North Carolina Leaders Advance Affordable Housing Land Plan
North Carolina House leaders announced a bipartisan affordable housing plan on Wednesday to help nonprofit housing groups buy land more cheaply. John Bell and Robert Reives said the proposal targets land costs as lawmakers look for ways to build more homes.
The plan was laid out at a rare joint press conference, where Bell said housing is one of the most pressing challenges families and communities face across North Carolina. Reives said the bill takes seriously what is preventing homes from being built at all.
Bell and Reives on housing costs
Bell, the House Republican majority leader, said his caucus and the Democratic caucus want to work together on housing prices. He said, “We all can agree that housing is one of the most pressing challenges that families face, and communities face, across our state” and “That's why we're here today: To propose legislation that represents a meaningful and practical step forward.”
Reives, the House Democratic minority leader, said, “We can't simply ask how to make homes affordable after they're built” and “We've got to figure out what's preventing them from being built at all, and that's what this bill takes seriously.”
Land prices in North Carolina
Lawmakers said land throughout North Carolina is getting more expensive, and they tied that increase to hundreds of thousands of new residents moving into the state each year. They said the demand for space has driven up the price of land, which is the piece the proposal tries to address first for nonprofit affordable housing developers.
The move came as state lawmakers focus on housing expenses while North Carolinians sour on the economy. About 59% of registered voters polled by High Point University this month said the economy was getting worse, and about one-third expected to be worse off a year from now.
2026 legislative session proposals
Other housing proposals are already in play for the 2026 legislative session. On Monday, Democrats rolled out a different housing bill that included a new loan program aimed at moderate-income families.
Housing costs are moving alongside tax proposals too. On Tuesday, Senate Republican leader Phil Berger rolled out a plan focused on suppressing property taxes and said Senate Bill 889 would bring temporary relief to North Carolinians facing rising property taxes while legislators work on long-term solutions for next year and beyond.
Another property tax proposal has also surfaced: Destin Hall earlier backed a proposed constitutional amendment to limit the power of local governments to raise property tax rates. For nonprofit housing groups, the immediate change is narrower but practical — the House plan would make land acquisition cheaper, which is often the first hurdle before any building starts.
North Carolina House leaders
The House announcement places land access at the center of the legislature’s housing debate. With multiple bills now in circulation, nonprofit developers and families looking for more affordable units are seeing lawmakers move on several fronts at once, but Bell and Reives made their pitch around the earliest step in the process: securing land.
