Strategies to develop mortgage markets in transition economies

Mortgage market development is likely to be a key factor in overall financial market development in emerging market economies. An efficient mortgage market will act as a positive externality for other capital markets, creating pressure for higher efficiency in these markets. On the other hand, a poorly functioning mortgage market is likely to distort other financial markets. The primamry goal of the paper is to analyse the problems that are inhibiting the development of viable housing finance systems in transition economies and to draw relevant policy conclusions. In part two we address the question of why the banks in emerging market economies have failed to take the lead in developing a housing fianance system. We focus on credit, liquidity and interest rate risks. In the next part we evaluate the housing finance system used in the developed economies and put special emphasis on the two primary systems: those that rely on depository institutions acting as portfolio lenders and those that are driven by secondary market systems. In part four we evaluate the likely efficacy for the emerging market economies of alternative systems used in developed economies. Our conclusions favour the use of secondary mortgage markets as the key financial structure to eliminate the constraints that have slowed down the development of housing finance systems. Secondary markets confer two classes of benefits. First, banks can shed the risks associated with holding mortgage loans by selling the loans to other investors through secondary market. Second, secondary markets create standards for credit evaluation and collateral procedures that directly increase the efficiency of the primary markets for new mortgage originations. A housing finance system is unlikely to develop without government support. This did not occur in developed market economies and will not happen in transition economies. These economies face the additional major hurdle in that they must first create an economic and legal infrastrucuture that can support the long-term and complex market relationships and contracts that constitute a housing financial system, this economic and legal infrastructure is an integral part of the overall development of the financial sector in emerging market economies.Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/201