ABSTRACT
Introduction Housing finance, as we have seen, is about ensuring access to good quality housing. But providing a quality product is expensive and this makes access harder, particularly for those on low incomes. What this suggests is that we need to be concerned with how households are able to gain access to highquality housing. Gaining access is, of course, a question of resources, of having the money and materials available. But it is also a question of who controls the resources and where the money comes from; or, in other words, whose money is being used to provide good quality housing for all households? Do we expect households to sort out their housing for themselves, or is it a problem that is beyond them and so needs the intervention of government? Can we leave the provision of good quality housing to markets and households using their own income, or does government need to assist this process?
