Towns are rezoning
for new housing

New Jersey's Fourth Round of affordable housing obligations began on July 1, 2025 and runs for ten years. Under the 2024 affordable housing law, towns across the state are planning and zoning to meet their share. For a builder, that means some land is being zoned for housing its old zoning did not allow.

Towns adopted their own numbers. The obligation has two parts: present need, which covers housing already needed now, and prospective need, which covers growth expected over the round. The Department of Community Affairs published a number for every town, and the law does not hold any town to it. The number that holds is the one the town adopted by resolution, due January 31, 2025.

A town meets its number through zoning. The law asks for land use rules that give a realistic opportunity to build, and it says outright that a municipality does not have to build the homes itself. Towns had until March 15, 2026 to pass the ordinances that set the new zoning, and in many towns that process is still going.

Market rate homes are often part of the plan. One approach the law names is allowing more homes on a site, either with a required affordable share or with extra homes allowed in return for one. The market rate homes help pay for the project. Some rezoned sites are set aside entirely for affordable homes, so the ordinance for a given property shows whether market rate homes are allowed.

Land that did not work for a builder in an earlier round can look different now, because the zoning on it may have changed. If you are looking at a piece of land in a South Jersey town, we can check what the town adopted for it and what the zoning allows.

General information about the Fourth Round. Adoption status changes as ordinances move through readings; confirm the current ordinance with the municipality before relying on it. Written by Justin Kelly, NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson. More at P.L.2024, c.2.