It’s Time to Build Better Homes
To address the housing crisis meaningfully, we have to actually build, now. Nabr is building sustainable, urban apartments for ownership — starting in San Jose, California.
The U.S. is in the midst of a housing crisis. To meet today’s demand, we need to build at least 5.2 million more homes. When I cited that statistic, you probably imagined rows of suburban houses — that’s the American dream, right?
But here’s the thing: we cannot solve the housing crisis using the blueprint of our past. The post-World War II model of suburban sprawl has been disastrous for our planet. Plus, we need to build up (i.e. apartments) rather than out (i.e. houses) to respond with the urgency that the crisis demands.
I think many Americans already know this. What’s more, I think the American dream is changing. Yes, ownership still matters. Most Americans want to own a home, and ownership remains strongly tied to wealth generation in this country. But cities are hives of creativity, diversity, and opportunity. I believe that, given the choice to own a high-quality, sustainable apartment in a walkable neighborhood, many Americans would opt for cities.
Today, because real estate is still operating on outdated assumptions, we are not building enough urban apartments, and nowhere near enough to own. Fewer than two percent of new homes under construction in the U.S. are apartments for purchase. That means that most people only have two options: stay renting in cities or buy in the suburbs.
In other words, there’s a huge gap between aspiration and inventory. With Nabr, I’m working to close that gap — by building better homes, now. Here’s how.
We’re disrupting the status quo
Developers today still do what they’ve done for decades: make educated guesses about what people want, work with architects to design such a building, raise funds based on those assumptions, and then ask a general contractor to construct the building. The process — which takes years and starts from scratch with each land plot — is speculative, complicated, and layered with risk.
The Nabr approach, in contrast, is (1) to build housing like a tech product, designing a quality product that is worth repeating, and (2) to partner early with consumers and offer exactly what they want through customized interior design and financing — de-risking development from the start.
We’re building products — not projects
Let’s start with that “product” piece. We began with the principle of delivering timeless homes that people can grow into, without compromise. That meant designing spacious layouts, with glass doors that open to oversized terraces — sort of like a backyard in the sky. It meant designing homes to be carbon neutral in operations, built with sustainable mass timber, intended to last for over 100 years. And it meant adding future-proof technology adapted to the changing climate, like air quality sensors and a redundant fiber optic connection to keep residents online.
In terms of how our buildings are constructed: we standardize behind-the-scenes through a repeatable, low-carbon core and shell system. We partner with local suppliers and contractors, with whom we develop long-term, mutually-beneficial relationships. We don’t want to waste time sourcing and bidding on a project-by-project basis. By repeating the same back-end process, and embracing the supply chain, we minimize construction risk.
We then invest in customization in the two places where it actually matters. One, on the exterior of the building, where we have an ever-changing facade and balcony system, giving each Nabr development a distinct architectural character. And two, on the interiors, where we allow our residents to pick a-la-carte from a growing library of upgrades, including premium design partner packages by leading designers from around the world.
That brings us back to the consumer, and how we meet their specific needs.
We’re putting people first
Nabr engages with prospective residents way before shovels ever hit the ground. Our Design Studio allows people to explore Nabr’s one-, two-, and three- bedroom layouts and unique, oversized terraces — and then customize their interiors to meet their preferences. It’s like shopping for a custom car. Within the Design Studio, a prospective resident can reserve their home, and then work with a Design Advisor to build the perfect home for their lifestyle.
In this way, we short circuit much of the uncertainty inherent to development: we develop exactly (and only) what our residents want. We don’t have to guess if people will want to live in a Nabr building — we know they will, because we deliver high-quality, sustainable homes exactly to residents’ specifications.
We also know our residents want to buy, which is why all Nabr apartments are for sale. To increase flexibility, we aim to provide people with a range of payment options. Residents can purchase a Nabr apartment with cash or a traditional mortgage or, if they do not yet have enough saved for a mortgage down payment, they can participate in our pilot lease-to-purchase program (Leap), which allows them to take steps towards owning, while renting.
For our residents, owning a Nabr home is about more than having the potential for a wealth-generating asset. It will mean putting down roots in a community of people who are invested in the future of the neighborhood. We believe the neighborhood is as important as the building itself.
We’re starting with SoFA One.
Today, we are launching presales on our first building, SoFA One, designed under the direction of my co-founder, Bjarke Ingels. We are humbled to have already received interest from~4500 people, 30 times the number of homes in SoFA One. This outsized demand illustrates an entire generation’s unmet demand for sustainable, urban living.
We are still early in our journey. SoFA One is a novel product, built in the Bay Area, America’s most expensive, housing-strained market. But the Bay is emblematic of issues faced across the country. Our long-term vision is to accelerate the societal shift towards sustainable urban living. Wherever there is demand for our vision, we want to be there and — holding true to our value of putting people first — deliver high-quality homes to as many people as possible.
To address the housing crisis meaningfully, we have to build. We are building better homes, today. I hope you will join us.
Roni Bahar
CEO & Co-founder, Nabr
