Evaluation of the AID role in the development of housing finance in the Dominican Republic

programs to develop housing finance in the Dominican Republic and the expectations and frustrations generated by that early success are highlighted in this report. An opening section presents background on conditions affecting housing and housing finance, touching on urbanization and economic conditions, housing finance policy, the construction industry, and the interventions of two public sector institutions, in particular the National Housing Institute. The country's major financial institutions are introduced and, more specifically, the institutions and policies of the current Dominican housing finance system are detailed. The paper's major section addresses the development of A.I.D. housing objectives, 1962-84, describing as well the internal and external constraints to these objectives which led to the discontinuation of the Housing Guaranty program. The study concludes that A.I.D. was successful in achieving its primary objectives of stimulating the development of institutions and mechanisms for housing finance and establishing a permanant source of housing finance funds. Lessons learned are outlined, and the general applicability of these lessons to projects in other Latin American countries is briefly discussed.