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Vice President Kamala Harris’s housing plan has generated plenty of opinions, and many real estate experts have wondered whether a Harris Presidency would transform the market. Harris has proposed tax incentives to spur the construction of 3 million homes along with $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.

As Redfin's chief economist Daryl Fairweather told ABC News, nothing matters unless we have more supply of homes. That's a sentiment echoed by Willy Walker, CEO of Walker & Dunlop (NYSE WD), one of the leaders in providing financing solutions to owners and operators of commercial real estate properties across the United States with a specialization in multifamily properties. From his vantage point as a provider of financing for affordable housing, Walker sees one core concern in Harris's housing plan: it could take years to implement.

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While incentives are a powerful tool for builders, Walker sees a bigger impediment to building at scale: land entitlements. Builders often have to wade through a complicated approval process that costs both time and money. Because of that, they need to ensure that all that effort pays off. One way to do that is to charge a premium for new construction. Walker told the Commercial Observer that the “disconnect of big money sitting in Washington, and local control over land use, has to be somehow worked through."

Walker's suggestion is the creation of what he calls ‘go-zones' for affordable housing, setting up areas around the country where housing can be built more quickly. He also called for using money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help communities fund construction.

A precedent for creating zones of targeted activity can be found in one of the most bipartisan initiatives during the Trump Administration, the opportunity zone program. Opportunity zones were created by the Investing in Opportunity Act led by Senators Tim Scott and Cory Booker and Representatives Pat Tiberi and Ron Kind. The policy was enacted in 2017 as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

As part of the process, governors selected opportunity zones in their respective states and territories using Census data. The idea of opportunity zones was to incentivize real estate activity in areas with low unemployment. The program rewarded investors who participated in funds that invested in the areas by allowing them to defer capital gains taxes and to receive tax breaks on gains from opportunity zone projects. The program was not without controversy, and its full merit has yet to be fully explored. Still, one thing it did show was that national policy could spur local activity, so it could provide a template for building out zones of affordable housing.

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Harris has also taken aim at corporate landlords and aims to clear the pathway for homebuyers to avoid competition with institutional investors. She has said she would support the passing of the "Stop Predatory Investing Act," a bill from Senator Sherrod Brown that would remove tax benefits for corporate landlords of single-family homes.

In speaking with the Commercial Observer, Walker said Blackstone and Invitation Homes are meeting market demand, saying it’s an affordability issue. He also cited the national policies of the early 2000s that incentivized homeownership with disastrous results. A flurry of homebuilding followed by a massive amount of home financing, much of it not very restrictive, was one of the core components of the Great Financial Crisis, leading to widespread foreclosures.

Even in the best of times, building 3 million housing units in four years would be ambitious. However, as Walker describes, clearing a path to make building homes easier could solve one of the biggest challenges developers face.

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This article Forget Rent Caps, Walker & Dunlop CEO Says Kamala Harris Needs To Do This One Thing To Solve The Housing Problem originally appeared on Benzinga.com