The Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate (FIRE) is pleased to announce a theme for the upcoming Church Properties conference, to be held March 17th-18th, 2026. As always, the annual conference will engage church property experts and stakeholders from a wide variety of fields, from finance and design to theology and history. The 2026 event will place a special emphasis on the topic of housing affordability.

The widespread closure of historic houses of worship in cities that are, at the same time, facing dramatic housing shortages has drawn increasing attention to the potential that faith-based real estate holds to support housing affordability. A growing number of laws and policies at the federal, state, and local levels across the U.S. have been proposed or passed to promote affordable housing development on church property by providing technical assistance, development incentives, or regulatory exemptions. Many individual congregations have undertaken large-scale market-rate or affordable housing developments in recent years, and national and local organizations have emerged to support them as they do so.

This shifting cultural and regulatory landscape presents church property stewards with new opportunities to direct church assets toward solving crucial societal needs. At the same time, it invites deeper reflection about the social, cultural, and economic conditions that make affordable housing provision so difficult in the first place, and what the Church and her social doctrine may have to say–and do–about them. In addition to invited keynote and plenary sessions, contributions on this and other themes to be featured at the conference will be invited from academics, professionals, and religious leaders through a call for proposals issued in May 2025.

The conference will kick off with an optional reception on the evening of Monday, March 16th, 2026, with sessions to run from the morning of Tuesday, March 17th, to the afternoon of Wednesday, March 18th. Tuesday evening will feature a gala dinner and keynote speaker, with additional meals available for conference attendees at Notre Dame’s campus dining halls. More details about the conference schedule and registration will be posted on CPI’s website.

The Church Properties conference will be immediately followed by an academic conference on housing affordability hosted by the Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate from March 18th to 19th, 2026. You can learn more about FIRE’s affordable housing research here.