And now, another big tax cut for the developers and speculators in SF - 48 hills

"San Francisco has only limited options when it comes to taxing big corporations and developers; the state bans, for example, local corporate income taxes. So for the past decade, as real estate values have soared and speculators have made fortunes, progressives have looked for way to capture just a little of that the money."

"The move aims to jump-start the construction of thousands of housing units that are approved but stalled due to economic infeasibility. This makes absolutely no sense. The developers who have approved properties already own the land. The transfer tax isn't stopping them from breaking ground."

San Francisco uses property transfer taxes on sales exceeding $10-25 million to fund affordable housing, since state law prohibits local corporate income taxes. Proposition I in 2020 doubled this transfer tax on high-end sales. However, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood and Mayor Daniel Lurie propose cutting the transfer tax in half, claiming it will spur stalled housing development. This approach is flawed because developers already own approved properties; the transfer tax does not prevent construction. The actual barrier to housing development is economic infeasibility of building projects themselves, not property transfer costs. Reducing tax revenue would further limit affordable housing funding without addressing the genuine obstacles to housing construction.

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