Financial inclusion
Affordable housing represents a huge opportunity to stimulate emerging market economies, embed more climate conscious growth and sustainable cities; create jobs and rebalance wealth distribution for people on low incomes.
Reall are focused on unlocking housing markets that work for people living on a low income across emerging economies. We know that affordable housing can develop new markets, trade, services, products and investment and represents an untapped $17 trillion doorway to deliver 16 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Untapped $17 trillion market
Reall works with and invests in partners, contractors, governments, and finance institutions to make affordable housing markets accessible to the bottom 40% of earners in our priority countries across Africa and Asia.
Reall drives financial inclusion by brokering formal housing finance for people on low incomes. This includes proving why commercial banks and lenders should move ‘downmarket’ and launch innovative new products targeted explicitly at the low-income market. For example, Reall’s partners Casa Real and Absa Bank have developed the first ever mortgage for low-income households in Mozambique.
Finance to women and female headed households
Reall facilitates the direct lending of finance to women and female headed households whenever possible, recognising that equipping women with access to bank accounts and credit is an important gateway to additional financial services.
Up to one billion people worldwide are excluded from the formal financial system, especially in emerging markets. Yet, those who have most difficulty acquiring financial products and services are those who benefit most from them.
The high prevalence of informal employment in urban Africa and Asia over 80% of the adult workforce in most countries is a formidable barrier to lifting people out of poverty. People in informal employment do not have access to formal credit and loans, as banks lack documentation and information on them and incorrectly consider them risky repayors. This forces millions of people to live in substandard housing and slums, often paid for with credit on the black market at exorbitant rates.
FinTech innovators, data platforms and alternative credit scoring systems are disrupting formal finance
Reall drive financial innovation and de-risking to widen access to housing finance for the informal sector. This presents an enormous untapped opportunity for FinTech innovators, data platforms and alternative credit scoring systems to disrupt the space, improve risk modelling, and equip lenders with the tools to accurately assess the creditworthiness of informal customers for long-term housing finance.
Reall’s partner Syntellect has developed RightProfile, a credit-assessing platform that provides unbanked and new-to-credit customers with access to housing finance. No other credible tool has been brought to market for effectively assessing the risk of lending to informally employed people for longer term housing finance. RightProfile addresses a substantial gap in the Indian market and has plans to scale up across other parts of Asia and Africa.
When people can acquire their own home, it unleashes unimaginable human potential. Reall and our partners are demonstrating commercially viable models for climate-smart affordable housing, including pioneering the $10K house and inclusive rental solutions for urbanising cities in Africa and Asia.
Explore the Data Dashboard
Read More
CONNECT
WITH US
Mewahib Mohamed
Director of Programme and Business Development
