Concord apartment development has picked up sharply: the city counted 2,008 housing units in its pipeline in April 2026, more than double the 774 units it added from 2020 through 2025. For owners of existing buildings, that pipeline, together with a set of state zoning laws that took effect in 2025 and 2026, will shape rents, competition and resale values in New Hampshire’s capital over the rest of the decade.
This guide explains what is being built, which rules changed, where the large projects stand and how owners of older apartment buildings can read the numbers. It relies on the city’s own figures, Planning Board minutes, the Census Bureau, New Hampshire Housing and the New Hampshire Municipal Association, with local news coverage used where the city has not yet published details.
Concord’s starting point: population, renters and rents
Concord is a city of about 44,600 people. The Census Bureau’s QuickFacts profile for Concord estimates 44,597 residents on July 1, 2025, up 1.4% from an April 2020 base of 44,000. The 2010 Census counted 42,695. Growth is slow but steady.
The rental market is a large share of the city. The American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024 shows 56.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, so about 43% are rented. With 18,346 households, that is roughly 7,900 renter households. Median gross rent, which includes tenant-paid utilities, was $1,441 in the same survey.
Two measures from New Hampshire Housing’s 2025 affordability report show why the city is pushing for more housing. A renter needs to earn about $29.73 an hour to afford Concord’s median rent, based on 2024 data. And statewide, New Hampshire Housing put the median effective rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,024 in 2024, using CoStar data. Those figures help explain why state and local officials have made housing production a priority.
How many units Concord has added and how many are coming
The city’s 2026 State of the City presentation, published by the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, gives the clearest snapshot of supply.
Units built from 2020 through 2025
- Concord added 774 housing units from 2020 through 2025, bringing the city’s total to 19,859 units.
- Of those, 380 were affordable units. Named projects include Rail Yard with 96 units, Brookline Opportunities with 123 units and Penacook Landing with 54 units.
- Rail Yard Phase 2, with 103 units, is planned for 2026 through 2028.
The pipeline as of April 2026
- Under construction: 283 units
- Approved but not yet built: 599 units
- In permitting: 1,126 units
- Total: 2,008 units
The Concord Monitor reported the same figures in an August 2026 overview of the city’s housing projects. The pipeline equals roughly 10% of the city’s existing housing stock. Not every permitted unit will be built, and some of the largest proposals have stalled before. But even the 283 units under construction, plus the 599 approved, would add more units in the next few years than the city added in the five years before.
The state laws behind Concord apartment development
Much of the recent change in Concord came from the State House rather than City Hall. The New Hampshire Municipal Association’s guide to 2025 planning and zoning changes summarizes several new laws that apply in every municipality, including the capital.
Parking limits
Senate Bill 284, codified at RSA 674:16, VII, bars municipalities from requiring more than one parking space per housing unit. It took effect September 13, 2025. Parking requirements are often what makes an urban infill or conversion project infeasible, so this change matters more in older downtown blocks than anywhere else.
Multifamily on commercial land
House Bill 631, codified at RSA 674:79 and 674:80, requires municipalities to allow multifamily housing on commercially zoned land where adequate infrastructure is available. Towns may still restrict it where industrial uses are allowed. It took effect July 1, 2026. In Concord, the change opens commercial corridors and shopping-center sites to apartment proposals that previously needed variances.
Occupancy and accessory dwelling units
- House Bill 457, codified at RSA 674:16, VIII, prevents municipalities from capping occupancy at fewer than two people per bedroom. It took effect September 13, 2025.
- House Bill 577, codified at RSA 674:71 and 674:72, requires that one attached or detached accessory dwelling unit be allowed by right wherever single-family homes are allowed. The Concord City Council adopted an accessory dwelling unit ordinance in October 2025 to comply with state law, according to the Concord Monitor.
The combined effect is that a developer in Concord now faces fewer local barriers on parking, location and unit count than a few years ago. For owners, that means new supply can appear in places that were effectively closed to apartments, such as commercial strips near existing rental neighborhoods.
Concord’s own zoning changes
The city has also been revising its own rules ahead of a full zoning rewrite. According to the State of the City presentation, interim amendments adopted in 2025 changed standards in the downtown district, reformed accessory dwelling unit rules and adjusted floor-area-ratio limits. A May 2026 package loosened design standards for multifamily buildings and eased rules for converting existing buildings to residential use. Parking amendments were listed as coming soon.
Not every proposal passed. The Concord Monitor reported in May 2026 that the City Council voted to keep, for further study, the rule that a duplex lot must have 1.5 times the frontage and lot area of a single-family lot. That rule continues to limit small-scale infill on many residential lots.
The master plan update
Concord’s current master plan dates from 2008. The Monitor reported in August 2026 that the city selected the Boston firm Utile in May 2026 to lead the update, with approval expected by mid-2028 and a zoning overhaul to follow. Owners holding buildings for the long term should follow that process, since a new master plan will set density and use rules for the city’s corridors and neighborhoods for years afterward.
Projects approved in July 2026
The Planning Board’s July 15, 2026 minutes record several approvals that show the kind of projects the new rules allow.
- CATCH Neighborhood Housing, 43 Fisherville Road: Major site plan approval, by an 8-0 vote, for a three-story, 35,886-square-foot building with 34 income-restricted apartments. The Monitor reported the project grew from 22 units, with the nonprofit’s chief executive saying rental revenue on 22 units did not work with current construction costs.
- 103 North State Street: Site plan approval, by a 9-0 vote, to convert the former Waypoint office building into 21 apartments. The Monitor reported that the state’s one-space-per-unit parking cap made the project workable, since the old rules would have required 42 spaces.
- 47-49 South State Street: Approval, by a 9-0 vote, to convert existing buildings into five townhouses.
These are small projects by national standards, but they are the kind that compete most directly with older downtown buildings. An office-to-residential conversion of 21 units on North State Street, for example, will lease to many of the same renters who look at older walk-up buildings nearby.
The largest proposals: Steeplegate and Pembroke Road
The largest single proposal is the redevelopment of the Steeplegate Mall site. Onyx Partners has proposed about 600 apartments as part of a mixed-use plan. The Planning Board voted 9-0 on July 15, 2026 to continue the application to August 19, and the Concord Monitor reported in late August that the developers planned to start with a 110-unit building, that a hearing was expected at the October meeting and that a lawsuit involving the JCPenney store was still unresolved. Owners should check the city’s latest Planning Board minutes for the current status.
On Pembroke Road, the Monitor reported that Hodges Development has proposed 120 units in four buildings, and that the new state law allowing housing on commercial land reduced the project’s need for variances. A separate 370-unit Pembroke Road proposal stalled, according to the same coverage. In January 2025, the Zoning Board denied a variance for housing on industrial land on Monitor Way.
The lesson is that the pipeline number includes projects at very different stages. A 600-unit plan in permitting is not the same as 283 units under construction, and large projects often shrink, phase or stall.
Vacancy and absorption: can the market take the new units?
New Hampshire Housing publishes multifamily vacancy rates by county based on CoStar data. For 2024, Merrimack County’s rate was 5.89%, compared with 4.4% statewide, which means proportionally more units were sitting empty in the county than across the state as a whole.
That vacancy figure does not measure older buildings directly, since CoStar’s multifamily data tends to focus on larger, professionally managed properties. But it is a useful warning. As more of the pipeline delivers, the newest buildings will offer concessions to fill units, and some renters will move up from older stock. The units most exposed are mid-quality buildings priced just below new construction.
Demand has its own support. A renter base of roughly 7,900 households, slow but positive population growth and the state-government employment base that comes with being the capital give the market depth. The bigger question for an individual owner is not whether demand exists but whether a specific building can hold its position against newer competition.
What new construction means for existing buildings
For owners of older apartment buildings in Concord, the development pipeline cuts both ways.
Pressure points
- Lease-up competition. New buildings typically discount during lease-up. Older buildings within a short drive of a new delivery may see slower leasing or more requests for renewal concessions.
- Rising expectations. Renters who tour a new building see in-unit laundry, modern kitchens and efficient heating. Older buildings with dated systems may need upgrades to keep pace.
- Cost benchmarks. CATCH’s comment that 22 units did not work with construction costs shows how expensive it is to build in Concord. That cost floor is one reason new units rent at a premium.
Supports for older buildings
- Replacement cost. When new construction is expensive, well-kept existing buildings become more valuable, because they can offer rents below new product and still operate profitably.
- Location. Many older buildings sit downtown or near the State House, hospitals and offices, while some large proposals are on commercial sites farther out.
- Small scale. Smaller buildings often have lower operating costs per unit and attract renters who prefer quieter properties.
To see how a change in rent or vacancy would move a building’s value, owners can use our apartment building value calculator with their own rent roll and expense figures.
A practical checklist for Concord owners
- Read the Planning Board agenda each month. Projects near your building matter more than citywide totals.
- Track the Steeplegate and Pembroke Road applications. They are the largest potential additions to supply and could change rents on the city’s east side.
- Benchmark against new deliveries. Compare your unit features, utility setup and rents with the newest buildings, and plan improvements where the gap is largest.
- Watch the master plan update. The new plan and zoning code, expected after 2028, will set future density near your property.
- Use conversions to your advantage. The one-space parking cap and the 2026 conversion rules also apply to owners who want to add units to existing buildings, so review whether your property has room for more.
Where Concord fits in New Hampshire’s apartment market
Concord is a 2024 New Hampshire Housing Champion under the state’s InvestNH program, which signals that the city has adopted policies the state favors for housing production. Combined with the new statewide laws, that points to continued development activity rather than a pause.
For owners comparing Concord with other cities in the state, our New Hampshire markets page has more context. Owners thinking about timing a sale against the new supply can read about selling an apartment building in Concord on our city page.
The most useful habit for a Concord owner is the same one developers use: follow the approvals closely. In a city of about 20,000 housing units, a few hundred new apartments near your building can change the local market more than any citywide trend.
