Philadelphia on Track to See a Record Amount of Housing Development in 2022

The development boom in Philadelphia is expected to continue this year. Based on the number of building permits approved by the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections in 2021, there could be up to 10,000 new units built in 2022. Plus, 90 construction projects went before the Civic Design Review board. Kevin C. Gillen, Ph.D. is an economist who holds positions as both a Senior Research Fellow with Drexel’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation. He said that number of units is much bigger than we’ve ever seen before. However, the 10 year tax abatement reduction program took place at the beginning of the year. That means new construction projects can no longer get the full 100% tax break for ten years if they apply in 2022 and on. Gillen said some developers may have rushed to get their permit while the full abatement was available in 2021. Because of this, we don’t know for sure if all units will be built this year or if they got permits preemptively. Read about all of the changes to the tax abatement program here.

Projects Completed or Under Construction:

Project info from Center City District

Proposed Projects in 2021:

Project Info from Center City District. This is not a complete list of all proposed projects but a good number of them.