On 7 February in Paris, ULI Europe will launch its newest European product council, the Residential Council.

The pan-European Residential Council’s mission is to share best practices, lessons learnt and innovative solutions from a diverse group passionate about the creation, expansion and retention of high quality housing that is affordable for all and fits their living needs in our European cities as a key success factor for vibrant, dynamic and economically successful cities.

It captures the views of both ULI members and experts in the field on all types of affordable residential property across Europe and looks to share ideas and experiences from around the world to help provide insights into best practice in housing well.

The council plans to explore the following interest areas:

• Development and preservation of high quality affordable housing
• Housing affordability as a key success factor for keeping cities competitive
• Low income, skillful workforce and mixed income housing availability
• Sharing international and European best practices for housing affordability
• Tax credits and other public sources of capital and subsidies
• Private market investment initiatives, debt and subsidy sources
• For profit and non-profit development structures
• Exploring and embracing effective densification and innovative housing solutions
• Housing design to follow the principles of good density
• Role of modern methods of housing construction (off-site manufacturing)
• Influencing public housing policy to affordable housing development
• Avoiding the build-up of asymmetric risks and address affordability from a long term perspective

In the coming weeks, the council will also release a vision statement, which will look at housing affordability issues and set the council’s strategy over the next three years.

European Product Councils are forums for industry leaders to meet, exchange ideas, share best practices and foster thought leadership in their specific sector of the real estate market. Consisting of a genuinely international membership, the councils provide a unique platform to learn from peers in the same sector who are operating in different geographical markets, as well as help shape the future of pan-European real estate.

For more information on the Residential Council or on European Product Councils, please contact Clare Game at [email protected].