central government to develop an
efficient and systematic land & housing policy.

The financialization of housing has been increasingly identified as an important driver of social and economic change in contemporary capitalism. Focusing on the Brazilian context, this paper considers the extent to which recent changes in housing regulations, policies and markets confirm or challenge narratives about the financialization of housing in the international academic debate. I argue that while many of the trends stressed in the literature are apparent, more extreme processes of financialization within the Brazilian housing sector remain limited not only because of institutional and regulatory constraints, path dependence or political resistance, but because of fundamental structural conditions of Brazil's position as a peripheral economy. Three different but mutually reinforcing processes are scrutinized in order to evaluate how the financialization of housing and its limits manifest in Brazil: the re-regulation of the real estate-financial sector initiated in the 1990s; the changing funding patterns among real estate companies since the mid 2000s; and the increasing commodification of housing induced by a large scale and heavily subsidized housing program launched in 2009.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) is the current and greatest housing programs in India with a funding provision of $28 Billion. It is a multifaceted program offering a variety of options and products to the wide socioeconomic sections of the population. However, the effectiveness of PMAY in meeting the housing shortage is different from fulfilling the housing needs. This paper attempts to assess the PMAY from housing adequacy perspective. The concept of Housing Adequacy as developed by thr IHS Rotterdam permits an appraisal of housing programs beyond the quantitative supply-demand notion. It provides holistic understanding of the effectiveness of housing projects or schemes in not just quantitative aspects but also qualitative aspects. The housing adequacy infers to the idea of housing justice to the beneficiaries.

""This article addresses a gap in the international political economy (IPE) literature on housing finance by highlighting the ways in which the deepening of mortgage debt is part of a broader attempt to individualise and (re)privatise relations of social reproduction under neoliberalism. While the extension and deepening of debt has been underpinned by policies and discourses that assume the formal equality of individuals, the attempt to erase the gendered subject in the context of ongoing inequalities in paid labour markets, in asset ownership and in the division of unpaid labour has served to reproduce various overlapping social divisions and inequalities. In linking social reproduction to financial markets, the promotion of homeownership in the US has also rendered the social reproduction of present and future generations increasingly insecure. This work contributes to feminist and other critical IPE debates by highlighting the ways in which accumulation in financial markets has been based on the perpetuation of divisions and inequalities between social classes, between men and women and along certain racial and ethnic lines. It also centralises the role of the state in conditioning these processes.

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Although differences between generation X (born between 1961 and 1980) and Y
(born between 1981 and 1995) about the factors which drive homeownership have
policy implications, little or no research has been undertaken into this issue. Results of
interviews undertaken show that generation X and Y agree that price was the most
important factor and that there are more generation Y reliant on government help.
Questionnaire results found that “income and housing prices” and “affordability and
accessibility” were the most important factors among generation X and Y, respectively.
This paper concludes that policy makers need to consider the generation differences.

Determining whether a slum prevention or upgrading initiative has been successful depends on expectation and what the goals of the initiative are. The recent reviewing of some of the poverty alleviation initiatives is a clear indicator that the current governance of Botswana is determined in improving its people’s lives. Provision of urban services like water, sanitation, and access to housing also indicate that the government accepts urbanization. Generally, as adequate policies are implemented and the local economy grows slums gradually disappear as residents invest in their homes and upgrade them over time. The shack slowly becomes a house, and the slum becomes a decent suburb. How quickly this process happens depends largely on how fast a city’s economy grows and how effective the urban policies are. It must also be understood that turning a poor, informal settlement into an integrated city and establishing the necessary linkages into the economy can take years. Therefore, with a growing economy, the government should be commitment to slum prevention and upgrading, and with the community dedication, the slum will gradually transform into a suburb.

This paper was originally commissioned by the Town and Country Planning Association for a special issue on Garden Cities in the Autumn of 2012, to explore the role and treatment of land in the development of sustainable new settlements, at a time when the UK government were renewing their interest in developing new standalone settlements, and had alighted on the Garden City tradition as a popular form of development, and thus less likely to be opposed by existing communities.
In the event, the paper covered the wider context of how to promote new housing growth, as the deliverability of new Garden Cities or Suburbs cannot be isolated from the cultural and structural problems in the housing market, and the economic and fiscal policy deficiencies which have led to the continuous decline in UK housing production over a generation. It was published in two parts.
The timing of the commission coincided with the death, in the late summer of 2102, of Professor Peter Ambrose, author of ‘Whatever happened to planning? (1986)…what indeed? The paper therefore highlights Ambrose’s contribution to the debate about the role of land and debt in the period from the deregulation of financial markets in the mid-1980s to the housing market and credit crisis that unfolded over the first decade of the 21st Century. It traces the links between his work and the thinking of the Norwegian American economist Thorstein Veblen, working in the USA in the early 20th Century, and his 21st Century protagonist, the economic analyst and academic Professor Michael Hudson.
The paper analyses the causes of failure in UK land markets, their damaging structural effects on society and the economy, and the entrenchment of inequalities in wealth and life opportunities. The paper proposes a package of five integrated reforms of taxation and the fiscal treatment of land, local government finance, the practice of spatial planning, the structure of infrastructure investment markets and of the house building ‘industry’.  Some of these proposals have subsequently been selectively taken up in the findings of the Lyons Housing Review (2014).

This research endeavour is aimed at answering the question 'why are Private Developers not involved in rental housing development in the study area'. The study explored both qualitative and quantitative literature towards supporting the growing incidence of rental housing; as a global answer to homelessness, bridge housing affordability gap and promote housing accessibility among the poor and middle income earners in Lagos, Nigeria. In a bid towards achieving the study's aim and objectives, the study administered questionnaires on 77 developers in the study area. However, 54 questionnaires were returned and analysed using descriptive statistics. The study result revealed that 94% of developers in the study area preferred owner-occupied housing to rental housing. However, above 70% of the respondents agreed that low payback period of commercial loan is a major constraint towards the development of rental housing in the study area. Most respondents opined that less stringent term of credit/ finance(e.g.low interest rate), access to capital market products (e.g Bond, MBS and REITs e.t.c.), tax incentives and easy access to land are salient factors that may encourage the development of rental housing by Private Developers in the study area. The study concluded that attractive financing terms/ structure is critical to the development of rental housing in the study area.

The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) was incorporated in India in 1956 by nationalization of private insurance companies functioning in the country. LIC is statutorily required to invest 25 per cent of its annual accretion of its controlled funds in socially oriented schemes including housing in addition to subscribing to the bonds/debentures floated by State Housing Boards, HUDCO, etc. LIC has been granting loans right from its inception. With the announcement of National Housing Policy in 1987 and the subsequent setting up of National Housing Bank, LIC set up LIC Housing Finance Limited (LICHFL) on 19th July, 1989 under the Companies Act, 1956. The company went public in the year 1994. The company is the second largest housing finance company in the country after HDFC. Almost 93 per cent of the company's loans are to retail customers and the balance 7 per cent to project developers. In the present paper, a survey of 100 respondents has been conducted to examine and compare their opinion regarding the functioning of LIC Housing Finance Ltd. in Bathinda. An attempt has been made to examine the extent to which LIC Housing Finance Ltd. has catered to the needs of the people.

Despite the significant demand for rented housing in Angola, it does not feature in Angola's National Urbanisation and Housing Program . This is unsurprising as few African Governments do give rented housing the attention that it deserves. Governments tend not to recognize that rental housing exists as an important form of housing tenure and that many households rent their housing at some stage in their housing career. For political reasons home ownership is the preferred housing option. However, rented housing appears to be unavoidable while households raise the capital to buy or build their own home, or while searching for land and saving for the building of a self-build home. Rental housing in most older urban neighbourhoods is an activity predominantly involving two sets of poor people. Poor landlords produce rental housing for poor tenants. Since the rents of one set of poor people help sustain the incomes of another set of poor people, the role that housing plays in income generation and household budgets is very important. Support for rental housing should be regarded a complement to homeownership, not as a form of competition and “governments should review their housing policies and devise appropriate strategies for rental housing which remove biases against non-owners”. After all, virtually all of today’s owners were once tenants. Since most landlords are little better off than their tenants, support for rental housing is not an inequitable policy. Rental housing is a valuable tenure to virtually every household at some stage in their lifetime and therefore should constitute a substantial element in the housing stock of every society. Not everyone wants to be a homeowner. There is a lack of data about renters and sharers and policy tends to be to turn tenants into owners without considering whether some sectors of the populations want to be, or are forced to be, tenants.

Think about this paradox: Low-income families put money into the financial market as pension savings, and they pay interest and mortgage insurances to obtain those savings, or rent to landlords who access those savings. Basically, by having their savings locked until retirement, they contribute to capitalists’ accumulation while they cannot accumulate wealth. Or put this the other way around. Low- and middle-income families cannot accumulate wealth, among other reasons, because (a) they cannot afford a down-payment to buy a home and drain their income in their rent, without accumulation; (b) if they can buy a home, they pay high interests because they are considered risky; and (c) may lose their home by defaulting on their mortgage. Yet, they have often saved more money than they needed to get the loan, prevent the default, and make them less-risky subjects of credit. Is there a way to prevent this cycle of capitalist appropriation of wealth by renting other people’s money?

I want to propose a policy solution to this problem that, while apparently reformist, challenges a major pattern of capitalist accumulation in our financialized economy. Hopefully this could amount to something like what André Gorz called “non-reformist reforms.” The key of the idea is to allow families to use their social security savings (or other pension savings, depending on the country) as down-payment and/or backup fund to pay their mortgage in moment of unemployment or illness; simultaneously, the gaps they leave in their social security can be securitized by the home (like a home equity loan). In the US, this should allow people to avoid the cost of Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI, an insurance required for those who buy with less than 20% down-payment). In the US and other countries it may also grant access to lower interest rates. And families would be able to buy a home earlier in their life without the difficulty of saving and throwing out their money in rent. After they pay their home, people should pay back the gaps that they leave in their social security contributions. If they cannot pay the social security debt, the value of the home is used to pay for it after the homeowner dies, unless her inheritors take over the home and the debt. That way, the pension system recovers the money similar to how a home-equity loan works, and the inheritors have a chance or inheriting some of their parents’ wealth.
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Inadequate housing supply is one of the biggest challenges facing both developed and developing countries today with housing finance being a critical factor. The informal sector is the largest housing supply system in Ghana but has not been able to meet the increasing housing demand. This is partly because of inadequate and ineffective financial mechanisms for financing informal housing provision in Ghana. The Study therefore investigated the major financing mechanisms used by the informal sector and factors which hinder their access to formal credit facilities. A cross-sectional research design was adopted for the Study. Simple random sampling was used to select the ten communities whilst the convenience sampling method was used to select the homeowners. A total of 310 interviews were conducted out of the total determined sample size of 392. The major findings emanating from the Study included the dominant use of informal source of housing finance; the existence of an underdeveloped mortgage market; and uneasy access to formal credit facilities from financial institutions. These have led to homeowners building incrementally and hence delay in housing completion. The Study therefore recommends microfinance for housing, site and services scheme and a non-mortgage lending facility for the informal sector.

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) is the first operator in the Nigeria's formal institutional mortgage lending sector. The Bank has a history of retail and wholesale activities in the country's mortgage industry; however, its performance was insignificant until the housing reforms of 2002. This paper evaluates the housing financing performance of the Bank in the post reform era. Data on fund mobilization, loan disbursement and housing production index are employed for the study. Findings revealed that between 2002 to 2005, the Bank was able to mobilized N18.164 billion compared to the pre-reform period (1992-2002) figure of N10.359 billion, representing a growth of 75%. Between 2006 to 2009, the Bank recorded more collection amounting to N41.963 billion. Within the period, the Bank granted loan valued at N3.628 billion to 3,915 National Housing Fund contributors to either build or renovate their houses. This is against the value of N1.327 billion disbursed to 2,347 in the pre-reform period. Between 2005 to 2008, the Bank through its concessionary lending window granted a loan of N10.743billion to 44 estate developers who have constructed more than 7106 housing units. This is a significant improvement on the pre-reform approved estate loan value at N406.500million, which achieved only 545 housing units. It was also discovered that as at 2009, 25 private developers owed the Bank varying sums of loan aggregating to N10.963billion. This has caused a great hindrance to the Banks' operation. The study concluded that the FMBN has appreciably improved in terms of fund mobilization and loan disbursement, which has increased housing production quantitatively in Nigeria.

Urban South Africa has seen a transformation to homeownership since the mid 1980s, achieved mainly
through the restoration of urban homeownership rights and property rights. Ownership has been
transferred to some 500,000 state rental low income households and a capital subsidy scheme has
assisted approximately three million low income households since the early 1990s. At the same time
mortgage finance became available to black households during the mid 1980s. Since the mid 1980s, a
concerted effort was made to increase housing finance to the historically disadvantaged black population
of South Africa. Drawing on a policy assessment and the panel National Income Dynamics Study, we
investigate the risks associated with this intention since the global financial crisis in 2008. More specifically,
we consider who has moved into homeownership and who has moved out of it and the reasons
for having done so. We conclude that, in the initial phase in 2008 (because of increased interest rates),
low-income black respondents had been more likely either to redeem their mortgages or to move out of
homeownership and into rental housing. Yet, as the global financial crisis resulted in the South African
recession in the second semester of 2009 and led to job losses, the negative impacts were experienced
irrespective of population group or of income

Housing cooperatives contributed a great deal in solving the housing problem for people with lower income levels. In Turkey, housing cooperatives are first established in 1950s but the number and effectiveness reached its peak in early 1990s.  The aim of this study is to develop a model to decrease the housing cost for the cooperative member by decreasing the construction period using bank loans. Increases in building construction costs during the years 1991-1999 are analysed together with the bank loan interest rates and increase rates for salaries and wages for the same period. Feasibility of bank loaning is studied for the housing cooperatives for a typical apartment building. Optimum time in the construction period for obtaining the loan is determined by calculating the costs and benefits for loan at different stages of construction.

Keywords: Housing Cooperatives, Housing Finance, Bank Loans

This dissertation advances the state of knowledge on interest group influence in congressional committees. Portions of this work have been delivered at the American Political Science Association Annual Meetings. In 2015, this dissertation received the Joseph L. Fisher Award for best dissertation in public policy.

It is clear that Britain is experiencing a housing crisis. This is predicated on the nation's failure to meet the annual 240,000 housing supply threshold. 1 With current housing supply hovering around 160,000 units 2 , political debates, academic discussions and professional reports have all given attention to understanding the complex yet interrelated factors of the housing crisis. Several suggestions have been put forward to addressing the housing problem and one proposal argued to expedite housing supply is New towns.

This report sets out to outline a key driver in how this crisis in Greater Manchester is produced; housing financialisation. To do so it examines a sample of collected data for 25,753 new housing units spanning 79 sites in the city-regional centre, alongside a range of secondary data sources. The report outlines the ways in which housing in the central neighbourhoods of Manchester and Salford have become financialised, transformed from homes into assets as developers and financial actors, and whose concern for maximising profit shapes the housing futures of a city-region.

One of the main reason why housing finance is important is that, the assets it finances, is the significant part of national wealth and the fixed capital stock. Our study is about finding out the effective financial schemes for developing low-income housing in Nyarugenge district. The study has four objectives: To analyze the current housing finance situation for low-income earners in Nyarugenge District, to find out the contribution of the current financial schemes for developing low-income housing, to identify challenges met by low-income earners in the fulfillment of financial institutions’ conditions, to suggest the approaches and financial instruments used on the housing finance for low-income households. A sample of  90 households was chosen from the community in Nyarugenge district where 284,561 is the total number of population live in Nyarugenge district (NISR, 2012).  Data were collected by use of questionnaire instruments and semi-structured interviews analyzed using comparison analysis in order to test relationship and impact of the study variables.
The findings established that the current housing financial situation in Nyarugenge district is occupied by high number of renters where 62.22% of respondents participated in the study, are renters while 27.78% live in their own houses and 6.67% live in their family houses, and 3.33% of respondents share the houses. The findings also established that there some challenges facing low-income earners to fulfill the financial institutions’ conditions. Among these challenges, lack of collateral is the main challenge identified and occupied 37.5% of respondents participated in the study while lack of long-term credit occupied 25% of the respondents, unemployment also occupied 25% of the respondents and high interest rate occupied 12.55 of the respondents at the district level. The findings also established the financial approaches which can be used for developing low-income housing for low-income earners in Nyarugenge district. Those financial approaches are microfinance approach, housing cooperative approach, compulsory savings approach, rent-to-own approach, rent-to-purchase approach, guarantee structure approach, housing banks approach, sites and services approach and special housing funds approach. Housing finance is largest investment family makes in a lifetime. Housing finance for low-income-earners cannot be achieved if there is no involvement of the government, financial institutions and also the NGO’s contribution to create the financial instruments which can avail houses for the target group. This thesis is also suggested for the Government of Rwanda to improve access to housing for low-income earners through providing guarantee structure for home loans to low-income earners, improve slums infrastructure, and invest in businesses that generate revenue for low-income earners. It is also suggested to financial institutions to provide other ways of looking at collaterals like salaries and pension funds, and extend repayment period with reducing the interest rates.

Key Words: Housing finance, Low-income earners, Financial approaches.

The Angolan Government, in its public pronouncements, has put great store in the private sector in driving post-war development and taking the lead particularly in the housing sector. However the World Bank has shown that Angola remains one of the world’s most difficult countries to do business, particularly in the sale and transfer of property. In the 1990s Angola had the daunting task of transforming, what had been a centrally-planned post-independence economy into a more open liberalised one that would attract foreign investment. At the end of the war in 2002 the country hoped to attract international investors and know-how to rebuild its devastated infrastructure and help meet the huge social demands for housing and employment. The Angolan Government rightly identified some of the key steps that needed to be taken to attract the private sector assistance. It committed itself to the provision of fiscal incentives, a reform of the system of credit for housing and the creation of public-private partnerships. However the growth of the private sector in Angola was inhibited by several historic factors. Angola’s extractive industry-based economy, by its nature is highly centralised. Angola was slow to implement promised decentralisation reforms and create mechanisms that allowed finances to trickle down to municipalities where local businesses could benefit.

This paper considers housing in Nigeria as a tool for national development. It begins by examining the importance of housing in the attainment of sustainable development. It then goes on to look at the various housing strategies programmes and policies that have emerged in Nigeria. The paper describes housing problems in Nigeria, housing as a policy, as well as the national housing policy. Furthermore, it gives a review of housing policies and programmes in Nigeria. The identified problems that are associated with the implementation of housing policies in Nigeria are poor administration, inadequate funding, insufficient infrastructural amenities, as well as inadequate housing finance. The paper recommends the periodic review of the housing policy, housing finance, encouragement of the use of local materials, as well as the provision of low cost houses in urban and rural places.

Residential foreclosures increased sharply during the 1990s and in the first years of the twenty-first century. These foreclosures have profound impacts on the households and neighborhoods involved. Although foreclosures occur everywhere, the geography of foreclosures displays a pattern tied to a metropolitan area's social, fiscal, and economic geography. We examine these correspondences as they exist within Summit County (Akron), Ohio, between 2001 and 2003. Foreclosures themselves often result from unfortunate financial events that can affect any household, but we found that the geography of foreclosures corresponds primarily to Summit County's racial distribution, above and beyond any correspondence with income levels and housing fiscal stress. There also exists a clear coincidence of foreclosures with subprime lending, itself associated with Summit County's racial patterns. Concentrations of foreclosures in particular neighborhoods can be tremendously harmful to the social and economic health of the neighborhood. These comparisons help us to better understand the neighborhood ecology of foreclosure rates and subprime lending.