The affordable housing floor area bonus is a zoning incentive that allows developers to build more total square footage than base rules permit in exchange for including affordable apartments.

In NYC, under Voluntary Inclusionary Housing, a developer who makes 20% of residential floor area affordable can access a FAR bonus of up to 40% above the base, so a district with a base FAR of 4.0 can reach 5.6. City of Yes (December 2024) expanded where this bonus applies. The 485-x tax exemption, which replaced 421-a in June 2026, provides additional property tax relief for projects meeting deeper affordability requirements. The bonus requires a formal inclusionary plan approved by NYC's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

For owners, the bonus matters because more buildable SF means a developer can justify paying more for your land.

Example: You own a 5,000 SF lot in a VIH-eligible R7A district with a base FAR of 4.0, supporting 20,000 buildable SF. A developer commits 20% of floor area to affordable units and unlocks a FAR of 5.6, bringing total buildable SF to 28,000. That extra 8,000 SF is what makes your lot more valuable.