We are living in a world where the majority of people live in cities and 1 billion live in slums, a figure that will double by 2030.Urban populations are growing at a rate much faster than can be absorbed and managed, causing demands on services and infrastructure that massively outstrip supply. In many emerging market cities, this leaves the majority of residents with few options but to live in slums. Increasing access to high quality affordable housing has a profound impact, both for the individual and society at large. Yet, housing is a challenging and capital-intensive sector characterized by delays and regulatory difficulties, and as a result, it rarely gains the limelight for impact investors and social entrepreneurs. The demand side (i.e. end-user finance) is just as underdeveloped. Only 8 percent of urban Kenyans have access to housing finance and there are currently only 22,000 active mortgages in the whole country.6 This is not because Kenyans lack the desire to own a home—homeownership is a central part of the culture. Instead, it is because of a nascent mortgage market that equals only 2.5 percent of GDP (compared to 70 percent in the United States) and a financial market that suffers from a lack of long-term capital to on-lend as mortgages.