Make Homeownership More Feasible in Berkeley

Attainable for-sale housing is an important but unmet need in Berkeley. What's more, while we're looking forward to a potential upzoning to allow for Missing Middle housing throughout most of Berkeley, it will be very difficult to sell these units individually without changes to city ordinances.

Thankfully, in the past two years the California legislature has passed two bills SB 684 and SB 1123 to facilitate townhome and small infill multifamily for-sale housing in urban and suburban areas. Councilmember Kesarwani has put forward a City Council referral for Planning staff to develop ordinances to implement and resolve any conflicts with SB 684 and SB 1123. These changes would allow the subdivision of land for townhomes and for-sale flats as prescribed in these recent state housing laws. That would make it much easier to sell these middle housing types separately. In addition to being a potentially attractive option for builders and homeowners alike, it could make more middle housing projects pencil, so more homes would get built. Without these changes, more units would have to be sold together, so they would remain rental units, as opposed to ownership opportunities for families to start building wealth.