The appetite for investments in affordable housing will increase in 2025, according to 70% of the respondents in a new survey by Walker & Dunlop.
The bullish outlook comes as the affordable housing crisis gains attention and a new White House and Congress prepare to take office next year.
“We’ve seen the appetite and inquisitiveness about affordable housing continue to rise,” says Sheri Thompson, executive vice president and head of affordable housing at Walker & Dunlop. “It’s a bipartisan issue, and it’s also people recognizing there’s a dire need for it.”
This year’s finding is more optimistic than a year ago when 58% of respondents said they expected to see affordable housing investments increase in 2024.
Walker & Dunlop, a leading commercial real estate finance and advisory firm, conducted its survey during AHF Live: The Affordable Housing Developers Summit in November. Now in its second year, the survey gathered input from approximately 100 affordable housing developers and other executives, more than doubling the response count from the previous year.
“It’s a really good way to connect with clients and a good way to have a pulse of the industry in a very collaborative way,” Thompson says.
After a conference, attendees often try to recap what they heard and learned. The survey goes a step further by adopting a more comprehensive approach to gauge the industry's overall sentiments on key issues, according to Thompson.
She adds that while there are uncertainties heading into the new year, Walker & Dunlop executives feel good about the opportunities ahead.
“Some of that came out in the survey in terms of growth in the affordable platform,” Thompson says. “We’re focused on providing constant and stable liquidity to developers through the deployment of our debt and equity, which we believe is critical to the continued increasing, hopefully, supply in the market.”
The poll covered a variety of hot-button topics this year, including tariffs, which have been in the news as president-elect Donald Trump calls for new tariffs on goods imported from several countries.
The survey found that 84% of the respondents do not believe increasing trade tariffs will benefit home builders and home buyers.
Other survey findings include:
- 94% of respondents think regional changes to zoning policies could help boost the housing supply;
- 55% of respondents feel the Fed was effective in combating inflation over the last year;
- 89% of respondents think an increase in resources and supply can offset the rising costs of housing; and
- 52% of respondents say they have seen an increase in investments (debt and equity) in affordable housing in the last year.
