Since 2015, the city of Boston has made it an initiative to create more housing inventory to meet rising demand. As the metro area has grown, the city has faced a critical shortage of affordable housing opportunities for renters and buyers alike. In 2022, the Boston rental market has seen historically low apartment availability and record high occupancy rates, indicating the problem is getting worse not better.
During the pandemic, many of these new housing developments were stalled or put on hold. Now we’re feeling the effects of this in the form of high prices and limited inventory of Boston apartments for rent. New construction projects have since picked up pace again, so the long-term outlook is more optimistic for renters in Boston. Here are the top housing development projects to watch in 2022.
Suffolk Downs
The old Boston horse race track is getting a huge makeover. Breaking ground in May of this year, this new development will add over 10,000 new apartment units to Boston’s housing inventory. This project won’t be complete until 2023, but it’s the largest development project in Boston so it’s something to keep an eye on.
159-201 Washington Street
Construction has just completed on 159-201 Washington St. in Brighton, MA. This will add 555 new apartment units to the city’s inventory in a neighborhood where off-campus housing demand has been outpacing supply thus far in 2022.
1252-1270 Boylston Street
This massive Fenway development project plans to add 477 new residential units and has been under construction since January 16, 2020. Construction efforts were stymied during the pandemic, but they are back in full swing in 2022.
South Bay
South Bay is a 6-story mixed-use development project in Dorchester that has recently completed construction. It has added 475 new units of housing to Boston’s inventory in one of the more affordable places to rent an apartment in Boston.
These projects promise to provide much-needed relief to Boston’s tight housing supply. Many of the city’s new construction projects have been focused on adding Boston luxury apartments to the housing inventory with no real plan to address the shortage of affordable housing. These three projects, however, aim to do just that, providing reasonably priced apartments in areas with high demand. As more of these types of projects are completed in Boston, it will be interesting to see if it can curb the soaring rent prices.