Newton Buys Apartment Building to Preserve Affordable Housing

Newton, Massachusetts has taken a bold and practical approach to preserving affordable housing — not by building something new, but by buying what already exists.

In a move designed to combat displacement and rising rents, the city helped an affordable housing developer purchase an existing apartment building that had been placed on the market. Rather than allowing private investors to acquire the property and increase rents, Newton stepped in to secure long-term affordability.

As reported by Andrew Brinker in the Boston Globe, the developer will renovate the building and continue offering the units at below-market rents, allowing current residents to remain in their homes. The decision, advocates say, represents a growing national trend focused on preserving “naturally occurring affordable housing.”

The city argues that this strategy delivers several key advantages: it prevents resident displacement, reduces tenant turnover, and delivers new affordable housing units faster — and far more cost-effectively — than constructing a new building from scratch.

To make the acquisition possible, the city assembled a layered funding package that included $4 million from the Newton Affordable Housing Trust, $6.6 million from the state, and $10 million from private investors. Altogether, the total project cost came to $44 million, or roughly $400,000 per unit — an estimated $200,000 less per unit than what it would take to build new affordable housing of a similar size.

The building will be designated as “workforce housing,” reserved for households earning between $39,700 and $141,592 for a two-person household, ensuring that middle-income residents such as teachers, nurses, and service workers can continue living in the high-cost Boston suburb.

By purchasing an existing structure rather than developing new housing, Newton is positioning itself as a model for other communities struggling with affordability. The initiative not only secures long-term stability for current residents — it also protects the neighborhood from speculative real estate pressure.

With land and construction costs continuing to rise nationwide, more cities may soon find that the fastest path to more affordable housing is not always breaking ground — it’s stepping in before someone else does.

Originally reported by Diana Ionescu in Planetization.