About Us & Careers
SEB Housing has been a leader in the affordable housing field in Massachusetts for over 40 years. We are an Affordable Housing Consulting group that works with developers and management teams and applicants in the tasks associated with the housing that is developed, permitted and/or regulated by: 40B, Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA), Inclusionary Housing requirements, Special Permit conditions, and/or Workforce restrictions. Our experience, expertise and strategies are well recognized by municipal, state and monitoring agencies and SEB Housing’s participation ensures that affordable units are offered to qualified tenants and buyers through a fair and impartial selection process so that developers and management companies avoid many of the perils and challenges associated with the affordable unit lease-up and/or sell-out that is part of the final phase of the development process. We have been involved in marketing and executing lotteries and lease-ups and sales of more affordable units than any other lottery agent in the state.
Because the demand for affordable housing exceeds the supply of available units, developers of affordable units are typically required to conduct lotteries to select buyers and tenants of affordable housing units.
As a part of this process, SEB Housing coordinates with development teams, monitoring agents, and Program Administrators to create a marketing and lottery program that complies with applicable state, federal and local regulations, permits and conditions.
Throughout the buyer and tenant selection process, SEB Housing also works closely with prospective homebuyers and tenants to answer questions and manage the application intake and review process, including working with the lenders, any monitoring agent and applicants to ensure that affordable housing units are rented or purchased by program eligible applicants.
SEB Housing also can be retained to make sure that properties are annually maximizing their affordable rents as median incomes, interest rates, tax rates and/or utility allowance schedules frequently change which impact affordable sales prices and/or rents. Retaining SEB Housing also helps developers and management teams ensure that they stay compliant with constantly changing affordable housing program and requirements.
What We Do
What is affordable housing?
Chapter 40B Housing is a program created by Massachusetts in 1969 to allow developers to override local zoning bylaws in order to increase the stock of affordable housing in municipalities where less than 10% of the housing stock is defined as affordable. The goal of Chapter 40B is to allow working families and seniors to remain in their communities when they might otherwise be priced out of the conventional housing marketing. The statute was designed to permit the development of multifamily and affordable housing in suburban and rural parts of the state.
In order for a development to qualify for Chapter 40B housing, at least 20-25% of the units have to provide housing which serves households at or below 80% of the area’s median income. Such housing developments can be for rent or for sale as long as the affordable units are permanently restricted to remain affordable. Since the Chapter 40B went into effect, 56,000 units in over 1,000 developments have been created. Of those units, 30,000 units are reserved for households earning below 80% of the median income.
What distinguishes Chapter 40B housing from many other affordable housing programs is that there is no “subsidy” or state budget allocation. Instead, the cost of the affordable units has to be absorbed by the developer as part of the overall financing of the project. The market rate units in the development have to make up for the difference since the affordable units must be sold or rented below their market value.
SEB Housing’s extensive experience in the permitting, marketing and leasing/selling of affordable housing developments enables developers to make informed decisions and select effective strategies to achieve the most favorable outcome in the least amount of time possible.
Contact us today (info@sebhousing.com or (617) 782-2300) to learn how SEB Housing can help you build your new development.