This article is from HBAV's historical archive. Some formatting may differ from current articles.
On Wednesday, the Virginia General Assembly convened for what is known as a “short session” of 45 days. Unfortunately, that’s the only business delegates and senators tended to, before the city of Richmond’s ongoing water outages forced lawmakers to delay the start until Monday.
When session finally gets underway, as always, our legislative agenda aims to create an environment that supports our housing industry in delivering quality housing choices for Virginians. To that end, you’ll see some familiar topics and trends on our agenda this year.
At a broader level, we are looking to eliminate roadblocks so that our builders can provide the right amount of housing for the demand that currently exists.
According to our NAHB colleagues, that shortage totals about 1.5 million units across the country, along with a jump of 26% in home prices. Today, the average family spends 38% of their income on monthly mortgage payments for a median-priced house; for low-income families, that hits 77% for the same home.
One of the biggest targets of our advocacy this year will be on helping to streamline the process for land development. In today’s market, houses will sell once built, but our industry is losing precious time during the land development stage. This time adds costs to house prices.
There’s that old adage to “control what you can.” We can’t control the price of supplies – lumber and other materials, to start. We can’t control potential tariffs.
But what we can control is the building code, and how we operate.
That’s why we’re pushing for greater predictability in the development process, which routinely is delayed on major projects by up to two years in Virginia. Consistent tools and resources benefit both builders and localities. We want to follow established practices that allow developers and builders – from those building a single home to those constructing neighborhoods – to understand expectations at every stage, which also ensures all localities in the Commonwealth can successfully meet their housing policy and goals.
A streamlined process leads to lower development costs and increases speed-to-market and housing inventory. Until the housing supply goes up, we will continue to struggle to deliver more affordable housing.
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HBAV’s 2025 Legislative Agenda
This General Assembly session, our legislative agenda is one that will help expand quality, affordable housing in Virginia. We will introduce several key bills to pursue this goal, as we touch on several key themes:
- Streamlined and consistent site plan and plat approvals: We want to accelerate housing production by requiring localities to reserve these processes for administrative reviews. A related action will seek to ensure development approvals are guided by codified standards.
- Bolstering tax credits and assessments: We want to protect the Virginia Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit and expand the Virginia Housing Opportunity Tax Credit. The first plays a role in revitalizing and bringing jobs to local neighborhoods, while the second provides an incentive for affordable housing development. We also seek to require locations to assess affordable housing properties based on restricted rams, to create fairness and reduce the financial strain on affordable housing projects.
- Funds to protect consumers and developers: Increasing claim limits on the Contractor Transaction Recovery Fund will provide adequate consumer protection in light of today’s construction costs, with minimal impact on licensed contractors paying into the fund. A new Virginia Residential Development Infrastructure Fund would finance water, sewer, roads and more for new residential and multi-family developments, leading to reduced development costs for builders and supporting housing supply growth. We’re also asking the state to waive water and sewer connection fees to address a significant cost driver and financial barrier, particularly in a way that supports affordable and workforce housing.
[button link="https://superbskirtlunchroom.stellarwp.site/wp-content/uploads/HBAV-Leg-Agenda-1.9.25b.pdf" type="big" newwindow="yes"] Get HBAV's 2025 Legislative Agenda (subject to change)[/button]
What to Expect Next
While these are the areas where we will be proactively advocating for the industry, we know to expect bills that will need our attention in defeating because of their potential to harm or limit home building in Virginia. We are currently poring through countless bills to identify any that we will work to oppose, and you will be hearing more about those in the coming weeks.
For now, we are at the start of a busy time in Richmond. We will rely on your involvement working with your local legislators to educate them on issues that are key to ensure quality, affordable housing across our Commonwealth. Thank you, in advance, for your collaboration during this annual session.
HBAV members: Join us Wednesday, Jan. 29 for our Day on the Hill
Don’t miss one of our most important annual events! Show up and show legislators that home building matters. Coordinate with your local association to schedule meetings with members of the General Assembly that morning. After our time at the brand new General Assembly Building, HBAV will host all members and guests in our offices located at the James Center for lunch and a debrief meeting. Register and get the schedule here.
