Case studies in Financing Human Settlements in Africa: Appropriate Legislative Frameworks and Innovations in

Implementation

Questionnaire: Housing Finance

(Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions)

Name of Respondent:___________________________________________

Official Title: _________________________________________________

Name of organization:___________________________________________

Email Address:________________________________________________

Country:_____________________________________________________

Date: 14 November, 2013

Purpose of the questionnaire: This questionnaire seeks to collect information from banks and non-bank
financial institutions that offer residentialmortgage loans and/orhousing micro loans. A residential
mortgage loan is typically secured by a legal charge on a formal title to land. A microloan is defined as an
unsecured loan of small to moderate size made to an individual for the purpose of purchasing a residential
plot, renovating a house or incrementally constructing a dwelling unit. The loan is small, usually repayable
over 1-3 years or even up to 5 years.

The information collected will inform the preparation of a paper entitled “Case studies in Financing Human
Settlements in Africa: Appropriate Legislative Frameworks and Innovations in Implementation”. The paper
will be presented at the February 2014 meeting of AMCHUD1 and is sponsored by the AMCHUD
secretariat and UN-Habitat.

To the Respondent: We are very grateful for your participation. The questionnaire should not require
any research on your part, and should be very quick to fill in – fill in as much as you can and then carry on
to the next question. Please complete the questionnaire -- both modules -- and return it via email by 8
December 2013 to the following email address: kecia@housingfinanceafrica.org with a copy to
lorraine@housingfinanceafrica.org and jgmutero@gmail.com

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African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development
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1. What type of financial institution is your organization?

Type of Organization Tick the

appropriate box

Private commercial bank

Publicly owned commercial bank2

Private non-bank financial institution

Publicly owned non-bank financial institution

Other (specify)

2. Under what legislation is your organization registered?

3. Does this legislation adequately facilitate the housing finance operations of your
organization?

Yes [__] No [__] [Ignore if your organization does not offer housing finance
products. Go to Que. 5]

4. If NO, what changes to the legislation would you recommend?

5. Are you permitted by law to accept savings and other deposits from members of the
public? Yes [__] No [__]

6. Who regulates your financial institution?

Central Bank [__] Other (specify) [__________________________________________]

7. Give the full title of the legislation, if any, that is used to regulate your financial
institution?

8. What type of housing loans do you provide? (Tick both if your organizations provides
both types of loan). [Ignore if your organization does not offer housing finance
products. Go to Que. 21]

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i.e. A bank in which Government or other public sector body has majority shares

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 Mortgage loans [__] Housing Microfinance loans [__]
Other [__] Please describe: _________________________________________________

9. In what ways, if any, does the legislation under which your organization is regulated
support your efforts to introduce housing finance innovations3?

10. In what ways, if any, does this legislation impede your efforts to introduce innovations in
mortgage finance and/or housing microfinance?

11. Describe what legislative changes, if any, would be necessary to help your organization to
introduce innovations in mortgage finance and/or housing microfinance?

12. List and rank your main sources of capital for lending with 1 being the most important
source, 2 the second most important source, 3 the third most important source etc.
Source of capital Ranking

Savings deposits from individuals

Savings deposits by institutional investors (such as insurance

firms, pension funds…)

Bond issuance

Refinancing of mortgages by a refinancing company/liquidity

facility

Donor grants

Donor loans

Other (specify)

Other (Specify)

13. Do you have plans, over the next 1-2 years, to scale up your housing finance lending
operations?

Yes [__] No [__]

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A financing strategy or approach is innovative if it: (a) has a substantial positive impact (actual or potential)
on the volume of capital that goes into housing microfinance; or (b) has a positive impact on widening access
for low-income groups to housing finance; or (c) introduces new resource mobilization or lending methods; or
(d) introduces new risk management strategies; or (e) reforms existing institutional mechanisms or creates
new ones that effectively deliver housing finance.

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14. If YES, what will be the main sources of capital to support scaling up?

15. Has your organization received financial support from international/regional financial
institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (of the World
Bank Group), the African Development Bank, and Shelter Afrique for purposes of
supporting your residential mortgage lending?

Yes [__] No [__]

16. If YES, give the names of the financial institutions and describe the type of support
provided

17. If YES to Que. 15, also describe any regulatory or policy changes that these institutions required
as a part of their financial support

18. Has your organization received financial support from international/regional financial
institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (of the World
Bank Group), the African Development Bank, and Shelter Afrique for purposes of
supporting your housing microfinance lending?

Yes [__] No [__]

19. If YES, give the names of the financial institutions and describe the type of support
provided.

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20. If YES to Que. 18, also describe any regulatory or policy changes that these institutions required
as a part of their financial support

21. Mortgage Finance Market Obstacles (Please answer, based on your knowledge, even
if your organization is not active in this market)
Please describe what you view as the main obstacles to developing the mortgage market
further. A table of obstacles is provided below – Please rank the top 5 obstacles to
developing the mortgage market to be ranked in order (with 1 being biggest obstacle).
Please add other obstacles which do not appear on the list if needed.
Ranking
Access to long term funds
Credit risk (lack of credit histories of potential borrowers, documented income,…)
Lack of capacity/skills in banking sector to develop products, carry out loan
underwriting
Burden of regulation (provisioning for bad debts, capital adequacy requirements,
liquidity rules,…)
AIDS/HIV as an inhibitor of long term lending
Lack of understanding of mortgage product by consumer – lack of financial literacy
Difficulties with property registration/titling
High lending interest Rates
Low level of incomes/informality
Lack of housing supply - new construction
Cost and time of foreclosing on a property
Other (please specify)
Other (please specify)

22. Housing Microfinance Market Obstacles (Please answer, based on your knowledge,
even if your organization is not active in this market)
Please describe what you view as the main obstacles to developing the housing microfinance
market in your country. A table of obstacles is provided below – Please rank the top 5
obstacles to developing the housing microfinance market to be ranked in order (with 1
being biggest obstacle). Please add other issues which do not appear on the list if needed.

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 Ranking
Limited access to capital for lending
High lending interest rates
Low level of household incomes
Poor or unclear regulatory framework for NGOs and similar
organizations that deliver housing microloans
AIDS/HIV as a source of credit risk
Lack of understanding of housing microlending product by consumer –
lack of financial literacy
Poor loan recovery rates
Other (please specify)
Other (please specify)
Other (please specify)

23. Do you have any specific Best Practice in your operations that you may wish to share
with others?

Yes [__] No [__]

24. If the answer is YES, please describe this best practice in not more than two pages.

25. LASTLY: If you could recommend one legislative change that would fundamentally alter
the environment in which you worked, what would it be?

This is the end of the questionnaire. Thank you very much for your
assistance! Please email your completed questionnaire to:
jgmutero@gmail.com
Lorraine@housingfinanceafrica.org
kecia@housingfinanceafrica.org