Evolution of Some State-owned Housing Financial Institution

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The transition from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy has taken phases.  As a consequence of years of privatization and decentralization, the efficient market relations in relation to the housing finance system) have developed over time, attempt to introduce major social housing programs including mortgage finance have evolved as  in most countries the state pioneered their work to help middle-class families address their housing problems and made several initiatives to supply affordable houses to the majority of households, the legal and institutional framework of the housing finance system in the region continues to  be developed to cater for this market segment  needs.

However, the creation of efficient market-oriented housing finance systems in the countries of the GCC continues through creating different mature products and services have still been nascent. Governments continued to play the major roles of  managing the supply and demand   My interest over the years has been to study and evaluate  how public sector banks have been able to meet the needs to  create sustainable housing schemes  with more active participation of the private sector . I have decided to share my researches over number of articles.

The objective of this report is to summarize the experiences of different countries in the world in transforming their public sector housing banks from state-owned to private sector banks. From my study, I  concluded that the development of housing finance systems cannot be treated as a purely technical exercise and that economic objectives will become more important as transition economies are integrated into wider regional and global economic systems. I will highlight over the number of articles overall views on the housing sector starting from understanding various countries’ general experience to my own experience in transforming the housing bank in Bahrain.