Housing Policy and Program Development and Evaluation

Whether you're looking to develop a national housing strategy from the ground up or grow your country's mortgage market, CMHC international can help.

Policy Development

We’ll work with you to define the problem, research its causes, develop viable alternatives and make the right choices. Recommending effective policy options demands both a solid understanding of the market and the ability to appreciate how various socio-economic factors interact to influence the effectiveness of programs and regulations. CMHC International’s experienced professionals know who to consult and how.

Policy development begins with decisions about the role that a government intends to play in housing and housing finance. Letting government assume primary responsibility for housing production will translate into vastly different policies than designating the market as the primary provider of most housing solutions.

CHMC recognizes the merits of both approaches but favours one that enables the housing finance system to fuel the supply of accessible, affordable housing by private sector players, with complementary government interventions as necessary to help those unable to function in the housing market without assistance.

CMHC International has extensive experience with market-enhancing policies, including property rights protection mechanisms and regulations designed to make housing transactions more transparent. Other measures include developing standards for land use planning and residential construction, and raising public awareness about alternative forms of housing tenure (e.g., ownership, rental, co-operative). Still other measures include educating the public on self-build housing and developing housing finance and micro finance mechanisms to increase the availability of unsubsidized capital for housing.

Many of our clients have found that enhancing the products and processes of government housing agencies or the public and private companies that provide mortgage guarantees or mortgage refinancing support can make housing more readily available and improve affordability. Recommendations to regulatory authorities such as central banks and housing ministries can accomplish similar ends.

CMHC has provided housing policy advice to many governments, government agencies and private sector organizations. It recently provided guidance to the Algerian government and its agencies on how to approach mortgage financing. It has been working with the Palestinian Authority to stimulate housing finance activities in the West Bank and Gaza and with the Government of Latvia to develop programs to enhance home renovations and purchases. In China, India and Serbia, CMHC International counselled governments on mechanisms to enhance the affordability and accessibility of homeownership. Meanwhile, in Egypt, India, China, Algeria, Mali and Hungary, CMHC has provided strategic training to senior bank executives and government officials to enhance understanding of how the development of the private housing market affects housing outcomes, how housing finance affects the economy and the housing market, and what kinds of conditions are conducive to healthy, responsive housing markets.

Program Design

Government housing programs can have a significant impact on housing outcomes. But interventions that work in modern metropolitan centres may not be appropriate for rural areas or remote populations. CMHC has been designing housing programs in Canada for more than half a century, working with provincial and municipal governments and community groups to support housing construction and home renovation targeting high-need or low-income populations. It has also designed unsubsidized programs to leverage private capital and influence housing outcomes for various client groups, including firsttime homebuyers, Aboriginal homeowners and potential investors in affordable rental housing. Early in its 50-year history CMHC devised a system of targeted, non-distorting subsidies and provided the Government of Canada with technical advice on urban infrastructure investments to increase the supply of serviced building lots.

Decades of experience have taught us that government-led housing programs invariably have side effects, many of them undesirable. Proper program design can minimize unintended results and optimize outcomes.We can help you steer clear of such pitfalls as market distortions, and inequitable outcomes that benefit some participants in the program more than others or bestow an unfair advantage on program participants compared with the rest of the population.We can also help you develop program elements that will ensure good governance, reasonable administrative costs and the desired allocation of benefits to the targeted groups.

Recent projects include advising the Algerian government on effective mechanisms for subsidizing access to homeownership, designing mechanisms to encourage [building owners and tenants] to finance the repair of existing dwellings in Latvia, and organizing a land-development demonstration project in Mali.

Program Evaluation

If your organization is looking for an impartial professional review of its program performance, CMHC International can help.

Having a knowledgeable outsider evaluate a program’s effectiveness can provide much-needed insight and ideas for program revision and policy reform. Countries as diverse as Finland, Algeria and China have benefited from CMHC’s extensive experience in program design and evaluation.

Whether you’re a public or private sector housing agency, a mortgage bank, securitizer or other financial institution, CMHC International can provide you with an independent audit and evaluation of your organization’s housing and housing finance programs. We’ll analyze the performance of current programs and recommend changes or refinements to make them more effective.