Remittances and the Housing Sector: Issues and Opportunities

The Institute gave a two-day course to staff at the Inter-American Development Bank at its headquarters in Washington DC addressing the impact of migrants’ remittances on housing and land markets in Latin America. The course consisted of case studies from different Latin American countries developed to present topics of interest to IADB staff and to generate discussion on ways the IADB could fund projects that direct remittances into housing construction and infrastructure improvement. The presentations covered material developed through the Institute’s collaboration with Dr. Ricardo Puerta, a senior affiliate from Honduras, on changes in land and housing prices and on characteristics of remittance recipients in that country. Projects and programs in Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador and Mexico were also presented. The course was acclaimed for its cutting edge material and received an excellent evaluation from participants.

The wide interest generated by the topic and the requests from the IADB regional offices to participate prompted the IADB to request that the Institute conduct a second course in Spanish in San Salvador, El Salvador in April 2006. More than 35 IADB staff members, local leaders, and representatives from NGOs in Central America attended the two-day event.

Mona Serageldin, Ricardo Puerta, Christa Lee-Chuvala