Mexico has an acute housing shortage, with the deficit at more than a third of the existing stock. In order to facilitate the construction of six million affordable homes from 2008-2012, the government established the National Housing Program (NHP). To mitigate CO2 emissions from these additional homes, Mexico’s major mortgage provider launched the Hipoteca Verde (Green Mortgage) program in 2007, which provides affordable mortgages and 20% subsidies so that qualifying households can purchase homes with efficient technology, such as energy efficiency lighting and solar water heaters. Additional subsidies for efficiency technology have also been added to Ésta es tu Casa (This is Your House), which is geared toward families who normally wouldn’t qualify for a green mortgage.
Though each home has saved 1-1.5 tons of CO2 emissions per year under this program, there are drawbacks. Critics argue that the program itself is dependent upon ongoing political will, that communities are planned far away from existing centers of growth, and that these programs still don’t reach the majority of low-income populations or those employed in the informal sector. Improving the residential sector further would require developing sustainable social rental housing.
Source:
Golubchikov, O., & Badyina, A. (2012). Sustainable Housing for Sustainable Cities: A Policy Framework for Developing Countries. UN-Habitat. Contribution by Sofía Viguri Gómez, Centro Mario Molina, Mexico