The need for housing in California is a hot topic, particularly affordability. It’s shocking to see the agencies’ costs that add to “unaffordability” – market rate or affordable. It’s more shocking when adding costs for the entitlement process that bring discretionary requirements (more costs) and a time lag that adds more costs again.  The cherry on top is high interest rates suffered by the developers and the buyers alike.

Our second fee comparative study is based on a new multi-family project. Fees range from $2.96m to $23.24m on the same design parameters – 200,000 sf, 5 story, 200 rental units, Type III construction, $80m value.  This equates to between $14,794 and $116K per unit in fees, depending on jurisdiction.

HEILBRONNER provides full discovery, estimating, accounting, tracking, processing and negotiation of agencies’ fees from discovery through construction.  

Fees are estimates based on recent research.  Fees do not include utility companies’ fees, community benefits and other fees that could come out of the entitlement process.