A/HRC/34/51 informal settlements, where upgraded housing is attracting real estate speculation and price increases.50 46. Experiences of financialization in emerging economies demonstrate many commonalities with experiences in global cities.51 In Malaysia, for example, the national mortgage corporation, Cagamas, originally established to promote access to affordable housing as a social policy, has been transformed into the single largest issuer of assetbacked securities in Malaysia, with more than 50 per cent of the market share, and with the goal to establish itself as a “leading securitization house in the region”. It has been at the centre of a significant expansion of homeownership modelled on the United States institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.52 47. The Republic of Korea experienced a fairly rapid transition to a financialized economy after the Asian financial crisis, when the International Monetary Fund bailout of Korean banks was made conditional on a restructuring programme of deregulation and privatization. While expanded access to mortgages has increased the rate of homeownership, the Republic of Korea now experiences greater inequality between rich and poor and has the highest level of household debt for any emerging country. 53 48. In Egypt, after Prime Ministerial Decree No. 350/2007 removed restrictions on foreign purchases of property, land prices more than doubled in many areas, rising at a rate of 148 per cent per year between 2007 and 2011.54 Extension of credit for housing has been largely restricted to higher income households in Cairo and Giza, and approximately 3 million homes have been left empty or unfinished by their owners in urban areas. Poverty continues to increase and more than 12 million people live in informal housing. 55 49. In Mexico, mortgage securitization and other aspects of financialization have been adopted, beginning in 2003, with the active involvement of the World Bank. The housing market experienced a boom with increased mortgage lending and a tripling of the amount of residential mortgage-backed securities to over US$ 6 billion in 2006. However, the benefits of the housing boom and securitized mortgages have not extended to the households that are most in need. Measures taken by the Government to stabilize the financial sector proved attractive to financial corporations, pension funds and private equity firms, which have become more significant actors in the Mexican housing market. 56 50. In many developing and emerging economies, the World Bank and other international and regional financial institutions continue to actively promote the financialization of housing as the dominant strategy for addressing the critical need for housing, despite evidence that such strategies fail to provide housing options to the 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 14 See Vandana Desai and Alex Loftus, “Speculating on slums: infrastructure fixes in informal housing in the global South”, Antipode, vol. 45, No. 4 (2012). Bruno Bonizzi, “Financialization in developing and emerging countries: a survey”, International Journal of Political Economy, vol. 42, No. 4 (2014), p. 91. Ibid., p. 93. See Kyung-Hwan Kim and Miseon Park, “Housing policy in the Republic of Korea”, Asian Development Bank Institute Working Paper, No. 570 (April 2016). Available from www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/183281/adbi-wp570.pdf. See Yahia Shawkat, “Egypt’s deregulated property market: a crisis of affordability”, Middle East Institute, 5 May 2015. Available from www.mei.edu/content/at/egypts-deregulated-property-marketcrisis-affordability. See World Bank, “Opening up housing to Egypt’s poorest”, 5 May 2015. Available from www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/05/04/opening-up-housing-to-egypt-s-poorest. Susanne Soederberg, “Subprime housing goes south: constructing securitized mortgages for the poor in Mexico”, Anitpode, vol. 47, No. 2 (March 2015), pp. 495-96.