Regulatory Issues And The Strongholds They Have On Housing Affordability

One delay here and there might seem like a normal part of the building process, but the long-term effects are costly. Developers are doing their best to complete building projects as quickly as possible but many times there are factors that are out of their control. A construction delay Americans have been facing are the electrical transformers. Why are electrical transformers in high demand? In 2018, the Trump Administration issued tariffs on Chinese transformers, causing them to be in short supply.

Unfortunately, many of our members are STILL experiencing transformer delays. We have had multiple roundtable discussions with Duke Energy regarding how to tackle these delays and the long-term ramifications they have for Mecklenburg County residents. We explained to them how costly months long delays are and how they affect housing affordability. By being months behind in a project, the owner/operator must increase rent to make up the cost. What could have been an affordable apartment community becomes needlessly expensive. The situation has put the region’s developers into a hurry up and wait situation. Sadly, their projects are on pause until Duke Energy supplies the needed transformers. Duke Energy’s Carolinas Multi-Family Team has been responsive and opened the doors for communication regarding construction delays.

Not only are developers experiencing delays with electrical transformers, they are also struggling with inflation and rising interest rates making it difficult to start new projects. Charlotte’s housing affordability crisis won’t be solved until developers have the required resources in a timely manner that sets them up for success and encourages more development.