The South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority will be holding a public hearing to collect comments on its proposed 2013 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) and 2013 Tax Credit Manual. The public hearing has been scheduled for November 1, 2012 from 10:00am-12:00pm in the Authority’s Board Room located at 300-C Outlet Pointe Boulevard, Columbia, SC.


The draft QAP contains several changes from previous versions. Below are some of the major changes that have been proposed:



  1. Financial Criteria: The applicant or applicant group must now have a minimum net worth of $5 million and minimum unrestricted liquid assets of 10% of the applicant’s or applicant’s group net worth in order to be considered for funding. Previously, applicants had to have a minimum net worth of $3 million and minimum unrestricted liquid assets of $1 million to be considered.
  2. Positive Site Characteristics: New public site services including entertainment venues, retail shopping areas, doctor’s offices, and public schools have been included to the list of eligible services for points. They now must be within 3 miles of the development site for point consideration.
  3. Market Study Criteria: The draft QAP proposes changes to the capture rate criteria from a rate at or below 35% to a lower level of 30%. All developments with capture rates above this new level will be eliminated. The Authority has also developed a new point allocation scale based on the market study’s findings on overall LIHTC vacancy rates. Developments proposed in markets where the overall existing stabilized LIHTC developments vacancy rate is 10% or greater will be eliminated.
  4. Development Size: The Authority has set new minimum and maximum development size thresholds for this point category. Applications with fewer than 16 units will not be considered in any of the funding set-asides for the competitive funding cycle. The point allocations have now been broken down into separate scales for new construction and adaptive reuse developments and rehabilitation developments. Projects will be awarded for having fewer total units than previous years and have lower caps for the maximum number of total units to be built. New construction and adaptive reuse developments may not consist of more than 73 total units to be considered for funding and rehabilitation developments may not consist of more than 97 units to be considered.
  5. Community Revitalization Development Plan Area: The Authority will now allocate up to 2 points to projects with sites located in CRDP areas. The CRDP must have been approved by the local government at a public meeting no later than November 15, 2012.
  6. Financial Characteristics/Total Development Costs: The Authority will not consider any projects whose total development costs exceed $115,000 per unit for rehabilitation projects and $175,000 per unit for new construction projects.
  7. Tie Breaker Criteria: The proposed QAP introduces entirely new criteria for determining allocations in the case of a tie.


To review the draft 2013 QAP, please click here.


To review the draft 2013 Tax Credit Manual, please click here.


All written comments may be submitted to the South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority, Attn: Laura Nicholson, 300-C Outlet Pointe Blvd, Columbia, SC, 29210, or faxed to (803) 551-4925. The deadline to submit is November 1, 2012 at 5:00pm EST.