The state of New York City housing received a checkup this week — with poor results.
A new report by the Real Estate Board of New York revealed that new apartment construction is falling far short of what the city needs to solve its housing crisis.
The Big Apple is currently facing its lowest vacancy rate in more than 50 years and months of record-breaking rents.
The powerful real estate trade organization released the report as a checkup — the first of several — to assess the progress of Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul’s bold housing plans, the New York Times reported.
The city is not on track to meet the Adams administration’s 2022 “moonshot” goal to build 500,000 new homes over the decade, according to REBNY.
Just 66,162 units have been completed since the start of 2024, the report found. That’s a 13% slice of the ambitious 500,000-unit goal.
The REBNY report estimated that New York City now needs to be building 13,147 units per quarter through 2034 — a roughly 39% increase in production — in order to meet that 500,000 mark by 2034. The city’s current quarterly pace is closer to an average of 9,452 new units.
This enormous gap between needed units and realized units can put part of the blame on long-frustrated construction timelines.
On average, it takes roughly 3.4 years to build up a single apartment building in New York City, according to the trade group. That number stretches to four years in Manhattan.
Basha Gerhards, REBNY’s executive vice president of public policy, told the Times that a range factors contribute to the lackluster building results.
There are the usual suspects, like bureaucratic red tape and restrictive zoning laws, that hamstring developers. The report pointed out that pre-development periods, or the waiting period between finalizing construction plans and receiving proper permits, can leave apartment buildings waiting in the wings for more than five years.
More than 47,100 units are in this pre-development purgatory, according to REBNY. Requirements for safety and energy efficiency can shift in the meantime, further altering plans.
Gerhards also pointed to new burdens on developers, like high interest rates and the residual economic pains of COVID-19 shutdowns.
Both sides of the aisle appear to agree that New Yorkers need more housing, but partisan approaches vary, from deregulation to removing zoning limits.
Adams made housing a key pillar of his brief administration, notably passing sweeping zoning reforms through the City of Yes that cleared the way for an estimated 130,000 potential new apartments.
Continued construction is a stated goal of the Mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, who has promised to build 200,000 subsidized homes over the next 10 years.
Regardless of who is in charge, the city’s builders certainly have their work cut out for them. The Times cited recent surveys that estimated the metro region’s housing shortage total between 355,000 and 540,000 units.