Multifamily Developers Facing New Headwinds from Impact of COVID-19 Virus

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) conducted an online poll on April 3^rd and 4^th of members of the NAHB’s Multifamily Council, NAHB’s Affordable Housing Group, and NAHB’s Multifamily Leadership Board developers, asking how the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting their ability to continue construction projects and collect rents. In the survey 90% of the multifamily developers are reporting that the virus was having an adverse effect on how long it takes to obtain a plan review for a typical multifamily building.  Also 88% said they were having difficulty in timely collection of rent payments. After plan review and rent collection, the most widespread problems were supply of n95 respirator face masks (cited as a virus-induced problem by 86% percent of multifamily developers), traffic of prospective buyers/renters (85%), and costs related to renters’ health and safety (82%).