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By Julio A. Millán B
In late 2008 we were commenting on the importance of the housing sector as a central dynamic axis of the economy and employment in a difficult cyclical economic environment. We knew that 2009 would be a year of crisis and that housing would have to emerge as an engine of anti-cyclical and economic development. In this regard it is noteworthy that Infonavit, the most important body in lending housing reports a 41 percent advance at the first half of 2009 to respect to its target year from about 450 thousand credits. Moreover, for several months, the bank credit for housing presents a slowdown sharp in its growth rate registering decreases up to 85 percent as happened on May 2009 compared with May 2008. In another issue we have seen important achievements in the assignment of public resources towards subsidy programs for housing. However, the situation in the Mexican economy with all its variables to be significantly affected, coupled with the lack of fluency in bridging loans for the construction of housing developments, will be a factor that put on risk the building goal for 2009. Also, the weakness of public revenue is an imbalanced variable.
It is therefore essential that the actors involved in the sector can be able to find dynamic lines of action that leads to enhanced growth beyond the goals set forth in the National Pact for Housing, signed on March of this year. Moreover, it is a priority to consolidate and institutionalize a National System of Housing, which together with public organisms like the National Commission of Housing monitor results in this area and establish a Permanent Observatory, which serves as the hub of information and action to streamline the sector. The industry players must constantly review its progress and reconcile their results and compare figures collated in an environment of absolute transparency in information.
In the risks balance, it is a priority that the public and private sectors comply with a coordinated strategy, where strengthen the body referred, and which also serves as a trigger for the financing and execution of the expenditure on housing development. Finally an additional strategy is to accelerate the execution of public spending in programs like This is your house, social pillar of the National Pact for Housing. At the extent that each player, both public and private, accomplishes meeting the commitments, we can find credibility and greater coordination which results essential in a crisis environment where anti-cyclical measures will be essential to give certainty to the process of the country's economic recovery.
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