July 7, 2021: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has licensed three new Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. SECP believes that a revitalized HFC sector will contribute to catering to the huge demand for affordable housing finance in the country.
The newly licensed HFCs include Pakistan Housing Finance Company Limited, Trellis Housing Finance Company Limited and Asaan Khar Finance Limited. Prior to that, there has been no licensed HFC in existence, for the past one decade.
While cognizant of the huge gap in the affordable housing finance space, the SECP in collaboration with Pakistan Mortgage Refinance Company and the World Bank Group lead off a comprehensive awareness campaign to highlight the opportunities for potential new entrants to tap this vastly underserved market.
A number of webinars were conducted to impart information on the regulatory framework and legal requirements to form HFCs. The SECP also guide prospective investors on the available funding mechanisms for housing finance companies and assisted them in preparing workable HFC business models. The SECP also supports the proposal to include the HFCs in Government’s Markup Subsidy Scheme for housing finance.
The above-mentioned initiatives translated into three new entrants into the housing finance market, who are expected to commence operations during the current year.
