NHB to host e-site for South Asia Housing forum

NHB to host e-site for South Asia Housing forum
The Economic Times, July 5, 2009, Page 6

ET Bureau, NEW DELHI

National Housing Bank (NHB) will host an electronic site for the South Asia Housing Forum, which will facilitate the exchange of
knowledge, experiences, policies, programmes and strategies for housing solutions among the member countries.

This decision was reached at the recently organised South Asia Regional Housing Workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia, by the World Bank.

As per the proposal, NHB will also set up a secretariat for the South Asia Housing Forum (SAHF). The member countries include Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mauritius and Maldives.

While the countries of the South Asian region represent nearly one-fourth of the world population, and more than a billion people as candidate of low-income housing, the region is still the lowest in terms of mortgage debt to GDP ratio, a measure of penetration of housing finance in a country's economy.

Most of the housing shortage in the region originates from the low-income segment of the population.