THE DESIGN OF DIRECT DEMAND SUBSIDY PROGRAMS FOR HOUSING IN LATIN AMERICA

Bruce Ferguson, Jacobo Rubinstein and Vicente Dominguez Vial

Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, 1996, vol. 8, issue 2, 202-219

Abstract: Traditional Latin American housing programs, which have used below†market interest rates to convey subsidies, have suffered from serious vices: high per†unit cost and subsidies, low population coverage, lack of transparency, benefits to the middle†class rather than the poor, and inefficiency. Chile broke out of this flawed traditional mode by launching a housing program that conveys subsidies directly to households in die form of a one†time, non†reimbursable grant This approach has spread to other Latin American countries, increasingly with the support of donors. The paper describes and then analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of direct subsidy programs in Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Uruguay to distill ten design lessons: target to low†income households and ensure political autonomy; replace below†market interest rates with direct demand subsidies; use group mechanisms for low†income households; stimulate supply, not just demand; adjust key amounts for inflation; balance progressivity and financial feasibility; join die efforts of various levels of government; use NGOs; establish mechanisms for on†going consolidation of housing solutions; and include measures to promote broader housing sector reform. The conclusion applies these lessons to the design of a housing pilot project in Venezuela.

Date: 1996
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-940X.1996.tb00118.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:revurb:v:8:y:1996:i:2:p:202-219

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0917-0553

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().