Built To Rent Duplex in Urban Des Moines

In Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, there's a big discussion going on about housing, especially affordable homes. It's a topic that affects many people, from those looking for a place to live to investors who want to make money from real estate.

Let's imagine you get a piece of land in Des Moines for free. What would you do with it? This isn't just a question for daydreaming. It's something that real estate investors, people who put money into properties to earn more money, are thinking about. They see that renting out properties in Des Moines could make them money, so they consider building new houses or apartments on the land they have.

But when these investors start to look closely at the costs of building something new, like a duplex (a building split into two separate homes), they find it's not that simple. Even if they didn't have to pay for the land, building a duplex in Des Moines costs so much that they might not make much money from it. This is surprising because usually, getting land for free would seem like a great deal.

There's another twist. In the suburbs of Des Moines, if you want to build a duplex, you might run into problems with the city council. The city council is a group of people who make decisions about what can be built in the city. They prefer something called bi-attached homes. These are a bit like duplexes, but they're different in a way that makes them more expensive. The city council likes them because they think these homes can help with the need for affordable housing and also bring in more money.

This situation in Des Moines shows how complicated it can be to build new homes, especially affordable ones. It involves not just the cost of building but also what the city council wants and what will work best for everyone – from the people living in the homes to those investing in them. 

As Des Moines keeps growing, these decisions will shape what the city looks like and how easy it is for people to find good places to live.