Taking Shelter

How do low-income families, representing some 70% of the world’s population, finance home building and improvements – and how is the financial sector, from microfinance institutions and banks to investors and regulators, changing to serve their needs?The practice of housing microfinance has evolved substantially, with a large number of innovations across the entire housing financing ecosystem. New research methodologies, such as financial diaries, have yielded a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how poor households use finance, both formal and informal, to construct their homes. The housing finance industry is also growing. The home improvement loans that are at the heart of housing microfinance are offered in hundreds of institutions, leading to important lessons on how they work. Meanwhile, a new class of institutions – micro-mortgage lenders – have emerged to fill the space between housing microfinance and traditional mortgage lending. On the funding side, debt funding is now available to finance or re-finance housing microfinance loans; while other investors have carved out a new role for equity investing in housing finance – showing the critical role that private investors can play. And now a new breed of public wholesale financing has emerged, showing the catalytic role public sector investment can play in encouraging housing finance markets in their countries. This volume explores recent innovations in housing microfinance, presented by the innovators themselves: a range of leading experts in the field, from field researchers and financial providers, to investors and regulators. It is a key reference to any reader interested in expanding housing finance for the world’s poor.