Our Commitment to Best-in-Class Ownership

March 01, 2022

Blackstone is incredibly proud of its investments in housing. We have spent billions of dollars through both our equity investments and lending activities to make existing communities better places to live while adding to the supply of housing. In the process, these investments have created thousands of jobs in local communities.

We hold ourselves and our operators to the highest standard of care and always put the wellbeing of our residents first. We prioritize open and transparent communication, best-in-class management, meaningful capital investment, respect for our residents and community impact. We are also a leader in supporting residents during challenging times. During the pandemic, Blackstone recognized that many were experiencing extreme hardship and chose not to make a single eviction for non-payment across our U.S. rental housing portfolio for two years.

We strive every day to find ways to improve our residents’ lives and make a positive impact on the neighborhoods in which we invest. Ultimately, this enables us to deliver returns for our investors who include retirement systems for frontline workers and public servants, representing more than 100 million people around the world.

We want to help clarify misunderstandings about the role of institutional investors, and Blackstone specifically, in the housing market.

Myth: Blackstone owns a significant portion of the global housing market and is driving up rents in the places it invests.

Fact: We own less than 1% of rental housing in the U.S. and every market across the U.K. and Europe where we operate. Given our ownership levels, we have virtually no ability to impact market rent trends. Rents are going up because there is significantly less supply of housing across the globe than demand for it.

Myth: Individuals and families are getting priced out of the housing market because Blackstone is buying so much of the housing market.

Fact: Housing prices are rising due to a significant supply and demand imbalance that has persisted for over a decade.

Blackstone owns approximately 0.02% of single-family homes in the U.S. More broadly, institutional owners of single-family rentals own less than 0.5%. Across the top 20 markets where Blackstone owns single-family rental homes, Blackstone’s acquisitions on average represent less than 1% of all housing sales. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for Blackstone to move the market.

Our portfolio company Home Partners enables families that would otherwise be locked out of traditional single-family housing to access homes of their choosing. Home Partners’ residents have a median FICO score of 640 compared to 740 for the median U.S. homebuyer, and Home Partners gives them the ability to buy the home of their dreams. In January 2022, Home Partners announced a program to invest at least $1 billion over the next two years to help low-to-moderate-income families and historically under-represented communities on their path to home ownership by offering them rents 10% below market.

Our commitment to supporting greater affordability extends to Europe where our portfolio company Sage Homes has committed more than £3.5 billion and delivered more than 7,000 new affordable homes, with more than 22,000 in the pipeline. More than 1.2 million households are currently on local authorities’ housing waiting lists across England. Sage was the fastest growing provider of affordable housing in England in 2021 and is contributing to much needed supply.

Myth: Blackstone is having a negative impact on the affordable housing space.

Fact: Our investments in Affordable Housing have been through our perpetual capital vehicles, where we intend to own assets for the long-term. Rents at nearly all of these properties are set by government regulation through the LIHTC program, and we simply follow the legal guidelines. The rent restrictions on our LIHTC buildings have 20 years of remaining term, on average, and we intend to keep them affordable for the long-term, beyond when the programs expire.

At StuyTown in New York City, we voluntarily preserved 5,000 units as affordable housing – something other investors were not willing to do. We made this commitment while also investing more than $300 million in the property.

Myth: Blackstone cuts corners to drive their bottom line, limiting services for residents.

Fact: We are committed to the highest standards of care, including best-in-class management and meaningful capital investment. We have invested more than $4.1B¹ to improve our residential properties globally since 1991, creating thousands of jobs and contributing to local economies in the process.² The truth is that our scale allows us to provide the best services, invest capital in our properties, and generate significant cost savings through thoughtful procurement strategies because we have the resources to do so.

Our dedication to improving our properties and our residents’ experiences has resulted in significant increases in resident satisfaction. Across our U.S. investments, we have achieved a 24% increase in resident satisfaction rates as compared to the prior ownership.³ StuyTown’s Net Promoter Score, a widely used consumer satisfaction measurement, increased by 266% from 15.4 to 56.4 – its highest level ever.

Myth: Blackstone is a short-term investor focused on “buying, fixing and selling” as quickly as possible.

Fact: The vast majority of Blackstone’s global residential investments are made through our perpetual capital vehicles, which are focused on buying stabilized, income-generating assets that we want to own for the long-term.

Myth: Blackstone is less likely to work with residents who fall behind on rent than other landlords and is more likely to pursue evictions.

Fact: We take great pride in supporting residents through challenging times and go above and beyond what other owners typically provide for their residents. We implemented leading assistance programs to help residents facing financial hardship, including voluntarily halting all evictions for non-payment across our U.S. portfolio for two years at the start of the global pandemic. Even prior to the pandemic, we had an eviction rate in the U.S. that was less than half the historical national average, and in Europe, our eviction rate was less than 1%.⁴

During the pandemic, we also voluntarily waived fees, implemented flexible payment plans and offered free counseling to all residents who needed assistance navigating support programs across the U.S.

Fundamentally, eviction is never a course we want to pursue. When residents are unable to meet their obligations, we work diligently to reach a favorable resolution for both parties.

Myth: During the Great Financial Crisis, Blackstone’s real estate business foreclosed on individuals and evicted them from their homes.

Fact: We have never foreclosed on anyone across all the properties we own through our real estate business.

Myth: Blackstone doesn’t care about the communities it operates in.

Fact: We have a deep respect for the communities we operate in, and we are proud of the positive impact we have been able to have on local communities. In every community we invest in, we think creatively about how to give back to those in need and make our residents’ lives better. For example:

• In London, we partnered with Habitat for Humanity GB to deliver social housing through its Empty Spaces project, which converts empty commercial spaces into affordable homes for vulnerable groups facing homelessness.

• During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, StuyTown created a full-service food pantry with City Harvest. The pantry delivered more than one million pounds of groceries to those most in need. Blackstone employees also raised over $1.5 million to support City Harvest’s mission to ensure food security citywide.

• CoreGiving, a non-profit made up of Blackstone real estate portfolio companies, raised over $1.8M in 2021 to help eliminate the growing problem of childhood hunger.

• The Blackstone Charitable Foundation has distributed $120+ million globally since 2007.⁵

All information is as of Q4’21 unless otherwise noted.

1. As of January 2022
2. As of Q4’20
3. LivCor. Google reviews
4. 2019
5. As of June 2021