A/67/286 central pillar of global financial markets, critical to the development of the financial sector at the country and international levels. 63. Three main housing financing mechanisms (sub-prime mortgage loans, demand-side subsidies and housing microfinance) have been promoted to specifically facilitate the access of lower-income households to housing finance, promoting homeownership. These policies have been implemented in the context of a changing role of the State from supplier of affordable housing to enabler of housing and financial markets. 64. Having examined the impact of these policies in various regions of the world, it is the view of the Special Rapporteur that they have largely failed to promote access to adequate housing for the poor. Evidence indicates that housing policies based exclusively on facilitating access to credit for homeownership are incompatible with the full realization of the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty, failing to supply habitable, affordable and well-located housing solutions accessible to the poor. 65. Housing finance policies based on credit are inherently discriminatory against lower-income households, and at their best increase housing affordability for upper- and middle-income groups. Housing finance policies often “redline” the poor, who are required to pay much higher prices for financial services, exposing them to financial risks inherent to global financial markets and indebtedness. 66. At the same time, housing finance policies tend to focus solely on housing affordability while failing to address the broader aspects of the right to adequate housing: location, access to infrastructure and services, habitability and security of tenure. 67. The focus on the financial aspects of housing has led to the conceptualization of housing as an asset and commodity, distributed only by market forces. However, even when gaining access to credit, low-income groups have no capacity to negotiate credit conditions or housing typologies and are forced to comply with the housing solutions allocated by the economic and profitability considerations of the housing market. 68. Subject to financial logic, the housing market has not led to adequate housing solutions for the poor. In many cases, housing finance policies have resulted in increasing inequalities in access to housing, increased tenure insecurity, poor location and low habitability, social segregation and sometimes, increased homelessness. 69. Demand-side housing finance policies have been promoted with the aim of reducing State expenditures and overcoming problems related to social housing programmes, such as urban segregation. However, it has become evident that whether in the form of tax exemptions, “bail-outs” for financial institutions following housing market busts or subsidies for low-income households, States still invest huge public resources in housing. In addition, these policies have often resulted in problematic outcomes, similar to those affecting social housing. 70. Long-term rights-based assessment of the impact of housing finance on access to adequate housing for the poor is largely lacking. Available data focus 12-45918 21