CAHF: Growth of housing finance markets depends on accurate data

The growth of housing finance markets and the increase in investment attractiveness directly depend on the availability of accurate data, Kecia Rust, Executive Director of the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF), said during the Business Roundtable at the 13th Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, Report informs.

She emphasized the importance of transparency and statistical indicators in the housing finance sector: "The most fundamental issue is market data. Where data is available, you see housing finance markets grow – which makes sense, because people engage with markets they can see and understand. In Africa, there are places where we struggle even to count the number of mortgage loans. Central Banks should have this data, but they don't share it publicly. Yet this is a fundamental indicator to know the ratio of mortgages to GDP."

Rust also pointed out sharp differences between official construction statistics and actual rental market growth.

"In Kenya, the government reported 50,000 houses built annually over 10 years. But during the same period, the number of households reporting they rent increased by 1.6 million – about 160,000 households per year. This clearly means someone is building those houses, and there is a large hidden economy. To attract investment flows and make projects viable, fundamental macroeconomic risks must be addressed. We need policy stability, including the cost of capital. Another critical issue is currency risk. Although international investors show great interest, hedging is so expensive that it is simply not worth it. Macro-level support is needed in this area," the official said.