Investigating the Possibilities of Linking Progressive Housing Investment with Bank Housing Finance; The Case of Maseru - Lesotho

[摘要] Most governments in developing countries are unable to assist in the ever-growinghousing 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 ofcountries, which makes the provision of subsidies impractical; and (ii) the fact that thissector is normally characterized by irregular incomes, which makes provision for loansby financial institutions difficult. This situation is particularly true for the Kingdom ofLesotho. Due to their unfortunate predicament, the informal sector has becomeinnovative in addressing their housing needs. Various informal credit methods arewidely employed to finance their houses, which are built progressively. This researchtherefore investigates the possibilities of linking the progressive housing investment tobank housing finance, using Maseru - Lesotho as the research focus.In order to achieve the above aim, a household survey was conducted coupled withstructured interviews. The structured interviews were held with the commercial banks aswell as the government housing authorities. These interviews were mainly to elicit theirviews about the option of Microfinance of housing. It was established that therespondents as well as the government authorities were not aware of this option. Thebanks were equally unaware of it and in addition to this, the perceived risk led toskepticism. 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 whichthe commercial banks could on-lend, as a solution to the lack of housing finance.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand