Why do Community Housing Providers (CHPs) want to create Community Land Trusts (CLTs)?
- CLTs can help low to moderate income households to become homeowners.
- PERPETUALLY affordable housing is created, by recycling most of the capital gains back to the CLT.
- Housing is retained in the CLT portfolio, ensuring community stewardship of real property.
- Equity is generated for CLT homeowners, whilst residents of rental properties have no opportunity to build equity.
- Shared equity structure may allow CHPs to leverage existing housing stock, to create more perpetually affordable housing.
Apart from offering rentals, CHPs can now provide a new homeownership option to their residents through CLTs. Unlike all other housing subsidy schemes, CLTs retain the home in their property portfolio, and pass the savings on to the next owner. Property is almost never lost to the open market, except in extreme cases of default, or where the property is beyond repair. Therefore the affordability is permanent, instead of temporary.