In 2023, Canada’s National Housing Council convened a Review Panel to investigate the financialization in purpose-built rental housing1. The Review Panel invited written submissions. Hundreds of people responded. Many of the submissions were published as part of the Review Panel’s written record2. This post is about the submission by the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE).
SHARE’s submission focusses on the activities of large investors. Examples of these investors include REITs (real estate investment trusts), private equity funds and public pension funds. SHARE contends that the current structure of the investment market creates risks for government and for business. SHARE recommends ways to change the regulations that govern investments. The changes are intended to reduce risk by opening opportunities for private investment in non-market housing.
Why does this matter?
As noted at the start of the post, the Review Panel was convened to investigate how the rules that govern the financialization of purpose-built rental housing affect the right to adequate housing.
SHARE’s submission provides important information about the rules governing financialized housing that contribute to renovictions, poor building maintenance and sharply rising rents for tenants. The submission also identifies changes to structural arrangements that would direct sustainable sources of investment in non-market housing. This aligns with the purpose of the Review Panel.
The report from Review Panel indicates that SHARE’s submission had an effect. SHARE speaks in favour of enhancing financial support for non-market housing. In turn, the Review Panel’s report recommends measures to:
‘Incentivize the development of new affordable rental housing supply, particularly in the non-market sector.’
More specifically, SHARE’s submission discusses social housing bonds, which are a financial instrument that offers a fixed return on investment. SHARE notes that social housing bonds have been ‘trialled’ in a sample of non-market housing developments. SHARE’s submission proposes expanding the use of social housing bonds. The Review Panel carries this recommendation forward in its report as follows:
‘Explore the creation of non-market housing bonds to provide a stable financial investment that can fund non-market rental housing providers’ acquisition and operation of deeply affordable rental housing.’
The Review Panel is part of Canada’s new apparatus to progressively realize the right to adequate housing. Review panels are intended to draw the Federal Government’s attention to structural barriers (policy and legislation) that prevent rights holders (residents) from living in adequate housing. SHARE’s submission provides an example of how rights holders can contribute to a Review Panel. The Review Panel’s recommendations demonstrate that individual submissions underpin their work.
Looking ahead, the next piece of Canada’s new apparatus will be tested for the first time when Sean Fraser, the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities responds to the Review Panel’s report. What Minister Fraswer has to say will be of interest to Canadian residents and anyone else following this new process as it continues to unfold.
SHARE’s submission is posted by the National Housing Council: Submission to the National Housing Council on the Financialization of Purpose-Built Rental Housing
Footnotes
- For more about the Review Panel try: The Right To Adequate Housing In Canada: Another Step On That Path
- The Review Panel process allows for confidential submissions. Those submitted as confidential are not posted in the Written Record.
