A local-option real estate transfer fee, long supported by the town of Nantucket and some other Cape and Islands communities to fund housing initiatives, has been left out of a major housing bill on Beacon Hill.
Gov. Maura Healey supports the fee as a local option, to be implemented only in towns that approve it.
But House Speaker Ron Mariano confirmed Monday that the House version of the $6.2 billion housing bond bill does not include the fee.
The real estate industry lobbied against it, said Tucker Holland, former housing director for the town of Nantucket.
“I just don't think that the Greater Boston Real Estate Board should be telling Nantucket or any other community what's best for them,” he said.
Greg Vasil, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, calls the fee a targeted tax.
“We are thrilled to see the House’s version of the Bond Bill include provisions such as [accessory dwelling units] and remove harmful and ineffective policies like transfer taxes,” he said in a written statement.
Healey’s proposal calls for a local-option fee of 0.5 to 2 percent on the portion of a home sale above $1 million, or above the county median single-family home sale price, whichever is greater.
Mariano contends that the real estate transfer fee would only raise substantial money in wealthy areas. He said he doesn’t want to create a tax “just to help rich communities.”
But Holland said many people on Nantucket are not rich and can’t afford housing.
“Year-rounders are not the wealthy individuals that I think that remark was referring to,” he said.
Nantucket has been calling for the fee for years, as a way to fund local housing initiatives. Town Meeting has unanimously approved a home-rule petition requesting the fee on multiple occasions, Holland said.
Cape and Islands Sen. Julian Cyr said the region urgently needs the real estate transfer fee.
“A transfer fee is an artful tool to bring resources to fund housing — you know, not only for affordable housing, but for essentially all year-round working people,” he said.
Although some local real estate agents support it, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors opposes the fee.
The group calls it a tax and says it would add to the cost of buying a house, shrink investment in new development, and hurt diversity by making the price to buy into already-expensive communities even higher.
Housing advocates hope the fee will be included in the Senate bill.
In the meantime, supporters in the House are filing amendments they hope will revive it in some form.
State House News Service reported Tuesday that alternatives include a pilot program and an amendment by Rep. Dylan Fernandes (D-Falmouth) and Rep. Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown) to charge the fee on transactions above $2 million instead of $1 million (or the county median single-family home sales price, whichever is greater), and apply it only in the counties of Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket.
