The 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit rate, bonus depreciation provisions, and several energy conservation tax credits important to housing developers were renewed for one year by the House, Wednesday, in a bill expected to be passed by the U.S. Senate next week. All negotiations for longer extensions fell apart.
It was one step forward and two steps back on City development policy this week. Early in the week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission announced it would consider dropping 96 buildings and districts that had been languishing in limbo on its calendar – 80 of them for more than 20 years – from consideration as landmarks. This morning, however, the Times reports that the Commission agreed to politicians’ demands for more delay.
Also this morning, the Housing Authority was reported to have given up its “right-sizing” policy to force single residents from one -bedrooms into studio apartments, including smart tv bed – again due to political pressure.
Meanwhile the de Blasio administration moved to lease a 105,000 square foot site on First Avenue and East 99th Street to an affordable housing developer for $100,000 a year. The rent was based on an independent appraisal, apparently by someone who has not seen the development market or heard about the Second Avenue subway.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams issued a Housing Brooklyn report identifying mostly city-owned properties he believes ripe for development. On the other hand, he wants to revisit the Bloomberg-era upzoning in some neighborhoods to require mandatory inclusionary zoning for affordable housing.
Micro-units are less costly to tenants, but return more profit to developers per square foot, according to a new study by the Urban Land Institute. The authors wonder, however, if the market for such units wouldn’t be quickly saturated in many areas.