The paper discusses the principal implications for urban development Financing created by the external crisis that most latin american countries are facing. Concentrating the discussion in the problems of housing and urban infrastructure financing, the paper argues that part of the shortages in public resources created by the crisis can be compensated by increasing the government’s capacity to charge users and beneficiaries the real costs of the urban services and infrastructure supplied by the public sector. The different reforms required to implement this proposal are reviewed and the argument is advanced that they will not only contribute to improve public finances, but also will force private actors to fully account for the costs or urban development decisions.