Boston’s Tall Apartment Boom Is Finished, Builders Say

Last updated: October 6, 2026

The era of tall apartment towers that defined Boston's skyline for fifteen years is winding down. That was the message from developers gathered at Bisnow's Multifamily Annual Conference New England this week.

Construction costs are climbing, rents have stalled and financing math no longer closes. Fresh numbers shared with the publication show just a handful of tall residential buildings have wrapped in Greater Boston since early 2024, while dozens of shorter projects have moved ahead.

At a glance

• Only a small number of tall multifamily buildings have completed in Greater Boston since 2024 began.
• Dozens of mid-rise and low-rise apartment projects have finished in the same window.
• 55% of Boston apartments built in the 2010s were high-rise, the highest share of any US city, per Rent Cafe's 2019 report.
• Multifamily construction input prices have jumped 52.8% since February 2020.
• Boston issued 432 housing permits in Q1 2026, down from 549 a year earlier.
• Greater Boston average rent sat at $3,162 in Q2, off 0.05% year-over-year (Matthews).

How we got here

The 2010s were a generational moment for downtown Boston. AvalonBay broke ground on Avalon Exeter, a 28-floor tower at 77 Exeter Street, back when developers could barely find comparable multifamily product to benchmark against. By the time doors opened in 2014, roughly a dozen similar tall apartments were advancing in the city. Cheap debt, rising rents and scarce land made towers the obvious play.

That trade has flipped. Carmel Partners partner Lee Bloch put per-unit cost for a tall Boston building at up to $1M. Michael Procopio, CEO of The Procopio Cos., was even blunter at the conference: high-rise simply doesn't pencil, and nothing on the current cost curve points to it penciling soon.

Vivmark Residential SVP of development David Gillespie, now part of the country's largest publicly traded landlord after AvalonBay's merger with Equity Residential, suggested Boston may have built its last tall residential tower for a decade.

What changed

Three forces are squeezing tower viability at once. Material and labour costs have risen 52.8% since early 2020, up another 7.3% over the year to June. Interest rates sit well above the 2010s norm. And rents have gone sideways, with Greater Boston averaging $3,162 in Q2, down 0.05% year-over-year.

The Boston Globe reported Q1 2026 permit totals of 432 units, down from 549 a year earlier and 642 the year before that. The slowdown is broader than just towers; the entire multifamily pipeline has thinned.

Procopio said current public incentives typically fail to shift project math unless heavily negotiated. State review under MEPA adds delay and cost, even as the Healey-Driscoll administration works to streamline it. Mayor Michelle Wu has put forward $31.5M in tax relief tied to four market-rate projects totalling over 1,400 units, including two tall buildings, but teams told Stantec principal Aeron Hodges the funding leaves immediate financing needs unresolved.

Our analysis

This reads as a structural shift rather than a normal cycle. The 2010s tower boom ran on three unusual tailwinds: cheap debt, compressing cap rates and strong urban household growth. None are coming back soon. Boston's population growth has slowed, cap rates are resetting higher and lenders have repriced risk.

The pivot to shorter product is rational. Lower build cost, faster approvals and tighter rent-to-cost coverage. The trade-off is urban form: more five-over-one blocks at the urban edge, fewer signature towers downtown. Fine for supply, dull for skyline.

There is a winners-and-losers angle. Builders holding urban-core land zoned for tall product are stuck with entitlements that no longer work. Builders with suburban or mid-rise sites are in the strongest position since the late 1990s. Lenders will eventually need to pick which struggling assets to extend and which to take back.

Worked example

Say you owned a multifamily asset in Greater Boston during the 2010s wave, when a comparable tower could be financed cheaply and leased up fast. Today, the same building on the same parcel would absorb the $1M-per-unit bill Bloch described, with rents essentially flat. The trade that worked a decade ago simply does not work in 2026. That gap between 2014 economics and 2026 economics is what every developer at the conference was trying to bridge.

What to watch next

Keep an eye on Q2 and Q3 permit data to confirm the slowdown is structural rather than seasonal. Watch for any major downtown site to come back to market at a discount, since stalled tall projects will eventually be resold. Track Boston's response to Mayor Wu's proposed tax package, the most aggressive local incentive in years. And watch for the first major lender to take back a Boston tower, since that will reset pricing for the entire pipeline.

Key takeaways

• Boston's high-rise apartment boom is over, with only five tall projects wrapping since 2024 against dozens of shorter completions.
• Construction costs up 52.8% since 2020 and flat rents have killed viability for tall buildings.
• The shift is toward mid-rise and garden-style product on cheaper suburban land.