Arlington and Alexandria Don't Have Enough New Condos for HQ2

• April 15th 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

While a recent apartment report for the region quells some concern about how the area rental market can accommodate the anticipated influx of Amazon employees, a new condo report reveals some shortcomings in the pipeline.

"Despite a recent trend toward developing larger projects over 100 units, a shortage of new product remains and will be acutely evident over the next several years as demand grows for condominium housing by the HQ2 workforce, especially in Northern Virginia," the latest Delta Associates report states. 

The report concludes that demand from HQ2 employees is expected to hit roughly 2,900 new condos by 2030 and up to 4,400 units by 2034; 78 percent of this demand will be concentrated in northern Virginia, particularly in Alexandria and in Arlington and Fairfax Counties.

More specifically, HQ2 employees will be on the hunt for 1,200-1,800 condos in Arlington County and 450-700 condos in Alexandria, but there are only 950 and 300 units in the respective pipelines of those jurisdictions. Resold condos will not be able to compensate for this shortfall if the levels of resale supply continue on their current trajectory.

Of the 6,098 new condo units in the 36-month pipeline for the region, 47 percent are located in DC proper compared to 36 percent in northern Virginia. Overall, while the regionwide condo market appears balanced, there will be more demand than supply in northern Virginia and suburban Maryland over the next 36 months, and more supply than demand in the District. 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/arlington-and-alexandria-new-condo-pipeline-undersupplied-for-hq2/15265.