Generally, the mortgage sector across Sub-Saharan African countries is underdeveloped, with limited housing finance activity and few commercial banks savings accounts. Only three percent of Africa’s urban population is eligible for a conventional mortgage, with 85% of the population lacking access to formal housing loans – meaning that mortgages compose less than 10% of the Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP.
A major limitation to the mortgage market is the lack of fund that can be used for mortgage products. Long term access to funds is an obstacle to growth, and in Uganda, almost 70% of liabilities are short term, maturing in a month or less. Further, even the most affordable mortgages are inaccessible for the majority of low-income groups. Uganda’s mortgage market is an example of this, with the least expensive finance product (in 2010) requiring a minimum monthly salary of US$400 – which means only 1% of households would be eligible.
Source:
World Bank Group. (2015) Stocktaking of the Housing Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa : Challenges and Opportunities. World Bank, Washington.
Link: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23358.