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Document Type: | General |
Publish Date: | 1984 |
Primary Author: | Bertrand Renaud |
Edited By: | Saba Bilquis |
Published By: | Bertrand Renaud |
There is more than one way to look at housing finance and according to the viewpoint chosen significantly different answers are given to the question of what constitutes “the” housing finance problem. From the viewpoint of a household, the problem is the possibility of obtaining a loan at affordable terms. For the ministry of housing officials, the problem is the lack of resources to carry out public housing programs. From the viewpoint of ministries of finance and central banks the problem is to prevent financial instability and to maintain confidence in the financial system. National planning agencies are interested in the contribution that housing tinance can make to the mobilization of resources and their effective use. For the manager of a housing bank, the problem is how to expand the scope of financial services while maintaining a viable institution. In the case of a capital market analyst, the housing finance problem is that of mobilizing short-term resources while providing long-term financing (term transformation) in an inflationary environment; in other words, how to generate long-term loans. For international agencies with a mandate to make loans which will, each the lowest 50 percent of the household income distribution, the problem is to develop sustainable financial programs for low income housing. To examine how these various definitions relate to one another one needs to look at housing finance institutions in their role as financial intermediaries.