Industry groups have lined up to support new legislation proposed by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., which aims to incentivize deregulation, expand housing supply and make new homes more affordable.
Hagerty, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, introduced the Freedom to Build Act on Tuesday, which would direct Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner to create a “Freedom to Build” certification.
According to a press release from the senator, to qualify for the certification, localities would need to “adopt policies that unleash construction innovation, fast-track approval processes, defend property rights and family freedom, and demonstrate a consistent record of expanding housing supply.”
If enacted, certified localities would receive priority consideration for existing HUD housing grants. The legislation creates no new agencies or programs and authorizes no new spending. Instead, it aligns existing federal incentives to reward communities that reduce regulatory barriers to building new homes.
“For many Americans, the dream of owning a home is increasingly out of reach, and excessive regulations have made new homes too costly for many American families,” Hagerty stated in the release. “My Freedom to Build Act streamlines costly and often redundant regulations to reduce the cost of a new home in our country.”
The legislation has been endorsed by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB); Leading Builders of America (LBA); National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC); The Real Estate Roundtable; and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
The bill “provides important incentives for communities to voluntarily take steps to improve the home building process at the local level,” said Bill Owens, chairman of the NAHB. “Regulatory barriers like restrictive zoning, cumbersome permitting processes, and cost-increasing mandates stifle housing production. By making jurisdictions more competitive to receive federal grants if they take measures to ease barriers to new home construction, this bill will help improve housing affordability.”
Ken Gear, CEO of LBA, stated the certification “will unlock innovation in building technology, remove costly mandates that inflate home prices, streamline permitting and approval processes and allow builders to increase construction of homes that middle-class families can afford.”
Importantly, Gear added, the designation measures success by the number of new homes constructed and will allow federal and state policymakers visibility into how municipalities are providing more housing supply.
Sharon Wilson Géno, NMHC president, praised the legislation for its efforts to address affordability challenges by removing the barriers that stand in the way of building more housing.
“These are the type of housing solutions that we should focus on — policies that expand housing options for Americans,” she stated. “By cutting red tape and creating more predictable, efficient construction and development processes, we can reduce housing costs and clear the way to deliver more housing sooner in communities across the country.”
The legislation would help expand housing supply and improve affordability for working families, stated Jeffrey DeBoer, president and CEO of The Real Estate Roundtable. He said it would “align federal incentives with local decision-making to help unlock private capital, enhance housing supply and support long-term economic growth.”
The MBA also commended the legislation.
“The Freedom to Build Act encourages localities through the provision of grants to adopt reforms intended to unleash construction innovation, speed approval processes and limit government mandates as appropriate for the building of more housing (both single- and multifamily),” commented Bill Killmer, senior vice president of legislative and political affairs at the MBA.
