Housing Think Tank- Rewriting the Housing Deal for Jordans Housing Future

This networking event is designed as a Housing Think Tank, positioning Jordan as a living laboratory to collectively explore how housing finance mechanisms can be rethought to respond to real market pressures and social needs. Moving beyond traditional panel discussions, the session will combine structured networking, small-group ideation, and plenary synthesis with an interactive, role-based policy simulation to actively co-create solutions rather than present predefined positions. The think tank will convene a deliberately diverse mix of actors representing different perspectives within the housing system, including local authorities, housing developers and investors, financial institutions, housing experts, and housing consumers such as buyers and renters. In this setting, panelists will act as conversation catalysts, helping frame challenges and guide discussion, while participants engage through assigned stakeholder roles within the simulation exercise. Through the role-based process, participants will negotiate and debate toward a balanced and fair housing finance “deal”, reflecting the competing interests, constraints, and trade-offs faced by governments, markets, and households. This format is designed to surface real-world tensions and foster collective problem-solving around affordability, access to finance, risk-sharing, and incentives for affordable housing supply. Discussions will be grounded in Jordan’s housing context, where structural challenges; such as the growing gap between supply and demand, declining affordability, investor-driven market dynamics, speculative land practices, rising construction costs, and limited regulation of housing finance; have constrained access to adequate housing. Participants will explore innovative, alternative, and hybrid housing finance mechanisms that are scalable, institutionally feasible, and responsive to these constraints. This think tank is intentionally linked to action. The ideas and partnership opportunities generated will directly inform the ongoing process led by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDC) to update Jordan’s National Housing Strategy, particularly the housing finance component. At the same time, the event aims to catalyze new partnerships among public, private, and development actors to advance pilot initiatives and implementation pathways that translate co-created ideas into practice.