Georgia Lawmakers Aim To Speed Housing Permits For Affordability

A surge in Sun Belt in-migration for well over a decade blessed Georgia with population growth that prompted a spate of apartment and home construction.

Despite a heavy dose of added supply in the past few years, there was no catching up. The state still has a housing shortage, particularly in the Atlanta metropolitan area. By some measures, the shortage exceeds 365,000 homes statewide.

One of several state legislatures on the affordability bandwagon, Georgia lawmakers now want to dent the regulatory costs that builders claim make housing less affordable. They plan to pursue those changes as the governor’s race heats up.

Candidates on both sides of the partisan divide have picked up the affordability mantle in a similar fashion to California candidates. The key difference is that Georgia has not yet addressed affordability at the state level as California has.

In Georgia’s next legislative session, beginning in January, a bill filed in March is expected to resurface, accelerating permitting processes and tightening state control over local building standards.

“This in some small way will bring down the cost of housing,” State Rep. Mike Cheokas, who sponsored the bill with the Home Builders Association of Georgia, said during a mid-November hearing on the legislation.

Cheokas introduced the bill at the end of the 2025 session as a place marker to set the effort in motion for further study after the session.

The bill marks an aggressive bid to narrow the gap between construction and a stubborn housing shortage by imposing tight limits on how cities and counties can control building permits and by allowing local code tweaks.

The measure has quickly become a proxy fight over whether Georgia’s growth is being strangled more by red tape or by too little local oversight in fast-developing communities.

Housing shortage emerges from underproduction

Nationally, economists regularly note that housing construction over the past 10 years has not matched pre-Great Recession levels. Construction rose but still did not match the need.

Jerry Parrish, Metro Atlanta Chamber chief economist, highlighted in the hearing the state’s population growth between 2010 and 2024, with nearly all metros growing. In the Atlanta region, another 1.8 million residents are forecast by 2050.

“So, we’ve got demand coming in,” he said.

From the supply side, he showed that the number of residential building permits issued statewide peaked at 70,000 a couple of years ago. For perspective, he said that number of permits was issued annually in metro Atlanta alone before the 2008 Great Recession.

Georgia’s recent construction boom lowered the state’s underproduction number over the past couple of years. Up for Growth data shows underproduction dropping from 138,000 units in 2023 to about 124,000 this year.

Housing construction has slowed over the past couple of years because of higher construction costs and interest rates.

“Labor is super scarce,” Parris said.

What the legislation would do

The bill would revise how local governments can go above the state’s minimum standard construction codes, making it harder for cities and counties to adopt stricter local building requirements. It would shift more power to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, which would gain clearer authority to reject local amendments that exceed state standards or slow down approvals.

Austin Hackney, executive vice president for the homebuilder’s association, told lawmakers there’s “no teeth” in the current process.

“The bill you have in front of you … amends the existing statute to give that approval or disapproval process some teeth,” Hackney said.

The legislation would also impose hard deadlines for building permits, closing a loophole that let the clock restart every time local reviewers asked for more information. If a city or county misses the deadline, builders could obtain approvals by default or through state intervention.

Fixing a system of delays

Home builders, real estate groups and pro-growth think tanks frame the legislation as low-cost supply policy. They want to change process rules rather than spend billions on subsidies.

The legislative supporters point to provide examples of applicants bouncing between jurisdictions or navigating conflicting local add-ons to state codes. They say those conflicts stretch reviews for months and add thousands of dollars per unit.

Jay Knight, a founder of the newly created Georgia Residential Land Development Council, said municipalities should approve permits more quickly for projects they have already approved through zoning.

“We just want the permit in two months like we used to be able to get instead of 15 months,” Knight said.

Supporters also stress that the bill does not weaken the statewide construction codes themselves. They argue that safety and basic quality would still be set at the state level while local governments lose the ability to “gold-plate” projects beyond those standards.

Local governments fear losing control

Echoing a common theme of opposition in other states, Georgia city and county officials counter that the bill is a frontal assault on home rule. They say it ignores staffing shortages and the complexity of reviewing large subdivisions and infill projects.

Environmental and watershed advocates warn that forced speed-ups could weaken enforcement of erosion, stormwater and tree-protection rules. Those rules often live in local ordinances rather than the state minimum codes.

Local building officials say the hard-stop deadlines in the legislation are unrealistically short and would push jurisdictions either to rubber-stamp incomplete plans or risk automatic approvals and liability.

They argue that some locally stricter standards on flooding, design and neighborhood context reflect geographic realities that the statewide code cannot capture.

Stakes are high

For Georgia’s housing market, the legislation tests how far the state is willing to go in reining in local control to spur construction. The debate echoes battles over zoning preemption in other high-growth states.

If it passes in its current form, the law could meaningfully shorten timelines for large single-family subdivisions and suburban apartment projects, especially in fast-growing exurban counties.

The legislation also risks new tensions between the state and local governments as the governor’s race intensifies, with candidates discussing how to improve affordability.