SBR-Authors Podcast: Finding True Happiness Through Acts of Kindness: A Conversation with Karen Olson
Creative Housing Solutions Pop Up Across Oregon
Affordable Housing on the Front Range: Inclusionary Housing Ordinances and the New Middle Income Housing Authority
Office-to-Apartment Conversions – A Good Idea, but Tricky to Pull Off (Audio)
Episode 15 | Hot! Hot! Hot! Don't get Burned by the Perils of Buying and Selling Residential Real Estate
California CRE to Expand in 2022
We start our August Alert with some potentially very good news. The RENTAL Act, a bill to reform TOPA, passed its first vote by the DC Council on July 28, 2025. The RENTAL Act includes, among other things, a blanket exemption...more
With the current housing shortage in California, coupled with recent regulatory changes, multifamily development is robust throughout the state. Perhaps the most consequential recent change is the reform of the California...more
As discussed in our earlier post, California's CEQA landscape has rapidly, and potentially seismically, evolved with the passage of AB 130 and SB 131. This post focuses on the immediate creation of a new statutory exemption,...more
This is the seventh update in our series covering AB 130 and SB 131, two bills that work substantive changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California housing law....more
Note: This is the second update in our series covering AB 130 and SB 131, two bills that work substantive changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California housing law....more
When District of Columbia Council Chairman Phil Mendelson introduced the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants and Landlords (RENTAL) Act, there were high hopes that much needed reform to the Tenant Opportunity to...more
On June 30, 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two budget trailer bills—AB 130 and SB 131—that together work major changes both to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California housing law. Because these bills...more
Originally enacted in 1970, the objective of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was to review projects to assess potential impacts on the environment, disclose those impacts to the public, and mitigate those...more
Following the FCA’s May 2025 ‘first steps’ consultation on proposals to simplify its mortgage framework via a Mortgage Rule Review (MRR), it has now published a discussion paper on the future of the mortgage market. The...more
Single-family-only zoning has officially ended in the City of Seattle. On May 27, 2025, the Seattle City Council passed CB 120969 to comply with RCW 36.70A.635, which requires adoption of development regulations allowing for...more
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published discussion paper DP25/2 (DP) accompanied by an updated webpage and press release, on the future of the UK mortgage market, as part of its ongoing mortgage rule review....more
On June 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two budget bills that contained the most significant reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in decades, effective immediately. These changes create an...more
On June 30, 2025, Governor Newsom signed into law a sweeping set of housing and infrastructure reforms as part of the 2025–2026 State Budget, marking one of the most significant overhauls of the California Environmental...more
With the zoftig and still mutitative Big, Beautiful Bill stumbling through an unseemly Congressional favor-trading lollapalooza, one is reminded of Ms. Pelosi’s famous quip, “We’ve got to pass this bill to know what’s in it.”...more
On June 16, 2025, the San Diego City Council voted 5-4 to cap the number of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) that can be built on single-family lots. The decision reverses the City’s 2020 implementation of a program allowing...more
On 18 June 2025, the German Federal Cabinet adopted a draft law to accelerate residential construction and secure housing (Schneller bauen mit dem Wohnungsbau-Turbo | Bundesregierung) in order to implement the 100-day target...more
On May 28, Senate Bill 840 arrived on Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s desk after passing the Texas House and Texas Senate with bipartisan support. Authored by State Senator Bryan Hughes, the bill aims to increase the state’s...more
The UK faces a significant housing crisis due to an acute shortage of homes caused by high capital costs, increasing construction and development expenses, regulatory and political uncertainty, and persistent delays in the...more
Introduction to Texas Senate Bill SB 840 - To combat the housing shortage in Texas, the Texas Senate introduced Bill C.S.S.B. 840 (SB 840 or the bill) in April 2025. The purpose of the bill is to streamline the conversion...more
This year, over fifty bills were introduced in the Legislature that directly addressed a CEQA issue. Many died in committee, or failed to make it out of their respective houses. The vast majority of those that advanced sought...more
The UK government continues to make plenty of promises in terms of reform, a rental revolution and a planning shake-up. What is coming down the line in terms of new legislation over the next few months and which are the...more
As part of an ongoing effort to address the affordable housing shortage, the Connecticut General Assembly has passed Senate Bill No. 1444 which is designed to facilitate the conversion of certain buildings to residential use....more
On May 29, 2025, the Supreme Court held that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — which requires federal agencies to analyze the environmental impacts of projects that they carry out, fund, or approve — does not...more
Fannie Mae (1938) and Freddie Mac (1970) were created with the end goal of promoting homeownership across the United States. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both government-sponsored entities (“GSEs”), are publicly traded and...more
As reported in our April 2025 Alert on March 3, 2025, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson introduced the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords (RENTAL) Act (B26-0164), which includes proposed...more