“Remember that feeling when you first laid hands on your own door key?” Nabeel Alhassan, senior treasury analyst at affordable housing provider Aster Group, asked us as he began his EG Future Leaders story.
A story that would lead the audience to rebrand build-to-rent as “build-to-live”. In his 10-minute talk, Alhassan reminded us of the security we feel when we have our own home. Or at least, the security those of us in the room – and in this industry – feel.
“There are 4.2m households in social rented accommodation,” said Alhassan.
“That’s 4.2m households – not people – households. I’m here today because I want to make maintaining the homes that these people are in, fostering the community of the people that live in social rented homes and seeing more social housing homes built, something that you are interested in and that makes you want to take action.”
“I want all residents, all social housing tenants, to love living where they are, to be proud of where they are”
And that he did. Alhassan shared his own story of growing up in social housing. Of the security he felt because of the community that existed on the estate he lived on.
He challenged the audience on the stereotypical view we often have of social housing estates and how, in real estate, people often drift towards the flashier, sexier commercial sector.
He called on the audience to expand their mindsets and think about the benefit that social housing can bring, the communities it can build, the security it should provide and the people – the future leaders – it can create.
Alhassan also reminded us of the significant human cost in not focusing on delivering good, safe social housing, from the Grenfell Tower tragedy to children dying due to mould in their homes.
His passion was to make us all see the difference proper investment – big and small, corporate and individual – can have to social housing.
“I want to turn the ugly duckling that is social housing at the moment into a swan,” said Alhassan.
Watch Nabeel Alhassan’s full speech on what you don’t know about social housing:
A key element of what makes EG Future Leaders so special is the ripple effect it has. Our Future Leaders inspire action in our audience.
This year was all about the power of turning small ideas into mighty actions and unleashing the creativity we know exists in real estate.
Head to my.walls.io/EGFutureLeaders to see some of the takeaways our audience members shared.
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