How the UAP Bonus Works, Square Foot by Square Foot

A natural first question about a Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) site in New York City is how many affordable units it takes to get the extra floor area. The question assumes that a project qualifies for the UAP increase by including some affordable housing and then builds the rest of the larger building at market rate.

That is not how the program works. UAP is a bonus, but it is a one-for-one bonus: each square foot of residential floor area above the standard allowance requires a square foot of affordable floor area, meaning the permanently affordable units plus their share of the building’s eligible common areas. That single rule drives most of the decisions that follow, from the size of the building to the unit count, the tax exemption strategy and the approval schedule.

Where UAP Applies

UAP was adopted as part of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity amendments, effective December 5, 2024, and generally replaced Voluntary Inclusionary Housing (VIH) as the voluntary zoning incentive for affordable housing. Under ZR §§ 27-111 and 27-14, a UAP development is a new development or an enlargement, and the affordable housing that earns its added floor area may be new construction, a conversion of non-residential space to residential use or the preservation of an existing building.

ZR § 23-22 sets a higher floor area ratio (FAR) for qualifying affordable housing (QAH) in each of the R6 through R12 districts. Outside Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) areas, a project can reach that higher ratio as of right through UAP, because ZR § 27-111 defines a UAP development as one located outside an MIH area. As of right does not mean automatic. It means the project needs no rezoning or special permit to use the higher ratio, but it still has to earn it: the project must provide affordable floor area equal to the increase it uses and meet the program’s affordability, design and approval requirements, described below. Projects that vested under VIH may continue under that program as ZR § 27-132 provides.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) administers UAP, and the affordable housing is secured by a restrictive declaration recorded against the property. The Department of Buildings (DOB) may not issue the new building permit until HPD issues a Permit Notice, which it may do once the declaration is executed.

Is UAP a Density Bonus?

Yes. UAP is a one-for-one density bonus: each square foot of residential floor area above the standard allowance must be matched by a square foot of affordable floor area. The rule sits in the definition of a UAP development in ZR § 27-111, and DOB repeated it in Buildings Bulletin 2026-010: the residential floor area ratio in a UAP development may exceed the ratio for standard residences “only by the amount of affordable housing provided.” The one exception is narrow: a UAP development in a UAP offsite option area may also use affordable housing on a generating site that vested under ZR § 27-132, at the former VIH rate in ZR § 23-154 as it existed before December 5, 2024.

For an on-site UAP development, meaning one whose affordable housing is on the same zoning lot, whether in the same building or a separate building, two consequences follow. First, the UAP maximum in the ZR § 23-22 table is a ceiling, not an entitlement. A project reaches it only by providing affordable floor area equal to the entire increment, the difference between the standard and qualifying ratios, and a small amount of affordable housing does not unlock the full figure. Second, the increment produces no market-rate floor area. The standard allowance remains available for market-rate housing, to the extent it is not used for affordable housing, and the increment is available only for affordable housing.

Because the increment cannot be used for additional market-rate housing, UAP is sometimes described as something other than a density bonus. The increment is real floor area that the project could not otherwise build, but unlike VIH, under which each square foot of affordable housing could support more than one square foot of bonus floor area, it generates no additional market-rate floor area. Its value is that affordable housing can occupy floor area above the standard allowance, leaving the full standard allowance for market-rate housing. That matters most when the same units also satisfy a tax exemption program such as 485-x. A UAP zoning lot may also use the height and setback regulations for qualifying affordable housing in ZR § 23-432.

How Much Additional Floor Area Does UAP Allow?

The potential increment depends on the district. It is the difference between the standard residential FAR and the ratio when the development includes qualifying affordable housing as specified in ZR § 23-22. Take, for example, a 5,000 square foot lot in an R6 district outside any special district, away from a wide street. The lot carries a standard residential FAR of 2.20, which can go up to a maximum of 3.90 with a sufficient amount of QAH. That is a maximum of 11,000 square feet of residential zoning floor area without UAP and a ceiling of up to 19,500 with it, an increment of up to 8,500 square feet.

The table assumes that all of the affordable floor area sits in the increment. On that assumption the last column does not move: whatever the project provides, the market-rate area stays at the standard allowance, and a single affordable unit adds only its own floor area and its share of common space, not the 8,500 square feet the table allows. Affordable floor area utilizing any portion of the standard allowance reduces the market-rate area further.

The size of the increment also depends on whether the lot, or a portion of it, lies within 100 feet of a wide street. Entirely within that distance, the same R6 lot carries an FAR of 3.00 for standard residences and the same maximum FAR of 3.90 with qualifying affordable housing, so the increment shrinks from 8,500 to 4,500 square feet.

How Is UAP Affordable Floor Area Calculated?

Affordable floor area is not simply the area of the affordable apartments. For a UAP site with both affordable and market-rate units, ZR § 27-111 counts the affordable units plus a share of the building’s eligible common areas, which include any superintendent’s unit and exclude any area for which a user fee is charged. In practice, the affordable and market-rate units are each measured in net square footage, and the affordable units’ share of the eligible common areas follows the ratio of their net square footage to the net square footage of all units other than any superintendent’s unit. There is no minimum to meet: the affordable floor area a project chooses to provide sets how far its residential floor area may exceed the standard allowance. In a mixed-use building where the ratio for qualifying affordable housing is the highest applicable maximum, Buildings Bulletin 2026-010 confirms that commercial and community facility floor area counts against the same capped envelope, reducing the residential floor area available rather than adding to it.

The Affordable Units

Under the definition of affordable housing unit in ZR § 27-111, UAP units must serve households at a weighted average of no more than 60 percent of the income index at initial occupancy, in no more than three income bands, with no band above 100 percent. Where a site has 10,000 square feet or more of affordable floor area, at least 20 percent of that floor area must be at an income band of no more than 40 percent of the income index. The affordability restrictions run for the regulatory period, which ZR § 27-111 ties to the life of the affordable floor area rather than a fixed term.

The units must also satisfy bedroom mix, unit size and distribution requirements under ZR § 27-16. The bedroom mix must either be at least proportional to the market-rate mix or have at least 50 percent of the affordable units with two or more bedrooms and at least 75 percent with one or more. The unit size test is applied separately to each bedroom type. For studios, for example, the average size of the affordable studios must be at least the average size of the market-rate studios or at least 400 square feet of floor area within the perimeter walls, which in practice is the unit’s net square footage, and meeting either standard is enough. The same test applies to one-, two- and three-bedroom units, with minimums of 575, 775 and 950 square feet. And in new construction with market-rate units, the affordable units generally must be spread across at least 65 percent of the residential stories, with no more than two-thirds of the units on any story affordable, subject to the exceptions and waivers in that section.

The same section requires the affordable units to share a common primary entrance with the market-rate units, and it allows HPD to disapprove any building configuration that would segregate the affordable units or stigmatize their residents. In practice, HPD’s design review goes beyond the floor counts, looking at whether affordable units and their income bands are spread across unit lines and exposures and requiring that they receive a proportionate share of any private outdoor spaces. We work through the placement of the affordable units and any private outdoor spaces with the architect before the application is filed, which generally avoids a redesign later.

How Many Units Can a UAP Building Have?

UAP does not change the dwelling unit factor in ZR § 23-52. Where that factor applies, it remains 680, and it is applied to the residential floor area the project is actually permitted, not to the qualifying affordable housing maximum in ZR § 23-22. A project that provides only part of the increment divides by 680 only its standard allowance plus the affordable floor area it provides. On the R6 example, a project providing 2,000 square feet of affordable floor area is limited to 13,000 square feet of residential floor area, or 19 units, not the 28 units that 19,500 square feet would support (under ZR § 23-52, only a fraction of three-quarters or more counts as a unit). A unit count estimated by dividing floor area by 680 is a ceiling check, not a design.

Can UAP and 485-x Use the Same Affordable Units?

Yes, where the units meet each program’s requirements on their own terms. For a rental project, UAP may be paired with the 485-x tax exemption, known as Affordable Neighborhoods for New Yorkers. Under RPTL § 485-x, a modest rental project of 6 to 99 units, for example, must have at least 20 percent of its units affordable at a weighted average of no more than 80 percent of area median income (AMI), in no more than three income bands, with no band above 100 percent. UAP’s average ceiling of 60 percent of the income index is lower than 485-x’s average ceiling of 80 percent of AMI, so the units that qualify under both programs are banded to meet UAP’s average and must still satisfy each program’s other requirements. The programs also count differently, UAP in floor area and 485-x in units, so the two calculations need not match and each has to be run on its own terms.

The unit count matters for a second reason. Under RPTL § 485-x(3), construction work on an eligible site with 100 or more units is subject to a minimum hourly rate of wages and supplements that started at $40 and rises 2.5 percent each July 1. The published rate is $42.03 per hour for the period beginning July 1, 2026, and higher minimums apply to certain projects of 150 or more units in Zones A and B. Every UAP unit counts toward that 100-unit threshold. For that reason, the tax exemption analysis can drive the size of the project, and the UAP increment may need to be sized to fit it rather than the other way around. That analysis belongs at the start of design, alongside the zoning analysis, not after the unit mix is fixed.

The Approval Path

UAP moves through the same HPD Inclusionary Housing process as MIH, in three stages. The first is the application package, the second is design review by HPD’s Building and Land Development Services (BLDS), and the third is financing, legal review and closing. The financing stage calls for financing documentation, typically a construction lender’s term sheet or commitment letter, and HPD’s application checklist provides a separate path for a project closing without an institutional construction lender. The checklist sets a $100 application submission fee, a $100 construction sign fee and an application fee of $1,100 per affordable unit.

At closing, the restrictive declaration is executed and submitted for recording. Once it is executed, HPD may issue a Permit Notice to DOB under ZR § 27-151. One scheduling point belongs in every project plan: DOB will not issue the new building permit until HPD issues the Permit Notice, so the permit schedule should be built around it.

Completion and the Certificate of Occupancy

Approval is not the end of the process. Under ZR § 27-151, DOB may not issue a permanent certificate of occupancy for a UAP development until HPD issues a Completion Notice for the UAP affordable floor area, and for new construction and conversions HPD may issue the Completion Notice only after DOB has issued a temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO) covering all of the affordable housing. DOB may issue a TCO for a story containing affordable housing only if it covers every affordable unit on that story or only affordable units, although that limit does not prevent the issuance of a TCO for any units within the standard residential floor area. A TCO covering all residential areas also matters for the tax exemption: under 485-x, 467-m and 421-a, the first temporary or permanent certificate of occupancy covering all residential areas sets the completion date, and the exemption application is due within one year after it.

Related Reading

• UAP Floor Area: A Different Kind of Development Capacity (The BBG Update, Summer 2026), by David Shamshovich and Brenda Slochowsky, on UAP capacity in zoning lot mergers and development rights transactions, and how it should be priced and allocated.
• When Off-Site MIH or UAP Makes Sense (The BBG Update, Fall 2026), by Camila Almeida and Brenda Slochowsky, on off-site MIH and UAP. Off-site UAP is available only in UAP offsite option areas under ZR §§ 27-111 and 27-16.

How We Can Help

Our Tax Exemptions and Zoning Incentives Group regularly represents owners and developers in HPD inclusionary housing applications under UAP, MIH and VIH. We work with clients and their design teams from the earliest stages of a project, including site analysis and pre-development planning and, where a client is considering a rezoning, the inclusionary housing analysis that should inform it. We coordinate with the architect on affordable floor area and the unit mix, size and distribution requirements, including where the affordable units and any private outdoor spaces go in the building. We then take the application through HPD’s review, close with HPD and record the restrictive declaration and stay with the project through construction to HPD’s Completion Notice, addressing the issues that arise along the way.

The group also handles the tax exemption side of the same projects: 485-x for new construction, 467-m for conversions of office and other non-residential buildings to residential use and 421-a for projects that commenced construction by June 15, 2022, including those using the extended completion deadline. Where a project combines a zoning program with a tax exemption, we work out how the two fit together for that site and the developer’s goals, including how many affordable units to provide, at which income levels and where in the building, so that the units are designed to comply with both programs.

Where a mixed-use project’s commercial, community facility and accessory space exceeds the 12 percent of aggregate floor area that 421-a, 485-x and 467-m allow without reducing the benefit, we also evaluate whether that space can be placed in a separate condominium tax lot and pursue a standalone commercial abatement such as the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program (ICAP). ICAP is not available everywhere: new commercial construction in Manhattan south of 96th Street is generally excluded. ICAP also requires a preliminary application no later than the date the first building permit issues, so that evaluation should take place before any building permit is issued.

Contact Us

To discuss how UAP and the available tax exemptions apply to your site, contact David Shamshovich or Jason Hershkowitz, Co-Heads of the Tax Exemptions and Zoning Incentives Group.

Written by: David Shamshovich, Partner and Co-Head of the Tax Exemptions and Zoning Incentives Group at Belkin Burden Goldman LLP. David can be reached at dshamshovich@bbgllp.com or (212) 485-5237. Jason Hershkowitz, a Partner and Co-Head of the group, can be reached at jhershkowitz@bbgllp.com or (212) 867-8253.