When California lawmakers vote in 2021 to repeal zoning laws that require communities to have only single-family homes, supporters and opponents alike strongly believe it will have a huge impact.
But two years after Senate Bill 9 took effect, fewer than 500 property owners have sought to subdivide their land, and only a few dozen new homes have been completed, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing state data.
SB 9 would allow single-family home owners anywhere in the state to sell or subdivide portions of their land. It also allows for up to two units per lot, including duplex units.
SB 9 was intended to inject supply into America’s most challenging housing market, but that hasn’t happened yet. Local officials across the state have set restrictions on height, square footage, architectural style and landscaping, making it harder for homeowners to comply and turn a profit, according to the Wall Street Journal.
California cities reported 194 subdivision applications in 2022, compared with 321 last year. Several startups are looking to capitalize on the passage of SB 9, including BuildCasa, a venture-backed company that pays homeowners up to $400,000 for excess lot space and handles all applications and other permits, The plots are then sold to developers who can build on them.
BuildCasa told the Wall Street Journal that it has signed contracts with 87 homeowners in California, with 12 projects totaling 24 units approved. Co-founder Paul Steidl said most customers are elderly homeowners without mortgages who want to partially cash out when they retire.
In 2023, only 70,000 single-family residential permits were issued throughout California, about the same number as in the Houston metropolitan area.
Ben Metcalf Terner Center The head of UC Berkeley’s Housing Innovation Unit said in February that the state has enacted 140 different pieces of legislation on housing affordability since 2016, but that the laws haven’t had much of an impact on permitting numbers.
Perhaps the state’s most successful housing legislation involves accessory dwelling units, with about 80,000 permits issued since 2016.
