Looking to developed markets we know that market intelligence is fundamental infrastructure for the housing finance sector. In Africa, however, there is a paucity of this data which negatively impacts the sector by constraining private sector participation, undermining investment in affordable housing and disincentivising active government policy engagement in affordable housing finance.

By providing market intelligence that makes the case for investment in underserved markets, with Centre for Affordable Housing Finance (CAHF) as a partner, we intend to support a better policy environment and increased private sector activity in affordable housing markets. To this end, CAHF has created the first dashboard on the availability of housing finance data in Africa.

The CAHF dashboard is intended to highlight the information gaps that exist in many African countries, to spur stakeholders to take action to strengthen the data environment. CAHF’s vision is for the development of a housing finance data universe in Africa that provides regulators, policymakers, developers and housing financiers with accurate, relevant and current data.

To compile the dashboard, CAHF identified a core set of 79 headline indicators which provide the most vital information for understanding the status of the housing and housing finance sectors in a given country. The indicators are designed to speak to each of the 8 components in the housing construction value chain:

In the coming months, CAHF is undertaking deep-dive reports on the housing finance data ecosystem in eight countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Morocco) to provide a fuller picture of the availability of data against these headline indicators.

Try it out now by clicking here – you can explore the availability of the data on the Headline Indicators by country, and for each component of the value chain. And, send any comments and suggestions to our partners at CAHF: Alison Tshangana alison@housingfinanceafrica.org,