Reall CEO, Ian Shapiro, named a Top 20 dynamic CEO of 2020

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Ian is driven by a passion that where you are born should not dictate your life chances and the recognition that people living on low incomes are being bypassed by rapid urbanisation in emerging economies. This award is testament to his leadership, which has been transformative for Reall’s mission and impact.

Building affordable housing at scale to address the huge urbanisation crisis represents an enormous challenge, but through Ian’s vision Reall has positioned affordable housing as a huge opportunity.

Disruption

Ian says: The affordable housing sector is an untapped £14 trillion market which is a doorway to achieving 16 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve impact at scale Reall needed to showcase their pioneering, climate smart, commercially viable $10K homes to disrupt the housing market rather than attempt to dominate it. 

To date Reall has improved the lives of over 3.5 million people and is a world leader in demonstrating commercially and environmentally viable homes complete with land tenure and services.

It can be done

Ian says: Reall have proved it can be done. For example, The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance found that our Nigerian partner the Millard Fuller Foundation’s one bed 32sqm house in Abuja, on the market for $8K, is the most affordable quality home for sale across Africa.

Ian is clear that one organisation cannot do this alone. Ian is leading an alliance across global governments (such as our cornerstone funder the Swedish government development agency Sida, the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the UN), the private sector, financial instructions and impact investors to tackle the urbanisation crisis.

Opportunity

Ian sees the post-pandemic world as a chance for positive global change, saying: We must grab this opportunity to restructure our societies and ensure our markets work in ways that drive macroeconomic growth, stimulate the financial sector, mitigate climate change and enable billions of people to break out of the poverty cycle for good.

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