Ideas for Development in the Americas (IDEA): Volume 4 : May-August, 2004: Housing Finance in Latin America: Time to Build a Better Market

Date
Jul 2005
The average value of a residential dwelling owned by a typical Latin American family is worth close to six years of that family's total income. However, les than one-fourth of all housing in Latin America is financed through formal mechanisms, and housing mortgage credit accounts for only a small fraction of total credit. Why hasn't the housing mortgage industry developed properly in Latin America? This issue of IDEA takes a closer look at the problems in the housing finance market, reviews the efforts that have been made in the past, and offers some policy suggestions for the future.