ABSTRACT
The chapter considers efforts in Europe to connect affordable rental housing projects to emerging forms of social impact investment. In describing the 'carrot' of tax incentives and the 'stick' of community reinvestment legislation that helps tax incentives function, attention is given to how the governing mechanisms within these structures take effect and shape the politics of investment in US affordable rental housing. Since the financial crisis, institutional investment in rental housing has been alternately framed in policy debates around Europe as a sought-after prize that will boost new affordable supply, and as a potential threat to existing supplies of affordable rentals. Moreover, reliance on private market-oriented investment appears to be a double-edged sword in that the same conditions favouring investment in new-build affordable rental projects may also create new challenges around preserving existing low-income housing stock. The chapter describes how private commercial investment in affordable rental housing may be motivated by the state, using both incentive and regulatory frameworks.
