Today’s housing crisis is a worldwide phenomenon. It’s not limited to the estimated 50,000 or more who live on the streets of Los Angeles. It’s not simply a problem for young families seeking their first house in Falls Church, Virginia or Hamilton, Ontario. It’s not just a problem for tenants whose rent soars with each annual lease renewal.
And it’s not an issue that’s going away, any time soon.
Canadian real estate innovator Adam Gant understands the scope of the challenge and has been working to create outside-the-box solutions to match people with affordable housing. A key piece of any solution, he believes, is a concept he calls “shared equity.”
He outlined the fundamentals of the idea in a book he co-authored in 2020, A House Shared. Although Gant’s solutions are steeped in research, the book is actually a fictional tale of a family caught in the housing crisis. The story takes place during a time when families across North America have lost houses, homelessness is out of control, starter homes are out of reach, and a small number of affluent buyers compete for the best properties.
Is it the financial crisis of 2009? Is it now? Or is it the bleak future that awaits us in the absence of broad, practical solutions? Adam Gant invites us to imagine, as well as to explore new ways of thinking about housing affordability and availability.
Readers follow the struggle of a professional couple working in the security software industry. When economic misfortune strikes, they suddenly find themselves fighting for shelter and simple survival, against market forces that seem to make eviction inevitable.
In the end, the way out is a solution Adam Gant and co-author Patricia Nicholson believe could be the answer for people and populations across the globe: shared equity.
Back in the world of nonfiction, Adam Gant arrived at this idea after years devoted to studying housing markets in countries around the world. He didn’t simply read about trends in these places — he visted and explored them, in cities from Asia to Eastern Europe. He learned what works and what doesn’t in disparate communities and cultures.
In a recent interview, Adam Gant described the main pillars of shared equity:
“There are several factors that make shared equity housing a financially and socially attractive concept. The home buyer starts with a small deposit or down payment, ideally one percent. The home buyer does not need to qualify for a mortgage upfront. The buyer is matched with a home where the monthly payment is comfortable for their family’s income level. The buyer shares in the equity growth in the home from the price appreciation.
“The exact share of the home equity growth is dependent on the deposit size. The home buyer keeps their share of the equity even if they don’t end up buying the home.”
In Canada, Adam Gant has built his experience base as a real estate investor with an inventive mind, and a passion for improving housing opportunities where gaps in current market financing get in the way of families growing equity in comfortable, secure, affordable shelter.
This passion extends to his philanthropic work with charities that seek to shelter people in need throughout the hemisphere. He has been an active supporter of Live Different, an organization focused on providing adequate housing for families in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. He donates time and resources to The Silhouette Foundation, a human rights focused organization which originally helped coordinate relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters in Haiti.
In his own community, he has volunteered at a Vancouver Island-area community center, and previously worked with a housing nonprofit in its acquisition of an apartment building that now provides shelter to the poor, the disabled and the impoverished elderly.
