NAIOP Massachusetts Asks for Delay in Boston’s New Affordability Requirement

NAIOP Massachusetts has asked Boston officials to delay the Wu administration’s new affordability requirements for market-rate apartment and condominium projects, saying that implementing the rules will lead to a further drop-off in housing construction, reported the Boston Business Journal. The requirement, which bumps up the affordability component of a residential project to 20% from the current 13%, is set to take effect Oct. 1.

In a letter to Boston housing chief Sheila Dillon and interim planning chief Devin Quirk, NAIOP Massachusetts CEO Tamara Small wrote, “the regulations will do nothing but further dampen already depressed housing production in the City of Boston, undermining the city’s goals for growth and further driving up the cost of market-rate housing.”

Boston developers and others complain that new affordability- and climate-related rules make it more difficult, if not impossible, to build in the city and make an adequate return on their investment, the Business Journal reported.

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