Building homes for generation rent – can institutional investment meet the challenge?

Low to middle income families are increasingly shut out of home ownership and not qualifying for social housing. This means that there is a need to focus specifically on increasing the supply of market rent property, but any new supply must be fit for purpose. Families with children now account for a third of the 3.8 million households living in the private rented sector, meaning that greater security, more professional management along with more transparent and predictable rent increases must be a priority.

At this event the Resolution Foundation and Social Finance launched the first financial model to test whether build to rent targeted at low to middle income families can produce viable investor returns. This model is the outcome of a six month long project led by the Resolution Foundation and Social Finance, along with six housing partners, including five registered providers of social housing based in different parts of the UK.

David Hutchison (Chief Executive, Social Finance) welcomed people to the event. Vidhya Alakeson (Deputy Chief Executive, Resolution Foundation) and Nick Salisbury (Director, Social Finance) presented the findings of the project followed by a panel discussion with Grainia Long (Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Housing), Brian Ham (Chief Executive, Dolphin Square Foundation) and Nigel Wilson (Chief Executive, Legal and General). Clive Cowdery (Chairman, Resolution Foundation) chaired this event.

We are grateful for the support of the following organisations in making this work possible: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Dolphin Square Foundation, National Housing Federation, Derwent Living, Great Places, GreenSquare Group, Home Group and Plus Dane.