Washington Housing Bills to Watch in 2025 

Washingtonians from Spokane to Sequim, Washougal to Wenatchee, are struggling to afford homes and rents in their communities due to a deep housing shortage. While recent years’ laudable legislative actions have begun to relegalize more homes, in all shapes and sizes, it will take years of dedicated effort to make up for decades of stunted homebuilding in cities and towns. It will also take a series of smart policy upgrades to correct for all the restrictions that have outlawed anything but the most expensive kind of housing in the residential neighborhoods of Washington’s cities: single-detached houses on their own exclusive lots. 

Legislators are considering numerous bills in Olympia this year to do just that. Below Sightline catalogs the ones we’re watching and, in many cases, weighing in on. The first several are our highest priorities for the 2025 legislative session.  

Washington residents interested in supporting these bills can subscribe to the Homes4WA emails for action alerts and informational resources. 

Sightline’s priority bills 

Free communities from costly parking mandates | SB 5184, HB 1299 

Sponsors: Sen. Bateman, Rep. Peterson 

Parking mandates are local governments’ requirements that every new home or business come with an arbitrary, pre-determined number of parking spaces. From bowling alleys to churches, daycares to moth breeding facilities (yes, really), these excessive prescriptions drive up the cost of new homes, businesses, and community resources at a time when Washington urgently needs more of all of these things. It writes sprawl into law and makes it harder to build the great neighborhoods and Main Streets people love in their communities.  

The Parking Reform and Modernization Act would cap residential and commercial mandates and provide full parking flexibility for projects like daycares, senior housing, affordable housing, and other building types that need it most. To be clear, the bill does not bar anyone from building as much parking as they like as part of their project. Rather, it returns these decisions to the people investing in their communities, whether a homeowner, homebuilder, or entrepreneur, who are best positioned to know how many parking spaces they need for their dream to succeed.  

Read more: 

• Bill explainer: Washington bill would cap excessive parking mandates around the state 

• Report: The state of parking mandates in Washington 

• How does your town stack up? Washington’s most parking-burdened towns and cities 

• Understand parking mandates’ full costs for communities: The 4 big reasons why states should ditch parking mandates 

Legalize abundant, affordable apartment homes near transit | HB 1491 

Sponsor: Rep. Reed 

Similar to Washington’s 2024 TOD bill, HB 1491 would legalize larger apartment buildings near major transit stops, with stipulations that some of their units meet affordability mandates—known as inclusionary zoning (IZ). Setting statewide minimum standards for multifamily zoning near transit is a key piece of the TOD puzzle. However, the effectiveness of HB 1491 is jeopardized by its uniform IZ requirement, which could backfire by impeding housing development in the very places we need it most. Sightline sees great potential for merging HB 1491 and SB 5604 (described above) so that the inclusionary zoning element is funded.    

Read more: 

• To fix inclusionary zoning, fund it 

• From The Urbanist: Washington legislature sets its sights on transit-oriented development… again 

• The vast potential of pairing homes and transit in Washington state 

Honor the intent of historic landmarking | HB 1576, SB 5554 

Sponsors: Rep. Walen, Sen. Salomon 

Historic landmarking is an important means of honoring our communities’ pasts while building for their future. Unfortunately, it can also be weaponized against building new homes when landmarking is allowed without the consent of the property owner. In Washington, that’s how it works in about a quarter of Washinton cities, including Seattle and Tacoma. In those cities, typically anyone can nominate a building for landmarking, and that step alone can kill a homebuilding project by injecting uncertainty over whether anything can be built at all—uncertainty that can drag out over a year or more before the final yes/no landmarking decision. The risk of that delay is especially toxic for the small builders that typically construct the middle housing that 2023’s HB 1110 legalized.  

HB 1576 and SB 5554 would make the reasonable change to require owner consent and set a minimum age of 40 years for landmarking a building as historic.  

Read more: 

• Surprise! Your home is now a historic landmark (action alert email to Homes4WA subscribers) 

• Article: Historic preservation claims have blocked hundreds of homes in Seattle alone  

Code reforms for energy-efficient homebuilding | HB 1183 

Sponsor: Rep. Duerr 

Too many small, outdated pieces of code needlessly make homebuilding more expensive or can prevent innovative construction methods. HB 1183 is a sort of “goodie bag” of upgrades, including a prohibition on local requirements for facade modulation or upper-level setbacks for mass timber, passive house, modular construction, and affordable housing. The bill also grants setback and height leeway for extra insulation, to facilitate passive house construction and retrofits.  

Read more:  

• From The Urbanist: In praise of dumb boxes 

• Climate action via housing code, a Bluesky thread from architect Rob Harrison 

Anti-displacement and “mortgage helper” lot splitting | HB 1096 

Sponsor: Rep. Barkis 

HB 1096 would let property owners split off and sell a part of their lot for the construction of another home. This practice of “lot splitting” offers cash-strapped homeowners a “mortgage helper” that can help prevent displacement while also creating on the new lot the kind of affordable starter homes many Washingtonians are seeking. 

Read more: 

• Bill explainer: Washington lot split bills would create starter homes, support community stability (Note: Bill numbers referenced within are from 2023) 

• Memo: Legalize lot splitting, from the Black Home Initiative 

All cities “doing our part” on housing production | SB 5148 

Sponsor: Sen. Bateman 

SB 5148 would hold cities and towns accountable to doing their part to build the homes Washington needs. It would grant the Department of Commerce new authority to review and approve the local housing plans required by state law. And for cities that fail to bring their housing plans into compliance, it would establish a “builder’s remedy” granting automatic permit approval for multifamily developments that meet certain affordability thresholds. 

Sponsors: Rep. Gregerson, Sen. Shewmake 

Mobile dwelling units (MDUs) are a low-cost, fast-build, flexible solution for more homes now. They’re something of a kid sibling to better-known ADUs (accessory dwelling units), the backyard cottages and basement apartments that Washington led on legalizing in 2023.  

But MDUs have a number of advantages over ADUs—namely, that they’re faster, cheaper, and more adaptable to the changing needs of their owners and landmates, and all without the need for public subsidy. They meet a critical need of the price rung for many Washingtonians, while ensuring safe, inspection-approved hookups to water, sewer, and electricity services. HB 1443 and SB 5332 would legalize one MDU per residential lot inside urban growth areas throughout the state. 

Read more: 

• Sightline’s Q+A with MDU hookup installation pro Kol Peterson 

Allow small elevators for big accessibility wins | SB 5156 

Sponsor: Sen. Salomon 

A small elevator is better than no elevator, and it improves accessibility for residents, including the growing population of older adults in Washington. SB 5156 would allow elevators smaller than what standard code dictates in buildings up to six stories in which elevators are not required. The bill would also mandate adoption of national and international standards to reduce costs.  

These changes would make it more feasible for builders to include elevators in small apartment buildings, creating more accessible apartments. 

Read more: 

• Let’s legalize small elevators (action alert email to Homes4WA subscribers) 

• Article: Aging solutions are climate solutions 

• Podcast episode: How elevator rules cost us homes, from the Missing Middle podcast 

• The American elevator explains why housing costs have skyrocketed, in the New York Times 

• Brief: Elevator code comparisons (PDF), from the nonprofit Center for Building in North America 

Other housing bills  to watch

Relax energy code rules when adding housing to existing buildings | HB 1757  

Sponsor: Rep. Walen  

HB 1757 would make it easier to add housing to existing buildings by sparing the new units from having to comply with the latest energy code, which can incur exorbitant expenses that end up sinking a conversion project altogether. 

Reform condo liability laws | HB 1403 

Sponsor: Rep. Taylor 

HB 1403 would make several improvements to state condo liability law, including the establishment of private defect liability insurance for builders of condominium projects of up to 12 units. 

Streamline unit lot subdivisions | SB 5559  

Sponsor: Sen. Lovelett  

SB 5559 would modify the process for unit subdivisions to better align with the state’s lot splitting allowances for middle housing that enable townhouse development.  

Middle housing for counties | SB 5471  

Sponsor: Sen. Goehner  

SB 5471 would give counties the option to authorize middle housing within urban growth areas. 

Study construction costs for reduction opportunities | HB 1108  

Sponsor: Rep. Klicker 

HB 1108 would create a Housing Cost Driver Task Force to study the factors driving high home construction costs and make recommendations to help bring them down. 

Stabilize rent increases for tenants | HB 1217, SB 5222  

Sponsors: Rep. Alvarado, Sen. Trudeau 

Companion bills HB 1217 and SB 5222 would cap annual rent increases at seven percent. 

Update the Multifamily Tax Exemption | HB 1494  

Sponsor: Rep. Ramel  

HB 1494 would make several small modifications to the multifamily tax exemption (MFTE) based on recommendations from the Department of Commerce. 

Legalize Shared Streets | SB 5595 

Sponsor: Rep. Alvarado

SB 5595 would allow cities to designate streets where cars, bikes, and pedestrians share the same space, but speed limits are low and pedestrians are the priority. 

Incentivize transit-oriented development with smart funding tools | SB 5604  

Sponsor: Sen. Liias 

SB 5604 would establish several new ways for the state to incentivize TOD. But unlike typical TOD bills it does not address zoning at all. For new housing developments in transit station areas, it would create special property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions, lower excise tax rates, and reduced impact fees, along with associated affordability requirements. It’s designed to complement TOD zoning, existing or future.  

High interest rates and construction costs have made apartments difficult to finance, and future permitting has plummeted in cities throughout the state. That’s why SB 5604 focuses on helping housing development pencil. It doesn’t rezone because that’s not the limiting factor at most major station areas in Washington metros. 

“Clear and objective” development standards | SB 5613 

Sponsor: Sen. Salomon 

SB 5613 would require all residential development standards to be clear and objective, to prevent sloppy standards from enabling frivolous legal challenges that needlessly delay homebuilding.  

Reform Impact Fees | SB 5614 

Sponsor: Sen. Salomon 

SB 5614 locks impacts fees to the rate when a permit is submitted, and improves the process for deferring impact fee payment until projects are completed.  

Increase SEPA Exemptions for Homebuilding | SB 5612 

Sponsor: Sen. Salomon 

SB 5612 would extend for three years the SEPA exemption to all middle housing built in Seattle, and grant a SEPA exemption to middle housing with four or more units in the rest of the state. 

Legalize rural ADUs | HB 1345, SB 5470  

Sponsors: Rep. Low, Sen. Goehner  

Companion bills HB 1345 and SB 5470 would legalize detached accessory dwelling units (ADUs), like backyard cottages and guest cabins, in rural areas, with some limitations. 

Allow homes on first-floor level of apartment buildings | SB 5555  

Sponsor: Sen. Salomon  

SB 5555 would increase allowances for homes on the first floor of mixed-use apartment buildings that are often required by local zoning to have street-level commercial uses—rules that have resulted in lots of empty storefronts in cities across Washington. 

Subdivision reform | SB 5633 

Sponsor: Sen. Lovelett 

SB 5633 would broadly rewrite subdivision processes, including a new but optional process for lot splitting. 

Homes for Heroes | HB 1022  

Sponsor: Rep. Connors  

HB 1022 would provide down payment and closing cost assistance for low-income people in targeted professions, like firefighters, nurses, military servicemembers, police officers, and mental health professionals. 

Authorize the creation of “tree banks” | HB 1153  

Sponsor: Rep. Duerr  

HB 1153 would establish a “tree bank” policy to compensate for trees lost to development. 

Design review reform | HB 1160  

Sponsor: Rep. Walen  

HB 1160 would limit local design review to an administrative process only. Seattle and other Washington cities use volunteer review boards that add cost, delay, and uncertainty to homebuilding and that rarely improve design. 

Limit corporate ownership of single-detached houses | HB 1732, SB 5496  

Sponsors: Rep. Thomas, Sen. Alvarado  

Companion bills HB 1732 and SB 5496 would limit corporations from owning more than 25 single-detached houses each. 

Re-legalize neighborhood corner stores | HB 1175, SB 5421  

Sponsor: Rep. Klicker, Sen. Shewmake  

Companion bills HB 1175 and SB 5421 would legalize small businesses in all residential zones to support the kinds of neighborhood retail and services that help weave the fabric of great neighborhoods and healthy local economies. 

Establish processes around reviewing supportive housing projects | HB 1195  

Sponsor: Rep. Peterson 

HB 1195 would clarify processes for siting projects, including permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, indoor emergency housing, and indoor emergency shelters. 

Legalize emergency-response kit-built homes | SB 5249  

Sponsor: Sen. Wilson  

SB 5249 would legalize “kit homes”—i.e., prefabricated homes one constructs via a kit of materials and instructions—in all residential zones in the case of an emergency, like a wildfire.  

Outlaw algorithmic and other rent fixing methods | SB 5469  

Sponsor: Sen. Salomon 

SB 5469 would prohibit the use of algorithmic rent fixing software and noncompete agreements between landlord corporations. 

Sales tax exemption for affordable housing | HB 1717 , SB 5591 

Sponsors: Sen. Bateman, Rep. Leavitt 

HB 1494 and SB 5591 would allow a city or county to create a sales and use tax remittance program to help develop affordable housing. 

Provide low-income tenant assistance | HB 1099  

Sponsor: Rep. Low  

HB 1099 would establish new rental assistance programs for low-income tenants living in Housing Authority homes. 

Provide mobile home park resident assistance | HB 1365  

Sponsor: Rep. Orcutt  

HB 1365 would establish new assistance programs for residents of mobile home parks. 

County-level REET to support affordable housing | HB 1480  

Sponsor: Rep. Ramel  

HB 1480 would create a county-level real estate excise tax (REET) to fund area affordable housing projects. 

Expand where daycares can locate | HB 1212  

Sponsor: Rep. Low  

HB 1212 would legalize daycares in all zones except industrial to help address the acute shortage of daycare slots available to Washington families.