Institutional investment in the rental market to support the housing needs of people on low-to-middle incomes

Date: 13 December 2010

On 13 December we hosted a roundtable, in partnership with Grainger, to explore whether and how institutional investment could support the housing needs of people on low-to-middle incomes. The roundtable event was attended by a range of stakeholders including institutions, housing associations, landlords, experts and government policy makers. Clive Cowdery chaired the event, and contributions were offered by Nick Jopling at Grainger and John Coles at Evenbrook. Key barriers to institutional investment included:

• lower net income returns in comparison to the commercial market; 
• the lack of scale to make sizeable investments; 
• tax impediments; 
• cost of land; 
• planning bureaucracy; 
• management burden and reputational risk that comes from direct investment; 
• lack of familiarity with the residential market; 
• the fact that the eventual sale of the property on the owner-occupier market is worth more than the rental unit.

A range of solutions and models were identified that would support further investment. We will be looking into these further over the coming months.

Back to events list