Disaster resiliency in housing in the Philippines: A market study of residential retrofit financing

Build Change is aiming to scale up a housing retrofit program piloted in the Philippines in 2017-18 through government or private sector led socialized housing financing programs. Build Change’s initial market assessment in 2017 indicates a demand for home retrofitting exists. The organization sought to formalize the market study through research aimed at achieving the following results:

• Developing a thorough understanding of the market size of the housing and finance needs of low income households.
• Developing a thorough understanding of housing financing products available in the Philippines from microfinance organizations (including rural banks) and government lending programs, including the regulatory requirements for each lender’s profile.
• Comparing the preferences and capacities of low income households with the housing financing products available in the market.
• Identifying the opportunities and barriers to scale a housing retrofit product among each type of financial institution and then providing recommendations on the partnerships representing the most promising way forward. 

Some key findings of this research include:

• The estimated market for housing retrofitting is nearly 15.6 million units, which house over 69 million vulnerable people. 
• Low income homeowners who already qualify for financial products and services of microfinance institutions (MFIs) have a good chance to access financing for house retrofitting. 
• MFIs can meet low income households’ need for home retrofit financing. 
• Local Government Units are well positioned to provide assistance to the poor and low income households for home retrofitting. 
• There are already housing financing products on the market.