Nearly one billion people live in informal squatter settlements that lack basic infrastructure for sanitation, energy, water and access to social services, education and healthcare facilities, a number that is expected to double over by 2030.
(United Nations Human Settlements Program)

- Community Facilities Type
- Housing Type
- Setting of Housing/Community Facilities
- Zone Location of Housing Units
- Percent Affordable Housing

- Number of Housing Units Financed
- Value of Housing Units Financed
- Number of Community Facilities Financed
- Value of Community Facilities Financed

- Square Feet of Community Facilities Financed

- Value of Commercial or Retail Infrastructure Financed
- Energy Efficiency Improvements
- Energy Saved/Conserved
- Building Re-use

- Individuals Housed

Acumen Fund’s Housing portfolio invests in sustainable, scalable enterprises that focus on both supply and financing for housing, and on broader financial innovations that provide economic access to the poor.

“Over one billion people – 32% of the global urban population – live in urban slums in emerging countries, with 500,000 more joining them each week. In addition, virtually all net growth of 2.6 billion in world population between now and 2050 is projected to occur in these cities. Relatively poor nations will build the equivalent of a city of more than one million people each week for the next 45 years.  Embedded in such glaring migration patterns and population growth implications is the critical need for affordable and safe housing. Although the collective poor have invested massively in their homes, they have done so against some of the most adverse conditions. Often they face a broken housing market: inefficient or non-existent property rights systems,  corruption laden beauracratic processes, low-quality, high-cost building materials,  limited delivery channels, and a lack of access to financing and sound technical assistance.”(link}

“Shelter is a basic human need. It protects us from the physical elements and provides security and a sense of belonging. Numerous individuals and groups, from manufacturers partnering with architects to grassroots activists for the homeless, are exploring innovative materials and building methods to provide temporary, transitional, or permanent structures for the disadvantaged.”{link)

Since 2005, Monitor Group, the World Bank, and the National Housing Bank of India have been working together to find market-based solutions to India’s housing crisis.  Current reports estimate that 43 million people (nearly 15% of India’s urban population) currently reside in slum settlements. This represents a shortage of 24.7 million urban housing units, which is expected increase by nearly 2 million housing units per year due to urban migration.  Not only does this housing problem present a massive opportunity to improve lives and quality of life, it also represents a market opportunity of $144 billion.  Over the past 18 months, Capital Impact has worked with Jim Sorenson and Monitor Group in performing due diligence on low-income housing developments, building technologies, and low-income mortgages.(link)

Urban Habitats Forum is a professional civil society initiative whose primary purpose is to serve as a  multi-disciplinary public awareness and educational platform, and to facilitate positive change in India’s cities by engaging all stakeholders of society in shaping India’s built environment.

Authors: Ali Salman and Jawad Aslam
Source: Acumen
Year: 2009
Historically, low cost housing in Pakistan has either been the realm of NGOs, the government, or the informal sector. Due to the heavy capital requirements, as well as level of skill involved in scaling up the housing sector, NGOs and government have not gained much ground in effectively targeting Bottom of the Pyramid and building healthy and sustainable communities through low cost housing. Drawing from a case study of Saiban (an Acumen Fund investee), this working paper demonstrates that low-income housing can address the need for affordable housing while tapping into a market that is potentially worth US $15 billion.

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Author: Helen Ng
Source: Acumen
Year: 2007
The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for the strategic use of guarantees to take housing finance to scale for the base of the pyramid (BOP).

Authors: William J. Kramer, Beth Jenkins, and Rob Katz
Source: MIT Innovations Journal via Acumen
Year: 2004
Making markets work at the base of the pyramid can revolutionize distribution of vital products and services to the poor – for little cost and even a profit. The four billion people in the world that live on less than $4 a day represent a mass retail opportunity – they are fiercely upwardly mobile and need access to formal economy capital, technology and markets.