Daniel Kaufman, founder of the permanent capital holding company Kaufman & Company, will speak at the Global Family Office Investment Summit in Miami on Oct. 15 to 16, where he plans to make the case that family office capital is best positioned to build the housing American communities are short on. The summit, now in its 33rd edition, lists Kaufman among its speakers on its published agenda.
His appearance comes weeks after Citi Wealth released its 2026 Global Family Office Report, a survey of roughly 350 family offices in more than 40 countries. The report found that direct real estate makes up about 10% of the average family office portfolio worldwide and 13% in North America, the highest of any region, and that nearly a third of North American respondents plan to increase their real estate holdings. It also found that 75% of respondents invest directly in companies, and that public equities became the top destination for new capital this year.
“Family office capital is patient by design, and real estate rewards patience more than almost any other asset,” Kaufman said. “The Citi numbers tell me families are not chasing the market; they are owning what they can see and manage. The question I want to put in front of the room in Miami is whether that capital is going where the country needs buildings most, which is housing for the people who work in these communities.”
Kaufman said the advantage of a family office is time, not size. “We invest only our own capital, so every project has to stand on its own merit without a fund deadline pushing it,” Kaufman said. “That freedom is the real edge a family office has. It lets you buy land when others are selling, wait out an entitlement process, and build workforce housing that a fund chasing fees would pass on. I would like to see more families use it that way.”
Kaufman & Company invests only its own capital and does not raise outside funds. On Oct. 3, the company launched BUILD 2030, a strategy that brings its housing, construction, technology and AI infrastructure businesses under one national development platform. Its operating companies include DEK Builds, an integrated design, build, development and investment firm working across mountain resorts, hotels and commercial construction. LandBriefing, a Kaufman Ventures platform, tracks land and housing fundamentals across U.S. markets.
The implications for the real estate industry and communities are significant. With North American family offices already holding the largest share of direct real estate and nearly a third planning to add more, their patient capital could flow into workforce housing projects that traditional funds often avoid due to long entitlement processes and lower short-term returns. If more families follow Kaufman’s approach, it could help address housing shortages in communities where workers struggle to find affordable homes, while also providing stable, long-term returns for family office portfolios.
Kaufman & Company is a permanent capital holding company founded by Daniel Kaufman and is the trade name of Kaufman Family Office LLC and Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting LLC. Its 10 operating companies are Convivium Living, DanReDev, DEK Builds, Design Build Affordable, DK Homes, Forge Development Partners, Kaufman Development, Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, LoneStar Kaufman, and Kaufman Ventures, whose portfolio includes BridgeStar, Meridian, LandBriefing, SpreadSight, FoundCheck, ServerDomes, and Mr Good Container Homes. Oldivai is an aligned, independently led workforce housing partner. The platform represents more than $2 billion in project value and more than 10,000 housing units across more than 25 years of building, lending, and investing.
