Breed Proposes Waiving Transfer Tax to Incentivize Office-to-Resi Conversion

Mayor London N. Breed proposed a ballot measure to encourage investment in Downtown San Francisco by waiving the city’s transfer tax on buildings that have converted from non-residential to residential use. The goal of this ballot measure, which will appear on the March 2024 ballot, is to incentivize more underused office buildings to convert into housing.

The proposal is part of Breed’s nine-strategy plan to position Downtown San Francisco for its next chapter. One strategy is to facilitate new uses and flexibility in buildings. As part of this strategy, Mayor Breed authored legislation that became effective in August 2023 amending city codes to ensure flexible zoning and establishing established an Adaptive Reuse Program to simplify the approval process and streamline requirements for converting underutilized office buildings into housing.   

Over the summer, the Breed administration also issued a Request for Interest to learn more about the financial and regulatory challenges faced by specific residential conversion projects. Eliminating the transfer tax is the next step, according to the mayor’s office.  

“By removing barriers to converting office to housing, we can take vacant space, turn them into homes, and bring more people into Downtown, which is good for our neighborhoods and our small businesses,” said Breed.