Bisnow’s First Draft Live is a regular series featuring live conversations about the critical stories impacting CRE right now. It is a companion to The First Draft, Bisnow’s daily, flagship CRE newsletter. Register here to get The First Draft in your inbox. Subscribe to First Draft Live on Apple and Spotify, or scroll down to view in your browser. 

The federal government is poised to enact what the real estate industry has long asked for: legislation focused on making housing development easier. 

On Feb. 8, the Housing for the 21st Century Act passed the House by a 390-9 margin. This bill, which mirrors a Senate bill passed last year, takes key steps to unlock additional supply, including removing environmental reviews that delay new construction and creating national guidelines for localities to reform their zoning. 

There are some undeniably beneficial parts of the legislation, Continental Properties Chairman and CEO James Schloemer said on this week’s edition of First Draft Live with Bisnow Editor-in-Chief Mark F. Bonner. Its passing with strong bipartisan support shows that policymakers in Washington recognize the critical nature of the housing affordability challenge. 

But Schloemer, who just concluded a two-year term as chairman of the National Multifamily Housing Council, said federal desire doesn’t always translate to local action — and that is where construction actually happens.

“There are a lot of issues at the local level,” he said. “Between NIMBYs — people not wanting more expansion in their area because of concerns over infrastructure or quality of life — to issues regarding building codes and being [too] short-staffed to expedite the necessary permitting and inspections, there are a lot of challenges not correlated to things that the federal government influences.” 

Beyond the recent bills, Schloemer tackled the state of housing today and what can truly fix the affordability crisis.

View the full conversation below.