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Solar + Housing = Impact: Why Investors Should Boost Renewable Energy in Affordable Housing
When it comes to off-grid solar energy, we tend to think of market extremes such as rural poor people in developing countries without any electricity or well-off people in developed countries looking to charge up their Teslas. But Lori Chatman of Enterprise Community Loan Fund and Ismael Guerrero of the Denver Housing Authority detail a project to bring green power to public housing residents in the Mile High City. The project could serve as a model for impact investors looking to improve health, expand green jobs and earn a return.
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New Products, New Markets – New Risks? Microfinance Shifts its Gaze to Housing
$2.3 trillion: That's what low-income households are predicted to spend on urban housing by 2025. So it's no surprise that many microfinance providers view housing lending as their next big opportunity for both profit and social impact. But this new focus brings plenty of challenges – and more than a few risks. We explore the implications of this development – a key topic of discussion at the recent European Microfinance Week.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Reimagining Slums: Innovative Solutions to Bangladesh’s Urban Housing Dilemma
Bangladesh's housing deficit has quadrupled in the last decade and, in the absence of adequate measures, it is projected to increase to 8.5 million units by 2021. Due to extreme demand and lack of rent control in slums, housing prices are sky-high. BRAC's Asif Saleh and Mahira Khan say these challenges highlight an opportunity for testing out models for urban development that leverage government, private business and the development sector.
- Categories
- Investing, Uncategorized
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The First MicroFinance Bank Afghanistan; Mibanco of Peru; and Cooperative Tosepantomin of Mexico Announced as Finalists for European Microfinance Award on Microfinance for Housing
This year, the Award highlights the role of microfinance in supporting access to better quality residential housing for vulnerable, low income and financially excluded groups with no or limited access to housing finance in the mainstream sector. This problem is multi-dimensional: sub-standard housing is not just an identifier of poverty, but rather it is the cause of a host of developmental problems.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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ShelterTech Mexico 2017: Promoting Entrepreneurship and Investment in the Housing Sector
Habitat for Humanity, in partnership with Village Capital, launched ShelterTech Mexico 2017, a three-month accelerator focused on housing sector startups that are increasing access for marginalized communities to basic services in any of three areas: water and sanitation, energy, and innovative construction materials. Melva Flores talks about the two teams selected by their peers to receive an investment of US $50,000 each.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Application period for the European Microfinance Award 2017 on Microfinance for Housing now open
The European Microfinance Award is a prestigious €100,000 award which attracts applications from financial institutions around the world that are innovating in a particular area of financial inclusion. Presented annually, it serves two parallel goals: rewarding excellence, and collecting and disseminating the most relevant practices for replication by others.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Home Sweet Home: Mobilizing Microfinance for Housing
Only 2 percent of microfinance portfolios consist of housing loans. Why? The authors say it's because housing languishes in the “household spending” category; it's not income generating, so it's somehow less deserving. It will soon be in the spotlight, however, as the eighth European Microfinance Award focuses on what financial institutions serving the world’s poor can do to address their housing needs.
- Categories
- Investing
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IBUILD Paves Way for Housing Development in Kenya
Kenya’s problems with real estate are well known: with a supply shortage of over two million houses and over 90% of the construction workforce not formally registered with the government, development is often erratic and informal. In the spring of 2015 a tech-enabled solution was set up by affordable housing and urban renewal organization Builders of Hope (BOH), with an aim of allowing people to build for themselves and to help the workforce find job opportunities.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- employment, housing
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