Airbnb Launches New Housing Accelerator With $250M in Financing

Nearly 20 years after it was founded, Airbnb announced it is taking its most significant step yet to be part of the solution for the nation’s housing crisis by launching the Airbnb Housing Accelerator, a multi-pillar commitment to help build more housing across the country and around the world.

Airbnb said it will make an initial investment of $250 million in rental housing developments that are ready to build but stuck on the one-yard line, thereby unlocking $5 billion in capital investments over the next 10 years.

“The ability to afford housing is part of the foundation of Airbnb. The company was launched because we couldn’t afford our rent—and today, that reality exists for millions of Americans. The housing crisis wasn’t created overnight, and it won’t be solved overnight. But we can start moving in the right direction, and that is exactly what the Airbnb Housing Accelerator is designed to do,” said Brian Chesky, CEO and Co-Founder of Airbnb.

Research commissioned by Airbnb estimates that 750,000 housing units across the nation have cleared most regulatory hurdles but lack the final financing commitment needed to break ground.

Airbnb said its investment will focus on “last-dollar” financing—the modest, incremental capital that makes the difference between a project moving forward or sitting idle.

Affordable, Mixed-Income Housing

Airbnb also said it will invest at returns significantly below standard market rates, prioritizing affordable and mixed-income housing projects that are stalled.

The company’s inaugural $6.4 million investment will support the development of 201 affordable housing units in Austin, Texas. Those units are part of the larger St. John redevelopment project, a public-private partnership that will include more than 500 units of housing, retail, a park, and public art showcasing work by local artists in an historically underserved community.

“Austin leads the national conversation and the actual outcomes on housing because we’re doing what it takes to build. I’m glad to see Airbnb investing in housing projects like St. John’s. Expanding housing takes all of us. When a company like Airbnb steps up and works alongside local organizations, community leaders, and the city, you get real outcomes,” said Austin Mayor Kirk Watson.

Airbnb said that the Housing Accelerator combines capital deployment, policy advocacy, and innovation into a coordinated system designed to help remove the barriers that prevent homes from being built, unlock housing supply, and inspire the next generation of breakthroughs in construction technology

Airbnb said that investment alone cannot solve the housing crisis.

It said that durable change requires modernizing the rules that make it too expensive, too slow, and too difficult to build. The company said it will support community leaders fighting to enact pro-housing reforms — zoning, permitting, and building code changes.

Airbnb City Index

Later this year, Airbnb will release the Airbnb City Index, a first-of-its-kind dataset designed to give journalists, researchers, advocates, and policymakers a window into the state of housing policies and outcomes in different cities.

Airbnb said it will leverage its global footprint and policy expertise to publish this annual ranking of cities worldwide on their housing policies. The company said the Index will cover outcomes such as housing additions per capita and affordability measures, in addition to the rules that enable or hinder housing production.

$5M Housing Innovation Prize

Along with investing capital and advocating for reforms, Airbnb said the nation needs innovations and technologies to solve the housing crisis.

To accelerate innovation in homebuilding and development, Airbnb said it intends to provide five awards of $1 million each for innovators and entrepreneurs developing technologies and designs that make it easier, faster, and cheaper to build a home. Airbnb said the money will support innovative housing ventures that have demonstrated their potential but need more capital to deliver more affordably-priced housing at scale.