It is a basic human right to put a roof over your head and to call it home; after all, home is where the heart is. But not everyone aspires, or is able to aspire, to be a homeowner, and homeownership is not always the optimal solution to a family’s accommodation requirement. Homeownership of a different kind — development of and investment in single-family and multifamily rental housing by institutional investors — is also not for everyone. But — whether homeowner, landlord, tenant, investor or manager — “everyone has to live somewhere,” says Alex Greaves, residential fund manager at M&G Real Estate. “Either owned by themselves or rented from someone else.”

Depending on the market and its culture, regulation and economics, rental housing plays a significant role in Europe’s residential property sector, in both regulated/social and unregulated/private spheres.

Discussion of the role played in a particular market by institutional investment in res