Report of a meeting on innovative housing finance between researchers from Brazil, Mexico, Philippines and Thailand

The growing significance of and maturity in innovative housing finance was evident in June of this year when researchers from four countries came together to conclude on what had been learnt from a number of innovative programmes. The meeting took place in Brazil, itself a country in which the housing sector is undergoing considerable change. Fortaleza (in the north east) played host to a retrospective on innovative national government housing programmes in three countries, namely, Fonhapo in Mexico, the Community Mortgage Programme in the Philippines and the Urban Community Development Office in Thailand. Reviews of housing finance programmes in the state of Ceara (Brazil) and India gave a broader perspective offering further insights into experiences. Some of the conclusions emerging from these studies are highlighted in the later sections of this newsletter.

This newsletter highlights some of the recent developments in the market for low-income housing in Mexico, the Philippines and Thailand. In Mexico, commercial companies are now providing loans to lower middle income households. In Thailand, the Urban Community Development Office has merged with a rural fund to form the Community Organization Development Institute; and, in the Philippines, the Community Mortgage Programme continues to increase in scale although doubts are being raised about its capacity to reach the poorest families.