Demystifying and Decreasing Development Costs

Development Cost Research

With the support of MONUM Summer Fellows, the iLab sought to ground-truth what it costs to develop market-rate and affordable housing in Boston using real city data. We found that affordable housing consistently costs more to build across housing typologies, and does not capture the same economies of scale as the private market. Key driving differences include divergent incentive models, higher soft costs, and longer development periods. Through detailed data, statistical, and policy analyses and reports, this project has helped inform recent policy conversations with departmental Chiefs and additional iLab initiatives including offsite and modular construction methods on infill lots. The iLab will continue to use its findings from this research to keep having conversations with important stakeholders and test new innovative approaches to housing. See one of the project’s presentations for more detailed information on our findings.