Operational guidelines for sustainable housing micro-finance in India

Purpose - Housing micro-finance is emerging globally as an important financial activity to help alleviate the housing needs of economically vulnerable people. Micro-finance institutions (MFIs) planning to include housing product must carefully assess whether they have the management and technical capacity to do so. The purpose of this paper is to give practical guidance to MFIs in adopting the housing programme, in addition to their existing line of micro-finance services.Design methodology approach - The paper gives practical guidance to MFIs adopting the housing programme in addition to the existing line of micro-finance services and inputs about any market study, profiling the customers, product design, pricing of the product, affordability of the clients, income assessment, loan assessment, operational procedures, risk coping mechanisms and technical backup guidance.Findings - The paper finds that MFIs should also ensure that housing micro-finance suits their strategy from institutional and financial perspectives.Originality value - This paper provides valuable practical guidance to MFIs.