K. Housing finance

Informal housing finance is the predominant mode of financing housing construction.

A housing policy is to be formulated which will ensure governmental incentives for rental housing and establish housing finance institutions and housing saving banks.

The Government Housing Bank of Thailand has been able to compete in the finance market by mobilizing savings and has become the major provider of finance for housing development.

The National Housing Programme gives emphasis to strengthening housing sector institutions at the national, State and local levels improving the housing finance system to include the mobilization of domestic savings, strengthening the secondary mortgage market and the incorporation of new options for housing finance.

The housing indicators were used to select finance for housing and land development as the priority areas for special attention.

CMHC's housing finance mandate is to promote housing affordability and choice and to contribute to the well being of the housing sector in the national economy.

The Housing Development Finance Corporation of India has applied innovative mechanisms to provide lower income families access to market oriented finance.

Planned actions include the development of land and infrastructure, upgrading of settlements, support to rental housing and development of housing finance systems.

The housing finance system is gradually developing the capacity to provide long term loans.

Thailand apos s National Housing Bank has successfully competed in the financial market to mobilize increasing levels of finance for the housing sector.

Public housing agencies could promote better housing by providing credit to the poor, who usually lack access to the formal housing finance market, through, for example, affordable mortgages and microcredit schemes.

Special attention is being given to establishing new housing finance systems to provide access to credit to all social groups to meet their housing needs.

Gabon has a range of housing finance institutions for land and housing development yet its natural resources are not being sufficiently exploited to produce building materials.

The Latvia Mortgage and Land Bank, together with private and state banks, is mobilizing finance for housing.

These will be achieved through the strengthening of the housing finance system and existing institutions in charge of housing decentralization of urban development reconstruction of old housing and promotion of multilevel housing together with the improvement of road infrastructure in residential areas.

The national housing policy is well integrated with macro economic policies and future housing policy will focus on three issues deregulation consistent with market oriented economic and financial policy promotion of industry and improvement in policy instruments, housing finance and housing related taxation.

The Government will grant subsidies equivalent to 75 per cent of the housing cost and the rest will be funded through the housing finance system, including the Housing Bank, private banks and the Mortgage Titling Company.

There is limited access to housing finance by the poor and alternative mechanisms are being developed, following a detailed study on housing credit operations in the informal sector.

Several reforms are planned in the National Plan of Action, especially in land acquisition and management, as well as in housing finance, in order to improve accessibility to housing.

The advent of the new subprogramme has resulted in the expansion of local actors to include retail banks, cooperative savings associations, housing microfinance institutions, as well as ministries of finance and in the expansion of substantive inputs to include investment, housing and project finance.

Combating homelessness, preventing discrimination in housing, promoting security of tenure, preventing illegal evictions and promoting access to information, land, services and finance for affordable housing are highlighted as fundamental elements in realizing the human right to adequate housing.

These include the allocation of public land for housing, undertaking extensive sites and services projects, regularization of informal settlements, a range of housing finance institutions, promotion of building materials and housing construction by the public, private and cooperative sectors.

The Urban Economy and Finance Branch within the Monitoring and Research Division conducts research on policies and strategies in urban planning, economic development, poverty eradication, and municipal and housing finance systems.

Improvement of housing finance systems and schemes is seen as a priority in both the developed and the developing regions.

The country has achieved a considerable improvement in housing conditions both in terms of living space and standard of dwellings but is now placing a special emphasis on increasing the production of rental and cooperative housing, increased renovation of existing housing, developing the housing finance system and promoting the stability of the market for rental housing.

Reforms in the housing sector have been undertaken at the institutional level but inadequate investment has been made to improve infrastructure and housing finance mechanisms are at the early stages of development.

Hungary has designated the responsibility for coordination of the housing policy to the Ministry of Finance and has established the National Housing Policy Council to define clearly the role of the central Government on issues of privatization and decentralization of the housing sector.

The Niger has some 50 per cent of the households in the capital living in rental housing, most of which has been built by the informal sector, as the public agencies for housing finance and housing production are unable to function adequately.

Initiatives are being taken to improve further the housing finance system by introducing instruments of mortgage insurance, foreclosure and fiscal incentives.

Belarus has experienced a steady decline in the number of newly built housing units, and shortages of finance have caused a sharp reduction in the extent of repairs to housing and related services.

Other priorities for action include the upgrading of informal settlements increasing the supply of affordable serviced land reforming legislation concerning building construction improving the housing finance system and encouraging investment in rental housing.

Burkina Faso has identified the lack of a housing finance system as a major constraint for the development of the shelter sector.

The national plan will focus on the supply of serviced land, provision of social facilities, housing finance, building construction and capacity building.

The State Housing Agency obtained permission to finance the building of rental flats by the Iceland Federation of the Handicapped in 1965.

Finland has achieved new levels of sophistication in housing finance by introducing a system of securities through which the National Housing Fund has been able to enable funds to be obtained from the international market.

The housing programme is being implemented within the framework of the Seventh Malaysia Plan (1996 2000) and addresses in depth issues of low income housing, the upgrading of squatter settlements, home ownership schemes for workers in estates and mines and further development of the housing finance systems.

These include channelling remittances to finance investment projects in the migrants' communities of origin and organizing remittance backed housing purchases by recipient families.

Burundi has implemented a number of measures relating to housing finance, promotion of local materials, support to self help construction, fiscal incentives to the private sector and the creation of a special fund for urban housing.

The housing finance system has still to overcome a number of operational constraints and these are to be addressed in the National Plan of Action, as well as the upgrading, renewal and retrofitting of existing housing stock.

Among the measures the Government plans to take to vitalize the housing sector are the development of land registration systems, setting up a housing finance system and guidelines for the use of local materials and construction methods.

In an effort to address this problem, the Minister for Finance announced in the 2004 2005 budget speech an initiative to provide affordable housing.

Algeria has identified three main problems which affect the housing sector the crisis in the housing finance system, which suffers from too much rigidity the spreading of illegal settlements and over consumption of the municipal stock of land.

In addition, it is concentrating on implementing targeted housing subsidy programmes, strengthening the housing finance system, and applying an urban land policy aiming at regularizing land tenure, improving land markets and enabling access to land by all groups.

Another would be to extend loan guarantees that support international borrowing by domestic financial institutions specialized in urban infrastructure lending or low cost housing finance.