The Nation Needs to Invest in Rental
Housing
Keeping the World Safe
from Lawyers, one
Trip Hazard at a time!
Without leadership and effective policy from lawmakers, the nation will
continue to fall short of meeting the growing demand for affordable multifamily housing. This was the key takeaway from today’s congressional testimony by Clyde Holland, chairman and CEO of Holland Partner Group, on
behalf of the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National
Apartment Association.
LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 2003
Speaking before the House Committee on Financial Services Housing
and Insurance Subcommittee, Holland outlined the primary reasons why
America faces a growing affordability problem – stagnant wages, a supplydemand imbalance and numerous hurdles and regulations in developing
new apartments – along with potential solutions.
“First, while the cost to develop and operate rental housing increases
every year, the median renter household income today is virtually unchanged
since 1981, on an inflation-adjusted basis,” said Holland.
In addition, Holland pointed to the enormous deficit when it comes to
aligning the supply of rental apartments with the demand. “Almost 75 million young adults are entering the housing market, primarily as renters. At
the same time, Baby Boomers and empty nesters are trading single-family
houses for rental apartments,” said Holland. “This combination of factors is
forecast to lead to four million new renter households over the next decade.”
“Between 300,000 and 400,000 apartments must be constructed annually
to simply keep pace with this demand,” he said. “Yet, on average, just 208,000
apartments were delivered in the four year period from 2011 to 2015.”
And finally, Holland noted that the development of new apartment
homes is exceptionally difficul