ABSTRACT
This chapter articulates that capital markets in developing countries often fail to offer sufficient financial services that are accessible to poor families, thus limiting their capacity to enter the housing market. The different variables presented in the chapter become simultaneously a cause and a consequence of the inefficiency of the housing market, and bring negative consequences for both economy and society. The challenges presented remind the obsession with homeownership in most housing strategies in developing countries. Innovative programs aimed at promoting rental housing can provide fruitful alternatives to deal with both quantitative and qualitative housing deficits, while at the same time reinforcing and consolidating the housing stock in particular, and human settlements in general. The chapter reveals that an exaggerated perception of markets has led several actors to consider housing as a commodity that is exchanged through the rules of supply and demand and that is valued purely for its material and physical attributes.
