The Importance of Black Real Estate Developers

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We’re advocates of home ownership as a key component of building generational wealth. Since 2019, we have built a network of some of the best black real estate agents in the country.

Realtors help you buy and sell homes. But what about the people who actually build those homes? That’s where real estate developers come in.

It’s one thing to own a home, it’s quite another to have a say in how, where and how these homes get built.

representation of black developers

Developers who are a part of a community tend to have a good understanding of the type of housing and amenities that are needed in said community. For example, a developer of a large multifamily apartment building will understand the need to have a certain percentage of those units be affordable to the existing community so as not to displace residents.

They may understand that there may also be a need for community centers, grocery stores, work spaces etc…

Unfortunately, black real estate developers are under represented, and only make up a tiny fraction of developers nationwide

percentage of black developers

Moreover, black and hispanic developers face greater barriers when it comes to actually gaining access to capital and being given the opportunity to actually develop a plot of land.

For every successful black real estate developer like Don Peebles or Victor Macfarlane, there are thousands of others who were never given the opportunity, largely because they couldn’t raise the capital required for a large project.

Grove Impact

A study conducted by Grove Impact found that Black and Hispanic developers combined represented only 0.56% of the industry. That’s ridiculous.

Bottom line, black developers shape and respect our communities. They also hire more black and brown people to develop their projects. We need more. Way more.

Grove Impact has put together an excellent resource for helping locate Black and Hispanic Real Estate Developers that can be seen on their website in this link here.

Please reach out to them if you have ideas or suggestions on how we can address some of these inequities and ultimately close the racial wealth gap.