Blackstone Pushes Further Into Affordable Housing

Blackstone has launched a new portfolio company called April Housing, which will focus on affordable housing throughout the United States. 

April Housing will oversee and preserve affordability of an initial portfolio of over 90,000 housing units recently acquired by Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT).

The private equity giant has been focusing on affordable housing of late. 

Last month, Blackstone’s Home Partners of America rolled out a $1 billion program to buy rental homes and rent them at a discount to people at a certain income level and then allow them to buy the homes at below market prices.

Bloomberg also reported that Blackstone has acquired about 80,000 LIHTC apartments from insurer American International Group.

April Housing in LIHTC Program

Rents at virtually all of the April Housing properties are set by government regulation through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The rent restrictions have, on average, 20 years of remaining term, and significantly, Blackstone intends to keep them affordable for the long-term.

In conjunction with the creation of the new portfolio company, Blackstone appointed Alice Carr as CEO of April Housing, effective May 2.

Carr’s entire career has focused on investing in communities and economic development projects in underserved markets across the United States and expanding access to affordable housing. Carr most recently was head of community development banking at JP Morgan Chase.