This study into housing finance in Malawi has been commissioned by FinMark Trust of South Africa, and partly
funded by Habitat for Humanity. It is one in a series of studies covering East and Southern Africa with the aim
of documenting the current status quo on housing finance and making recommendations on how interested
organisations can intervene to improve the flow of finance, particularly targeting lower income households. This
report was commissioned as a short desk-research study, however there was limited published material on the
housing and more particularly the housing finance sector in Malawi, therefore the content was enriched with
additional face-to-face interviews with financial, housing provider and policy-making stakeholders. As the
FinScope Malawi study had just been completed, analysis is drawn from this where relevant. In addition, a
limited amount of high-level analysis was undertaken to provide estimates of the size of the housing finance
market and the income distribution characteristics of the customers from each of the institutions. These
estimates are based on anecdotal numbers provided in interviews and should only be used as indicative figures
to support ongoing dialogue between stakeholders to improve access to housing and housing finance.