Reforming Latin American Housing Markets

Latin American and Caribbean countries are the most urban in the developing world and have very high home ownership rates. However, many of the region's inhabitants are still poorly housed. This book examines three key contributing issues: high housing prices relative to family income, lack of access to mortgage credit, and high land prices.

This in-depth volume explains China's residential construction boom and reviews how some established trends are likely to challenge its housing market in coming years. It draws on household surveys and public data in China and provides important lessons about housing policy for China and other countries.

Provides a comprehensive analysis of why reforms in Latin America have failed in achieving growth and equity. The book focuses on three strategic areas of reforms of the Washington Consensus: Macroeconomics, Trade and Finance.

Land and real estate reforms have not been effective at achieving their objectives, in part because of how they have been designed and implemented. To be successful, reforms must become comprehensive in design, argue the authors, although implementation may be phased over time and take local conditions into account. Reform must include three elements: 1) Institutional reforms that better define property rights, reduce information asymmetry, and improve contract enforcement. 2) Capital market reforms that make mortgage finance available at reasonable rates, especially for the poor. 3) Market reforms that reduce or eliminate the main distortions in the prices of goods and services produced by land and real estate assets. In their review of land and real estate reforms supported by the World Bank, the authors find that such reforms receive less attention at the conceptual stage than they should, considering their great impact on poverty, growth, and stability. They base their conclusion on the limited coverage of land and real estate issues in country assistance strategies, the main vehicle for identifying priority areas for reform. Most Bank-supported projects do not address all three elements critical for reform. And most provide no justification for excluding them, and no plan for follow-up. The Bank's Operations Evaluation Department rates Bank-supported land and real estate projects relatively well on outcome and sustainability but not on institutional development. But land and real estate reform is institutional by nature. The authors urge the Bank and policymakers to change course. After a comprehensive assessment of the status of real estate institutions and markets, all actors in this sector should be pulled together to develop a comprehensive approach to land and real estate reform.

Latin American and Caribbean countries are the most urban in the developing world and have very high home ownership rates. However, many of the region's inhabitants are still poorly housed. This book examines three key contributing issues: high housing prices relative to family income, lack of access to mortgage credit, and high land prices.

Informality Revisited offers an overview of recent debates about Latin American government programmes for the formalisation of informal settlements and housing provision in a neo-liberal context. Contributions from Latin American researchers analyse the contradictions in government actions and evaluate the consequences for urban poverty. Brings together nine leading Latin American researchers in the field of land and housing policy to address the question of informal urban development, particularly in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru Highlights the interrelationships between the production of formal and informal urban development and demonstrates how economic and legal reforms intended to make the market more effective and profitable have affected the production of urban space Explores how Latin American governments are applying neo-liberal principles to land and housing policies Investigates the implications of government actions for the production and commodification of urban land as well as the formalisation of property rights and provision of housing for the urban poor Contributors draw on a wide range of quantitative and qualitative data, including census results and previously unpublished official statistics

Why labor unions resisted and submitted during the economic crises of the 1990s.