Assisted by growing capital supply, declining interest rates, and legal reforms, in the past decade housing finance has grown dramatically in emerging markets. The study explores evidence available from early emerging markets mainly from Latin America and Asia under which conditions the lending boom translated into a dynamic and sustainable economic and social development as measured by various indicators. The main finding is that despite early house price increases and boom-bust cycles in the early emerging markets, housing finance has in the long run helped to build thriving construction and financial service industries, with some players starting to go global. It has also contributed to improved blue-collar employment opportunities. Where housing supply moved downmarket and regional in parallel, sometimes with public policy assistance, greater availability of finance was finally able to contribute to declining housing deficits and indirectly reduce slums. The paper concludes with lessons for housing finance system development strategies.