Lasting housing starts with lasting credit.
Global Housing Strategies works at the intersection of finance, development, and investment to tackle one of the world’s most persistent challenges: access to quality, affordable housing.
With a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa, we connect the strategies, capital, and expertise needed to turn housing demand into viable, scalable solutions.
A vision built on experience.
—— MEET THE FOUNDER
Michael Bookstaber has spent more than fifty years in mortgage lending, affordable housing, and real estate investment.
He began in examinations and supervision at a U.S. mortgage-bank regulator (FHLBB), then in banking supervision at the Bank of Israel, overseeing mortgage banks. Next came a thrift-focused consulting firm, then Alex. Brown & Sons, where he specialized in residential and commercial mortgage-backed securitization and in raising equity and debt for U.S. REITs investing in income-producing residential and commercial property.
Through most of the 1990s he worked at Fannie Mae, leaving before the firm’s later turn toward high-LTV and subprime lending.
In 1998 he joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Over the following decade, as an investment officer and housing finance specialist, he covered Latin America, the former Soviet Union, and sub-Saharan Africa in housing finance and affordable housing.
For the past 18 years he has led Global Housing Strategies. The last six of those years have been devoted to designing the 3-Pillars Initiative—preparing its business plans and financial viability models and raising capital for what GHS presents as its premier impact project.
—— GLOBAL HOUSING STRATEGIES
Consulting and advisory services.
Our practice spans the full housing delivery chain — from policy design and capital structuring to developer advisory and community-level impact measurement. Every engagement is tailored to the political economy, financial landscape, and capacity constraints of the specific African context.
Housing finance is a core competency of GHS, along with housing development, and real estate investment vehicles.
Market and country level studies
Business plans
Financial modeling viability (is it profitable), and valuation (what is the market value) of:
Mortgage banking
Mortgage portfolios
Mortgage loan servicing rights
Mortgage-backed securitization
Large scale housing development projects
Rental housing portfolios
Policy & Regulatory Advisory
We work with governments and housing authorities to audit existing legislation, stress-test policy frameworks, and create the fiscal conditions that unlock private investment in affordable housing.
Land reform • Subsidy design
Project Finance Structuring
We co-design transactions with local stakeholders — drawing on global housing finance best practice but adapting to local capital markets, governance structures, and cultural contexts.
Blended finance • DFI engagement
Developer Advisory
We advise developers on site selection, finance packaging, and delivery strategy. Our network reaches African Development Banks, bilaterals, and international construction & urbanisation experts.
Feasibility & costing • Joint venturing
Impact & ESG Measurement
Rigorous impact models aligned with UN SDGs, climate resilience standards, and the reporting requirements of impact investors and development finance institutions.
SDG alignment • Climate resilience
Market Intelligence
We produce continuous affordability analytics and supply-side assessments across key African markets — giving clients the evidence base to invest, lend, and develop with confidence.
Demand analysis • Supply mapping
Capacity Building
Tailored technical assistance and immersive training for housing agencies, ministry teams, and development finance staff building institutional capability for housing delivery at scale.
Institutional strengthening • Training
—— OUR PRINCIPLES
Values that guide every engagement.
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Every recommendation rests on primary research. We do not import solutions from other markets without rigorous local validation.
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We work alongside government officials, local developers, and community leaders — not above them. Sustainable outcomes require local agency.
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Impact and returns are not opposites. Every transaction we design must be financeable, bankable, and attractive to private capital.
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We address affordable housing not as a construction problem but as a finance, land, governance, and social challenge that must be solved holistically.
—— HOW WE WORK
Our approach.
Step 01
Context-First Analysis
Every African housing market is distinct. We begin with rigorous political economy analysis, affordability modelling, and supply-side assessment before any recommendation is made.
Land reform • Subsidy design • Political economy
Step 02
Bespoke Solutions
We co-design interventions with local stakeholders — drawing on global housing finance best practice but adapting to local capital markets, governance structures, and cultural contexts.
Financial Structuring • DFI engagement
Step 03
Implementation Support
Advisory does not end at the strategy document. We remain engaged through procurement, investment, and project delivery, providing hands-on technical assistance at each stage.
Institutional strengthening • Capacity building