Spotlight On: Jeff Burns, Owner & CEO, Affiliated Development

Key points:

• • Rising costs and constrained equity have made public incentives essential to delivering workforce housing in South Florida.
• • The Live Local Act and faster entitlements are accelerating approvals and reshaping affordable housing feasibility.
• • Strong demand persists, but public-private partnerships remain critical to closing the financial gap and scaling supply.

February 2026 — Invest: sat down with Jeff Burns, owner and CEO of Affiliated Development, to discuss how rising costs, constrained capital, and Florida’s affordability crisis are reshaping housing development across the region. “Every project we do is a public-private partnership,” Burns said. He shared why incentives, faster entitlements, and sustained government involvement are now essential to delivering workforce and affordable housing at scale in South Florida.

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What changes have you seen in the industry over the past year, and how have they impacted Affiliated Development’s approach?

One of the biggest changes we’ve seen is the growing role of artificial intelligence. Over the past year, at least as far as Affiliated Development is concerned, we’ve started incorporating more AI into various aspects of what we do, and that has had a meaningful impact operationally.

Another major shift has been in deal flow. We’ve seen significantly more opportunities on the land-buying side than in previous years. There are a lot of landowners who are eager to sell, and that’s allowed us to negotiate much more favorable acquisition terms. That has been a challenge in past years, so seeing more flexibility on land pricing has been an important change for us.

How are current market conditions, including capital constraints and housing pressures, influencing how and where you’re choosing to invest?

From a capital standpoint, equity markets are still fairly challenging, but the debt markets have loosened up considerably. Banks and other construction lenders are much more eager to put money out right now, and that has been a positive development for us.

There are still headwinds, particularly when it comes to costs. Development costs remain a challenge. That said, over the past year we’ve seen some relief on the operational side. Salaries haven’t increased at the same pace they did in prior years, and the insurance environment has become much more favorable. Those changes have helped offset some of the pressure.

On the rental side, there has been a significant amount of new product delivered across various markets. As a result, rents have not increased as aggressively as they did in previous cycles. That creates underwriting challenges when expenses continue to rise but income does not increase at the same pace. When that imbalance persists, projects get shelved and stop moving forward.

There’s a statistic we’ve seen showing that there hasn’t been a bigger discrepancy between new housing starts and housing finishes since 1971. That tells us that not much new product has been started over the last year to year and a half. Eventually, that inventory will be absorbed, landlords will regain leverage, and rents will start to increase again. That shift should help more projects begin to pencil out and move forward.

How are rising material and capital costs influencing your project pipeline?

Our business model is different from traditional market-rate development because we rely heavily on public incentives to fund a portion of the capital stack. As costs have increased, we’ve had to secure more incentives to help offset those increases.

Because of that structure, we’ve been less impacted than many market-rate housing developers, who are feeling these pressures much more acutely. The use of public incentives has allowed our deals to continue making sense.

We recently delivered a high-rise project in Hollywood. We’re delivering another project in West Palm Beach in January. Earlier this year, we started a 400-unit project in Fort Lauderdale, and we’re preparing to start a 336-unit project in Boynton Beach. We are still moving projects forward, but it has become significantly more challenging to get them started than it was in prior years.

How has your team’s thinking around affordability or mixed-income development evolved in response to today’s pressures?

South Florida is experiencing an affordability crisis unlike anything we’ve seen before. Demand for workforce housing is extremely strong. Fortunately, our product type is well aligned with that demand. Once our projects are completed, they lease up very quickly.

The most difficult part is simply getting projects built. Making sure they pencil out requires a tremendous amount of coordination and effort. We’re fortunate to have a strong team that has worked very hard to make these developments feasible despite the challenges.

What kind of momentum are you seeing around public-private collaboration, and how is it evolving compared to earlier cycles?

Public-private collaboration is more important now than ever. Workforce and affordable housing is incredibly difficult to deliver under current conditions, and the government has a critical role to play. Without public support, many of these projects simply would not get built.

Every project we do is a public-private partnership. That has always been the case, but today we’re seeing cities, counties, and the state become much more proactive about incentivizing the workforce and affordable housing.

As affordability challenges have expanded beyond South Florida into nearly every major market in Florida, the role of government has grown. One of the most impactful developments has been the passage of the Live Local Act, which has been a major policy win. It’s already having a significant effect and will result in a substantial increase in workforce and affordable housing units across the state.

What local policies or partnerships tend to unlock the greatest potential for meaningful development in Florida?

The Live Local Act has been the most meaningful policy we’ve seen. We have a project that received approvals in just three months.

Without the Live Local Act, that same process would likely have taken at least a year and a half. The ability to move more quickly through entitlements has been transformative. It has fundamentally changed what is possible from a development standpoint and has been a true game changer for workforce and affordable housing in Florida.

Where do you think cities or developers still need to rethink their assumptions about addressing the housing gap at scale?

At the end of the day, the biggest factor is money. Costs are costs. My cost to build a project is the same as anyone else’s cost to build a project. The challenge arises when developers are asked to rent units at prices below market rates. Without support, those deals simply do not pencil out.

That’s why funding incentives and gap financing are essential. They help offset the lost revenue associated with below-market rents. Without that support, projects do not move forward.

Policies like the Live Local Act help by accelerating timelines and improving entitlement processes, but financial incentives remain the determining factor. These deals do not happen unless the government steps in to help bridge the gap.

Another challenge is the uneven financial capacity of municipalities. Some cities have more resources dedicated to affordable and workforce housing than others. In markets with fewer resources, it becomes much harder to make projects work.

Local governments across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties understand the severity of the housing crisis and the need to incentivize development. Still, developers must compete for land against market-rate projects, condominiums, and hotels that can extract more value and therefore pay more for property.

That reality makes it difficult to deliver workforce housing while absorbing market-rate land and construction costs. Managing that imbalance remains the biggest challenge we face.

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