Press ‘reset’ for new approach to making housing affordable

Housing affordability, and the lack of it, is a bit like the covid virus according to Xavier Jongen, Managing Director, Catella Residential Investment Management. It has turned into a global problem and even though governments and citizens have worked hard to change the situation, we now have to accept that this has not worked.

“We have to press a reset button and find new ways of addressing it,” Jongen said when Real Asset Insight caught up with him during the recent ULI Europe Conference, staged in Brussels.

During a session which included input from Karen Shaw Petrou of Federal Financial Analytics, one of the global experts in capital markets, who dialled in from the US to look at financial regulation aspects, Nathalie Caillard, CEO, Ampere Gestion, France also discussed a public-private partnership model that has potential to be scaled. Sorcha Edwards, Secretary General, Housing Europe, discussed the role of the social housing sector.

Jongen said it is important to bridge positions in a different way. “If we think in silos and we don’t talk with each other – public sector, private sector, social housing organisations, investors  – then perhaps that’s also part of the problem.”

“Let’s try to open some windows,” he added. “Ultimately, that’s perhaps my key takeaway.”

Click on the video to watch the full interview or listen to the podcast below.