In that pact, countries agreed to balance their budgets, restore financial stability, stabilise the exchange rate at realistic levels and enhance mutual cooperation. Along with the carrot, thus came the stick. In many ways this is similar to the approach followed in later years by the International Monetary Fund in its macroeconomic adjustment programs.
This requires economic and social support to get above the poverty line. The levels of unemployment also remain significantly high, thereby rendering housing unaffordable to many. It is also important to reckon the fact that even today there is a large population which remains financially excluded from the formal banking/financial systems and, in the process, is deprived of access to housing finance.