Mamdani Administration to Reduce Construction Timelines, Overhaul Housing Lottery

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is feeling the need for SPEED.

New York City’s municipal government continues to whittle away at barriers to housing development, with the Mamdani administration announcing Wednesday another suite of changes to the approval process.

Housing projects seeking zoning changes could see rapid progress in the “pre-certification” process, down from two years to six months, while City Hall plans an overhaul of the affordable housing lottery system through lottery portal NYC Housing Connect, according to Mamdani.

Overall, the streamlining efforts could cut the time between the completion of a project and lease-up from 210 days to fewer than 100 days through what the administration is calling Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development (SPEED).

“These delays are not inevitable,” Mamdani said in a statement. “They are the result of broken systems and a failure of political will. New Yorkers cannot afford to wait years for affordable housing while projects sit trapped in bureaucracy. SPEED is about making the government deliver — faster, fairer and at the scale this crisis demands.”  

The overhaul to NYC Housing Connect aims to drastically reduce the amount of time that units sit vacant and available through the housing lottery, which can sometimes take up to eight months to fill from the time of a project’s completion, Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Dina Levy said in a statement on Wednesday. The goal is to get applications through the government portal approved in under 100 days.

HPD also plans to shorten the window for applications for new units from 60 to 21 days, meaning that agency staff have to sort through only serious applicants as opposed to sifting through vast swaths of New Yorkers who don’t need immediate housing.

NYC Housing Connect received 7 million applications in 2025, when only about 10,000 new units were hitting the market, according to HPD.

“We’ve got tons and tons of applicants coming in for a very limited number of units, so in addition to verifying eligibility, you also have to verify if people are interested,” Katya Murphy, chief-of-staff for first deputy HPD commissioner Adam Phillips, told Commercial Observer. “So one point where the process slows down is when we end up doing a lot of interacting with people who actually aren’t that interested. When it comes down to it, they’re not looking for housing now.”

“Then there’s a variety of eligibility screening and income verification steps that we think we can make simpler,” Murphy added.

Mamdani created the SPEED Task Force upon entering office in January, gathering intel from industry experts, housing advocates and developer trade organizations, which the administration said were forthcoming in providing 500 recommendations that made their way into a 36-page report.

“By reducing the pre-certification timeline for many projects from two years to six months, we will get shovels in the ground and New Yorkers into homes faster — while maintaining a fair and thorough review process,” Department of City Planning Director Sideya Sherman said in a statement. “These commonsense reforms are a critical part of our broader effort to meet the urgency of the moment and build a more equitable and affordable New York City.”  

The reforms can also be implemented with little discussion within the New York City Council chamber, as the policies do not require any legislative changes.

Whether the SPEED program is “2 Fast [or] 2 Furious,” City Council Speaker Julie Menin is unclear.

Menin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But Mamdani’s announcement had the endorsement of leaders in commercial real estate, such as Partnership for New York City CEO Steven Fulop, Real Estate Board of New York President James Whelan, and New York Building Congress CEO Carlo Scissura.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.