New York Launches Innovative Condo Conversion Law
Originally published in
Affordable Housing Finance
on
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A new law has opened the door for owners of certain large mixed-income housing developments to partially convert to condominiums in order to protect at-risk affordable housing units in New York City.
The Affordable Housing Retention Act (AHRA) meets two important goals—increasing homeownership opportunities and permanently preserving affordable units, says Erica Buckley, a partner at the Nixon Peabody law firm, where she leads the firm’s cooperatives and condominiums and state attorneys general teams.
AHRA was sponsored by state Sen. Cordell Cleare and Assemblyman Harvey Epstein.
The new law may be meaningful to housing groups for multiple reasons.
“There are current landlords who pride themselves on being really good landlords and property owners in New York City, and from a policy perspective they don’t want to see affordable housing units lost,” Buckley says. “The current property owners want to do this because they believe continuing to provide affordable housing is important.”
There are also nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity that want to be involved and expand their role in the market, but that’s extremely difficult given the tough competition and high development costs.
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