July 28, 2023

The White House announced new actions that the Biden Administration is taking to lower the cost of housing while also boosting supply. The actions include reducing barriers to building housing like restrictive and costly land use and zoning rules that limit the density of housing that can be built and promoting commercial-to-residential conversion opportunities. The White House hopes to spur these conversions through a new interagency working group to develop and advance federal funding opportunities that support the conversion of commercial properties to housing.

As part of this initiative, the General Services Administration (GSA) will launch an effort to identify and market surplus federal properties that represent opportunities for commercial-to-residential conversions. The Administration is also funding research on office-to-residential conversions, including producing a new guide for state and local policymakers on how to make these projects more economically viable.

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