In this conversation, Michael Bennett explains how America’s aging housing inventory has created a major opportunity for real estate investors and private lenders focused on attainable housing. He discusses the growing shortage of affordable starter homes, rising construction and labor costs, and the increasing importance of renovating existing properties rather than relying solely on new development. Through strategic business-purpose lending, Roc360 supports investors who acquire, rehabilitate, and improve aging homes across the country, helping replenish housing supply while revitalizing communities. The discussion also explores broader market dynamics, investment trends, and the evolving role of private capital in residential real estate.
Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Dan Costa, Chief Content Officer at Worth Media Group, and I am here in Los Angeles at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2026. I am joined by Michael Bennett. He is the Managing Director of Roc360. Michael, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me today. Thank you for having me, Dan. So this is your second Milken. Has it changed year after year? What are your impressions this year? Look, it’s just an incredible amalgamation of people and ideas and thought leadership. So I think we spend so much time in our day jobs focused on what we do.
It’s really nice to take at least some time while we’re here to step back and expand and become a more knowledgeable citizen. I think it’s a really value add that the conference provides to everybody here that comes and can take advantage of that. Yeah. That’s true, but I’m going to bring you back to your day job. Sure. Roc360, it occupies kind of a unique place in the real estate market and does things in kind of an unusual way. So tell me about the business and how it works.
Sure. Roc360 is a direct lender and investment manager focused on residential credit in the United States. And so we provide financing and other financial services for sponsors that renovate, build new construction, and use our financing for rental property across the US. We have the distinct privilege of working across a wide array of customers, notably the small and medium-sized borrowers, developers, sponsors, that are responsible for most of the aggregate housing activity in this country. So you’ve got an apartment building that’s been around, it was built in the ’70s.
It looks a little run down. People can live there relatively cheaply, but nobody really wants to live there. So give me an example of how this works in action. What problem do you solve in the market? Our privilege is being able to solve really three distinct crises, but related crises that are plaguing America’s housing market today. The first is just a simple problem of supply and demand. So we estimate we’re short anywhere between three to four million units of housing across the country. That has obvious follow-on effects as it pertains to affordability.
Mm. 50% of the nation is cost burdened, meaning they’re contributing significant expenditures of their monthly income to housing costs. And so that lack of supply, that lack of available unit of housing, available inventory of housing, contributes tremendously to the affordability problem. The other perhaps less discussed, but also related to supply and demand and affordability is the aggregate age of America’s housing stock. If you look at the nationwide average, about 50% of homes were built prior to 1980. Mm. In the Northeast, in certain parts of the country, it’s upwards of 70% of the housing stock was built prior to 1980.
And that comes with two challenges. One is the condition of the home and the lifestyle. It doesn’t align with lifestyle preferences of how people want to live today. And the other part is the deleterious impact on carbon efficiency. Mm. Older homes are less carbon efficient. And so the act of renovating houses and building new construction across the country, we view as paramount to really aiding and combating those three crises of availability, affordability, and the aggregate age of the housing stock. Yeah, and also a point we were talking before we started filming is that, especially in the Northeast, we’re not going to be able to build our way out of this problem.
We’re going to have to renovate a lot of the houses that are already standing and just upgrade them. That’s right. New construction is a substantial part of our business, and I think the neat thing about America’s housing stock, if you step back, there are 90 million single-family homes in this country. 99.5% of them are owned by individuals or small or medium-sized enterprises. And so what that means is that the total economic net worth of America’s consumer, a vast majority of that is tied up in housing in some way, shape, or form.
Mm-hmm. Either through direct ownership or through all of the companies and service proprietors that are predominantly small and medium-sized enterprises that service the housing economy. And so our ability to step in and service that, whether it’s a redeveloper or a new developer, that is seeking financing and other financial services, we believe is a crucial part of the housing economy and the wider economy, where housing is upwards of 15% to 20% of our GDP on an annual basis. You had asked specifically, Dan, about the new build versus renovate.
You’re absolutely right. In certain pockets of this country, new build, while preferred, is not possible. Mm-hmm. Densely populated cities where most people in this country want to live, there’s not enough inventory of land for the larger builders. It’s really reliant on the smaller builders and the renovators that are our customers to come in and refresh that housing and build new supply into those markets. So there’s also been a lot of talk here at the conference and in the economy overall about different regions performing differently, the housing markets being different in different states.
Particular people leaving New York and California and moving to Tennessee, Texas, Florida in particular, and how they’ve had to respond to their housing booms. It seems like they’ve done a better job than the states that are losing these people, but how do you see the market? Yeah, look, I think there are preferences that are driving migration shifts, but at the end of the day, what we’re seeing is continued price pressure, meaning home prices continue to rise in the densely populated urban centers. That includes the Northeast and the Midwest specifically.
And so where there are those pressures, there is a need for refreshed inventory and new inventory to come to market. There’s also an acute difference between the Sun Belt region of the United States, where most of the institutional, again, still relatively small- Mm-hmm… compared to the non-institutional activity that we at Roc360 facilitate and support financing for. But that institutional segment has done a good job of penetrating the Sun Belt. Other parts of the Northeast, Midwest, again, other densely populated urban centers have largely been left behind by the institutions and are highly or solely reliant on small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to- Mm-hmm…
again, renovate and build and rent housing in those areas. And you talked a little bit about how these types of operations actually can provide a lift to the entire community. It’s not justThe owner or the renovator, it’s actually the entire community can get some kind of benefit here. Yeah. I’m really glad that you brought that up because that is our mission from day one at Roc360, to make it easier for people to invest in homes. And there’s really two sides to that. One is the local entrepreneur, renovator, builder that sources the capital from our platform.
Two is the end user of that turnkey unit of housing at the end of the day, be it a homeowner or an investment property owner. And three is the community uplift. Mm. Blighted housing on the block doesn’t help any community. Mm-hmm. And so the ability to restore, repair, renovate, build new, I think has that triple win effect from the local developer, the end user of the housing, and the community in which that housing exists. There’s a fourth benefit, right? Again, our mission to connect capital to those that need it.
There’s an investment conundrum when it comes to US housing. US housing in the aggregate, again, 50 pushing on 60 trillion in aggregate value makes it one of the largest single asset classes on the globe. However, it’s extraordinarily difficult to enter into. I mentioned previously, two-thirds of the population owns their home. Hard to access from an investment and equity standpoint. The other, the 15 million or so rental properties are largely owned by non-institutional operators- Mm-hmm… which makes it difficult to scale exposure in that space. And on the debt side, you have the agency market, which accounts for 13 or 15 trillion of debt outstanding that is really geared to a more bespoke institutional investment grade and/or insurance buyer seeking a specific duration and investment profile that generally isn’t a fit for most investors across the planet.
Mm-hmm. So that’s where I think we’ve done a good job at Roc360 of bridging that gap and creating what is effectively a new institutionalized asset class over the last decade plus, where people both benefit from the activities that we do on the deployment side, but also then can access the market, the housing market, in a unique and differentiated way. Yeah. No, it’s exactly the kind of innovation you’d expect to see at a place like Milken. Michael, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me.
I really appreciate it. Dan, thanks for having me. Thanks. I’m Dan Costa at Worth Media Group. You can see more stories like this on worth.com or check us out on YouTube.
Hi, I’m Dan Costa, Chief Content Officer at Worth Media Group, and I am here in Los Angeles at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2026. I am joined by Michael Bennett. He is the Managing Director of Roc360. Michael, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me today. Thank you for having me, Dan. So this is your second Milken. Has it changed year after year? What are your impressions this year? Look, it’s just an incredible amalgamation of people and ideas and thought leadership. So I think we spend so much time in our day jobs focused on what we do.
It’s really nice to take at least some time while we’re here to step back and expand and become a more knowledgeable citizen. I think it’s a really value add that the conference provides to everybody here that comes and can take advantage of that. Yeah. That’s true, but I’m going to bring you back to your day job. Sure. Roc360, it occupies kind of a unique place in the real estate market and does things in kind of an unusual way. So tell me about the business and how it works.
Sure. Roc360 is a direct lender and investment manager focused on residential credit in the United States. And so we provide financing and other financial services for sponsors that renovate, build new construction, and use our financing for rental property across the US. We have the distinct privilege of working across a wide array of customers, notably the small and medium-sized borrowers, developers, sponsors, that are responsible for most of the aggregate housing activity in this country. So you’ve got an apartment building that’s been around, it was built in the ’70s.
It looks a little run down. People can live there relatively cheaply, but nobody really wants to live there. So give me an example of how this works in action. What problem do you solve in the market? Our privilege is being able to solve really three distinct crises, but related crises that are plaguing America’s housing market today. The first is just a simple problem of supply and demand. So we estimate we’re short anywhere between three to four million units of housing across the country. That has obvious follow-on effects as it pertains to affordability.
Mm. 50% of the nation is cost burdened, meaning they’re contributing significant expenditures of their monthly income to housing costs. And so that lack of supply, that lack of available unit of housing, available inventory of housing, contributes tremendously to the affordability problem. The other perhaps less discussed, but also related to supply and demand and affordability is the aggregate age of America’s housing stock. If you look at the nationwide average, about 50% of homes were built prior to 1980. Mm. In the Northeast, in certain parts of the country, it’s upwards of 70% of the housing stock was built prior to 1980.
And that comes with two challenges. One is the condition of the home and the lifestyle. It doesn’t align with lifestyle preferences of how people want to live today. And the other part is the deleterious impact on carbon efficiency. Mm. Older homes are less carbon efficient. And so the act of renovating houses and building new construction across the country, we view as paramount to really aiding and combating those three crises of availability, affordability, and the aggregate age of the housing stock. Yeah, and also a point we were talking before we started filming is that, especially in the Northeast, we’re not going to be able to build our way out of this problem.
We’re going to have to renovate a lot of the houses that are already standing and just upgrade them. That’s right. New construction is a substantial part of our business, and I think the neat thing about America’s housing stock, if you step back, there are 90 million single-family homes in this country. 99.5% of them are owned by individuals or small or medium-sized enterprises. And so what that means is that the total economic net worth of America’s consumer, a vast majority of that is tied up in housing in some way, shape, or form.
Mm-hmm. Either through direct ownership or through all of the companies and service proprietors that are predominantly small and medium-sized enterprises that service the housing economy. And so our ability to step in and service that, whether it’s a redeveloper or a new developer, that is seeking financing and other financial services, we believe is a crucial part of the housing economy and the wider economy, where housing is upwards of 15% to 20% of our GDP on an annual basis. You had asked specifically, Dan, about the new build versus renovate.
You’re absolutely right. In certain pockets of this country, new build, while preferred, is not possible. Mm-hmm. Densely populated cities where most people in this country want to live, there’s not enough inventory of land for the larger builders. It’s really reliant on the smaller builders and the renovators that are our customers to come in and refresh that housing and build new supply into those markets. So there’s also been a lot of talk here at the conference and in the economy overall about different regions performing differently, the housing markets being different in different states.
Particular people leaving New York and California and moving to Tennessee, Texas, Florida in particular, and how they’ve had to respond to their housing booms. It seems like they’ve done a better job than the states that are losing these people, but how do you see the market? Yeah, look, I think there are preferences that are driving migration shifts, but at the end of the day, what we’re seeing is continued price pressure, meaning home prices continue to rise in the densely populated urban centers. That includes the Northeast and the Midwest specifically.
And so where there are those pressures, there is a need for refreshed inventory and new inventory to come to market. There’s also an acute difference between the Sun Belt region of the United States, where most of the institutional, again, still relatively small- Mm-hmm… compared to the non-institutional activity that we at Roc360 facilitate and support financing for. But that institutional segment has done a good job of penetrating the Sun Belt. Other parts of the Northeast, Midwest, again, other densely populated urban centers have largely been left behind by the institutions and are highly or solely reliant on small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to- Mm-hmm…
again, renovate and build and rent housing in those areas. And you talked a little bit about how these types of operations actually can provide a lift to the entire community. It’s not justThe owner or the renovator, it’s actually the entire community can get some kind of benefit here. Yeah. I’m really glad that you brought that up because that is our mission from day one at Roc360, to make it easier for people to invest in homes. And there’s really two sides to that. One is the local entrepreneur, renovator, builder that sources the capital from our platform.
Two is the end user of that turnkey unit of housing at the end of the day, be it a homeowner or an investment property owner. And three is the community uplift. Mm. Blighted housing on the block doesn’t help any community. Mm-hmm. And so the ability to restore, repair, renovate, build new, I think has that triple win effect from the local developer, the end user of the housing, and the community in which that housing exists. There’s a fourth benefit, right? Again, our mission to connect capital to those that need it.
There’s an investment conundrum when it comes to US housing. US housing in the aggregate, again, 50 pushing on 60 trillion in aggregate value makes it one of the largest single asset classes on the globe. However, it’s extraordinarily difficult to enter into. I mentioned previously, two-thirds of the population owns their home. Hard to access from an investment and equity standpoint. The other, the 15 million or so rental properties are largely owned by non-institutional operators- Mm-hmm… which makes it difficult to scale exposure in that space. And on the debt side, you have the agency market, which accounts for 13 or 15 trillion of debt outstanding that is really geared to a more bespoke institutional investment grade and/or insurance buyer seeking a specific duration and investment profile that generally isn’t a fit for most investors across the planet.
Mm-hmm. So that’s where I think we’ve done a good job at Roc360 of bridging that gap and creating what is effectively a new institutionalized asset class over the last decade plus, where people both benefit from the activities that we do on the deployment side, but also then can access the market, the housing market, in a unique and differentiated way. Yeah. No, it’s exactly the kind of innovation you’d expect to see at a place like Milken. Michael, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me.
I really appreciate it. Dan, thanks for having me. Thanks. I’m Dan Costa at Worth Media Group. You can see more stories like this on worth.com or check us out on YouTube.
