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The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- The Committee's recognition in its general comment No. 6 and in periodic reviews that the right to life requires positive measures to address homelessness and poverty stands in marked contrast with the absence of consideration of these obligations in the Committee's consideration of alleged violations under the Optional Protocol.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Patterns of inequality are often starkest in developing countries. In Africa, if current trends continue, the number of households living in informal settlements will continue to increase while the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals is predicted to rise by almost 50 per cent in the next decade.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 9e
- Paragraph text
- [Urban poor individuals and communities are essential actors in strengthening tenure security. States should be accountable to the urban poor for the implementation of these guiding principles by, inter alia:] Periodic reporting of progress at national and international levels.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 2d
- Paragraph text
- [In order to improve security of tenure, especially for vulnerable and marginalized persons and groups living in urban poor settlements, States, including relevant authorities, should take the following measures:] Review and reform urban plans and regulations in order to integrate settlements;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 2a
- Paragraph text
- [In order to improve security of tenure, especially for vulnerable and marginalized persons and groups living in urban poor settlements, States, including relevant authorities, should take the following measures:] Conduct citywide assessments of tenure arrangements;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Market-based housing finance inevitably targets the more affluent segments of society, which have the necessary capital to take on the initial housing loan and generate profit to lenders through the payment of interest. Mortgage finance has been traditionally considered unattainable for the poor owing to issues such as lack of title, informal and illegal settlements, restrictive zoning and occupancy regulations, low and erratic income and large-scale employment in the informal sector. Banks traditionally focus their marketing on the upper-income groups, tending to adopt an over-collateralized approach to lending (multiple guarantors, low loan-to-value ratio, etc.), which inherently excludes low-income groups. Mortgage markets, therefore, in effect discriminate against low-income borrowers. Research commissioned by the FinMark Trust in 12 countries across Africa found that less than 10 per cent of local populations are eligible for mortgage finance. In Eastern European countries in transition, recent estimates by UN-Habitat indicate that rapid house price increases coupled with high unemployment and higher interest rates on mortgages have excluded more than 80 per cent of new households from the new housing construction market.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- In recent years market-based housing finance has rapidly spread throughout the world, mainly targeting the more affluent segments of society that have had the initial capital to take a mortgage, profiting lenders through the payment of interest. Traditionally, mortgage finance has been considered unattainable for the poor owing to issues such as lack of land titles, low and erratic income and employment in the informal sector.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 2c
- Paragraph text
- [In order to improve security of tenure, especially for vulnerable and marginalized persons and groups living in urban poor settlements, States, including relevant authorities, should take the following measures:] Develop citywide strategies for securing tenure and upgrading settlements on different categories of land and with different tenure arrangements;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. (N/A)
- Paragraph text
- The plight of the urban poor presents one of the most pressing challenges to security of tenure, especially in an increasingly urbanized world. These principles aim to provide guidance to States and other actors to address this challenge in order to ensure adequate housing for poor and vulnerable people in urban and peri-urban areas.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 2e
- Paragraph text
- [In order to improve security of tenure, especially for vulnerable and marginalized persons and groups living in urban poor settlements, States, including relevant authorities, should take the following measures:] Adopt and implement a human rights-compliant resettlement policy to be applied where in situ solutions are not possible;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 2h
- Paragraph text
- [In order to improve security of tenure, especially for vulnerable and marginalized persons and groups living in urban poor settlements, States, including relevant authorities, should take the following measures:] Allocate sufficient funds to ministries, municipalities and local governments for the implementation of these measures; and
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Multilateral and bilateral development agencies should ensure that their operations and projects promote and do not undermine security of tenure, including by adopting binding safeguard policies that aim to give effect to the right to adequate housing. Such agencies should support States lacking sufficient resources to take all necessary measures to strengthen security of tenure of the urban poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- In the absence of affordable housing options the urban poor increasingly find self-help tenure solutions in urban and peri-urban areas. Programmes like the Thai Baan Mankong National Collective Housing Programme in Thailand, for example, can recognize and upgrade settlements on a citywide scale. Strategies should address the situation of settlements on both public and private land, with a presumption in favour of in situ tenure solutions, unless residents prefer another option.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Some countries have been implementing rent assistance programmes in order to address affordability problems (see A/HRC/13/20/Add.4, paras. 10 and 25). However, evidence indicates that such initiatives, in the absence of other policies regulating markets and assisting recipients of housing allowances, are not sufficient to provide adequate and affordable rental housing for low-income households. In countries in which rental supply is limited, subsidies schemes actually lead to an increase in rental prices and shortages of rental stock for low-income earners. Low income households receiving housing benefits often face difficulties in finding and keeping habitable accommodation in adequate locations with access to services, despite the extra purchasing power, owing to the low value of the benefits (given the rise in rental prices) and discrimination against vulnerable groups in the private rental market (see A/HRC/13/20/Add.4, paras. 17-26). In addition, means testing for housing benefits is often complicated, targeting is not always effective and allocation procedures encourage corruption. The tight conditioning of housing benefits on income levels has been criticized for failing to reach all beneficiaries (for example, only 40 per cent of private renters living in poverty in England are in receipt of housing benefit). Furthermore, the substantial cuts in housing benefits currently applied in various countries as part of recent austerity measures are likely to exacerbate the problem (see A/67/286, para. 32).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Once overtly excluded from accessing mortgage loans, the poor became the target of these more subtle discriminatory mechanisms. High- interest loans led to ever-increasing household indebtedness and economic insecurity and poor households were forced to reduce expenditure on other basic needs in order to meet their housing debt.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Inclusive urban planning. Inclusive urban planning is instrumental in promoting integrated communities and ensuring that well-located housing is available to the poor. Inclusionary zoning requires that a proportion of neighbourhood property be allocated to low-income dwellings; and, if combined with a mandate to maintain affordability over time, it can provide adequate housing for the urban poor. Inclusive parcelling and development regulations require that a proportion of new housing developments is reserved for low-income housing. For example, in France, 25 per cent of all new housing developments in an urban area with a population of more than 50,000 must be allocated to social housing. Similar policies exist in Canada, Colombia, Chile, Ireland, Maldives, the United States, England and Scotland, among others. A ceiling on plot sizes in residential zones can also lower housing costs by promoting higher-density accommodation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 4e
- Paragraph text
- [Property has a vital social function including adequate housing of the urban poor. States should balance property rights with the social function of property in designing and implementing housing and other relevant policies. In particular, States, including relevant authorities, should promote access to secure and well-located housing for the urban poor through, inter alia, the following measures:] Adopt inclusive urban planning strategies and regulations;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Significant increases in the supply of private rented housing are therefore necessary to help empower lower income tenants in the rental market and relieve affordability problems. In addition, demand-side policies are required to increase the affordability of the rental sector for the poor. Although most Governments have focused their efforts on increasing individual homeownership, there are some good examples of supply- and demand-based policies aimed at encouraging the small-scale private rental sector and increasing rent affordability for low-income households. Such interventions include taxation, direct or indirect subsidies, and regulation. State policies towards the informal rental sector also affect the accessibility of the poorest to rental arrangements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Despite the decline in support for rental housing, the absolute number of tenants worldwide is rising. Across the world, approximately 1.2 billion people (around one third of the urban population and one sixth of all people in the world) live in rented accommodation, the great majority in towns and cities. In many European countries the private rental sector, including informal, is playing a growing role for the poor, owing to inadequate access to social housing and greater constraints in accessing ownership. In developing countries, the largest proportion of tenants is in urban Africa; in Asia, tenants comprise approximately one third of the urban population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Most housing microfinance initiatives originate in developing countries and emerging markets - Latin America, Asia and, to a lesser extent, in Africa. Although microfinance agency interest rates are typically lower than those of informal moneylenders, they are much higher (between 20 and 50 per cent) than those charged by formal financial institutions and have much shorter maturities. The poorer the client, the more likely the housing microfinance agency will attempt to manage default risk by reducing the size as well as the time over which the client must repay the loan and by increasing the interest rate. The use of floating rates of interest also leads to increases over the repayment period, sometimes up to double the original rate. It is therefore questionable whether housing microfinance fosters housing affordability for the urban poor or whether, in some cases, it leads to increased indebtedness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The discrepancy between income levels and soaring housing and rental prices coupled with increasing unemployment have led to more payment default, foreclosures and homelessness. These processes are exacerbated by the adoption of legal and institutional adjustments aimed at facilitating foreclosures, which have been promoted in recent years as "imperatives for developing a housing finance system". The crisis has disproportionately affected the poorest and most vulnerable, who were the last to join the mortgage markets and the first to suffer the consequences of the crises owing to their low resilience to economic shocks and low repayment abilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- However, in the 1980s a new finance paradigm emerged, one that appeared to be able to address poverty through the expansion of small, informal-sector income-generating credit: microfinance. Private financial investors became convinced of the profitability of microfinance and came to regard the poor as "bankable". The result has been a dramatic rise since then in the flow of private investment capital (supported by donors, multilateral banks and international organizations) into the microfinance sector and, more recently, into housing finance services adapted to support incremental building processes. The growing commercial presence of major Western banking groups in developing countries and their interest in microfinance (including for housing) has been based on the idea that the "bottom of the pyramid" represents a large untapped market.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Housing microfinance is offered by a wide variety of institutions including microfinance agencies, such as Grameen Bank and affiliates of the Accion organization; banks and commercial institutions, such as HDFC Bank in India and the CEMEX company in Mexico (the Patrimonio Hoy programme); and intergovernmental organizations and NGOs specializing in shelter provision, such as the Rural Housing Loan Fund in South Africa and Habitat for Humanity. A distinction can be made between financial institutions offering micro enterprise loans and institutions whose main purpose is improving the shelter situation of the poor, which may or may not be financial institutions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Although microfinance agencies' interest rates are typically lower than those of informal moneylenders, they are much higher than those charged by formal financial institutions and have much shorter maturities. In most cases, the interest rates range between 20 per cent and 50 per cent. For example, MiBanco in Peru charges a 37 per cent annual rate and Compartamosbanco in Mexico charges almost 70 per cent interest on its housing microfinance programme. The poorer the client, the more likely the housing microfinance agency will attempt to manage default risk by reducing the time over which the client must repay the loan, increasing the interest rate and reducing the size of the loan. In some cases, the small loan amount is not sufficient and needs to be supplemented by additional borrowing from external sources, which carry very high interest rates and expose the household to increased risk. The use of floating rate interest also leads to increased interest over the repayment period, sometimes up to double the original rate. High interest rates increase clients' indebtedness and reinforce a vicious cycle of poverty and the likelihood of default. In some cases, long-held family assets (such as equipment or land) need to be sold, or other income flows (remittances, pensions) to be diverted into repayment. These "fallback" strategies account for the generally high repayment rates of housing microfinance, but reduce household equity, economic resilience and housing affordability. As is often the case in sub-prime mortgage lending, housing microfinance clients have been penalized for their "low profitability" by being forced to pay higher prices for access to housing finance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- There is also growing awareness of the failure of the housing microfinance industry to reach the poorest. Many housing microfinance programmes, being financially oriented, appear to target the higher-income urban poor (i.e., those with incomes above 50 per cent of the national poverty line) and near poor (a household income of up to 120 or 150 per cent of the national poverty line), the "economically active poor", sometimes those with formal employment and often those with diversified household livelihood strategies. The ultra-poor, i.e., those who are below the fifteenth percentile in the income distribution, often dispersed in rural areas which are costly to serve with credit or physical infrastructure, are not addressed by these programmes. The requirement of secure tenure may further define the client group as being the relatively "better off" poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Although the rationale for the implementation of subsidized mortgage markets is supposedly to reduce State intervention in the housing sector, support for savings banks, interest-rate subsidies and tax allowances mobilize a large amount of public money. The Government is committed to long-term subsidy payments, which are hard to control during the contract period. For example, in Spain and Hungary, tax-exemption schemes were recently cancelled owing to serious fiscal problems. The Special Rapporteur believes that a State's sole reliance on mortgage subsidies may be considered incompatible with its obligation to employ the maximum available resources to promote the right to adequate housing without discrimination. This is particularly the case when States devote the majority of their budgets to these policies while at the same time dismantling or failing to promote social housing programmes or other alternatives that specifically target the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The Chilean model has been praised as a best practice for its transparency, the scale of its shift of housing provision to private market providers (which were seen as more efficient and effective than Government in addressing the diversity of housing demand) and its targeting of the poor. The model has been widely replicated in Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)). Outside Latin America, the capital-grant approach has been implemented on a large scale in South Africa since 1994.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Credit was increasingly awarded to households that, in normal circumstances, would not be eligible for loans, generating what is known as "sub-prime" loans. Although these lending policies were intended to enable access to housing finance for low-income households previously excluded from the mortgage markets, they are still in effect extremely discriminatory with respect to the poor. Mortgage lenders classify loan applicants according to the risks that they pose to both lenders and investors. Credit scoring facilitates risk-based pricing by allowing lenders to charge higher interest rates for borrowers with low scores (bad risks) and lower interest rates for borrowers with high scores (good risks). Lenders became more willing to issue credit at a relatively high price to higher-risk borrowers. In the United States, a typical sub-prime borrower would pay $5,222 more during the first four years of a $166,000 mortgage than would a similar borrower with a normal mortgage (see A/HRC/10/7).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Attempting to complement resources, some States have promoted the involvement of both private banks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in supplying low-income households with microcredit, in addition to the State subsidy. These programmes act as institutional and financial intermediaries between the poor and the State, enabling the poor to "bridge the finance gap" in order to be eligible for the subsidy. However, research indicates that the combination of housing microfinance and subsidies has not been successful. Problems emerge, particularly in instances where the same microfinance institution manages both the need-based subsidy and the demand-driven loan, as the amount of the subsidy is inversely related to the amount of the credit.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Demand subsidies linked to mortgage finance or savings usually do not target the poor and in effect benefit the better-off (middle- and even upper-middle-income households). Income tax deductions of interest payments or a broad-based interest rate subsidy for mortgage loans tend to be regressive, as they increase with the amount of the loan and benefit those who can afford larger loans more than those with smaller loans. In the Philippines, interest rate subsidies account for 90 per cent of the value of housing subsidies; however, 77 per cent of the country's population cannot afford a formal-sector loan even at subsidized interest rates. Part of these subsidies may also leak out to benefit others in the housing systems and raise the value of existing dwellings and land.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
30 shown of 30 entities