Investigating the Possibilities of Linking Progressive Housing Investment with Bank Housing Finance; The Case of Maseru - Lesotho
Files
Date
2006-11-14T09:54:09Z
Authors
Rakoena, Thabang Lisbon
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Most governments in developing countries are unable to assist in the ever-growing
housing needs of the informal sector, which constitutes the major part of most economies.
The two reasons for this state of affairs are (i) the ever-shrinking resource base of
countries, which makes the provision of subsidies impractical; and (ii) the fact that this
sector is normally characterized by irregular incomes, which makes provision for loans
by financial institutions difficult. This situation is particularly true for the Kingdom of
Lesotho. Due to their unfortunate predicament, the informal sector has become
innovative in addressing their housing needs. Various informal credit methods are
widely employed to finance their houses, which are built progressively. This research
therefore investigates the possibilities of linking the progressive housing investment to
bank housing finance, using Maseru - Lesotho as the research focus.
In order to achieve the above aim, a household survey was conducted coupled with
structured interviews. The structured interviews were held with the commercial banks as
well as the government housing authorities. These interviews were mainly to elicit their
views about the option of Microfinance of housing. It was established that the
respondents as well as the government authorities were not aware of this option. The
banks were equally unaware of it and in addition to this, the perceived risk led to
skepticism. As such these made Microfinance of housing impractical in the short-run.
However it would be advisable to mobilize the formation of a revolving fund to which
the commercial banks could on-lend, as a solution to the lack of housing finance.
Description
Student Number : 0204752J -
MSc research report -
School of Construction Economics and Management -
Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Keywords
progressive housing, microfinance of housing, On-lend, informal savings association, Maseru