The premise for the joint venture is Mexico's housing shortage,estimated to be 5 million units and growing by 500,000 units ayear. "Mexico's housing sector, and specifically the low-costsegment of the market, represents one of the premier investmentopportunities in the world today," says Mexico Home Capital founderand chief executive officer John Ganschow.

"The basic supply-demand fundamentals underpinning this marketare extraordinary, and this translates into exceptionalrisk-adjusted yields for our institutional capital partners, whichthey cannot find today in the US or overseas," says Ganschow,adding the country is building a mortgage-backed securities market."If this secondary market develops as we and others think it will,it could impact Mexico in much the same way as the MBS market didin the U.S. starting in the early 1980s when it triggered aprolonged housing boom that is still underway today."