Can private real estate make a bigger impact on housing affordability? Share your views.
Today I’ll be speaking at the NeighborWorks Symposium: Investing for Impact in Sustainable Communities and that provides a great opportunity for you to send in questions and thoughts on the topics they are covering.
I’ll add your questions to others I already have and will get the answers from speakers during the day — sharing them back on Twitter or via a blog post about the event later.
NeighborWorks has put together a unique event, with an agenda that sports quite a few sharp teeth.
Starting off with a keynote from Angela Blackwell, Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, the symposium dives deep into several interconnected aspects of housing affordability, with the goal of generating actionable ideas on next steps to improve the impact of investing in housing affordability and sustainable communities.
Symposium topics include:
- the proposition that greater investment in housing organizations is needed to assist the cause of affordability.
- the role of sustainable design in housing affordability.
- a look at our understanding of social returns from affordable housing and how can that knowledge stimulate greater private capital investment in the sector.
I am speaking on the last topic above, as part of a panel moderated by Nancy Andrews, of Low Income Investment Fund. Since we are speaking in an open Q&A format, the specifics of our discussion on social returns will evolve from the input of all the speakers.
Tomorrow, I’ll speak about the tools from Galley Eco Capital’s work that non-profit housing groups can use to better engage private real estate investors on investing in rental housing and sustainable communities.
The graphic for today’s post is the title page of my talk, which will contain a good dose of material on triple bottom line metrics as well as the role of innovation within the discussion.
After the event, I’ll post a short except from the presentation, to continue the conversation on the role of social returns within private real estate investment decision and if it is truly possible improve the way we invest in housing affordability and communities within the US.
Got any questions that you’d like answered on the above topics? If you send them to me, I’ll ask panelists and speakers during the day as time permits.
In any event, I look forward to hearing about your views on the topic.
I can post the answers either on Twitter or on a blog post for everyone later when the conference is over.
Stay tuned!
Deep Horizon oil spill soaks $9 billion in CMBS deals
The first factoids, attaching dollar signs to the Deep Horizon oil-related damage to commercial real estate, are washing ashore.
Realpoint, a rating agency, recently reported (in Real Estate Finance & Investment and Institutional Investor) that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is affecting “$9 billion in commercial mortgage-backed-securities (CMBS) deals“.
The article notes:
[Realpoint] found that there are about 306 loans on 319 properties on the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida that are feeling a direct impact from the spill. The agency believes that the biggest threat to cash flow will be reduced tourism, particularly for properties in Florida. About 247 of the properties affected by the spill are in Florida; reports are that it could cost the state about $2.2 billion.
So will those property owners and the CMBS bondholders go marching arm-in-arm to British Petroleum, to file claims for lost income on those properties and/or debt service on those loans? How will they be compensated for the permanent loss of market value on a “marked” property, not to mention loss of access to refinancing for properties that really are or perceived to be oil-damaged?
Those factoids will roll in soon, I’m sure.
So we now have the unhappy visual of real estate investors, pants rolled up to their knees, trudging through the business, legal and insurance swamp surrounding Gulf-region CMBS, added to a somber image of the rest of the industry on its slow march to building-related sustainability.
One thing’s for sure: the proximity of these events takes the option of doing nothing about environmental and social responsibility off the table (finally).
