Boston Mayor Wu floats another tax, signs transfer fee bill for high-ticket real estate sales

Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on Apr 30, 2026

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BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu signed a bill that would impose a 2% tax on high-ticket real estate transactions worth more than $2 million, and was immediately criticized for looking to “increase the cost of doing business” in the city.

Wu signed a home rule petition Thursday that will now be sent up to Beacon Hill for consideration by state lawmakers. The bill had been proposed by the Boston City Council as a way to generate revenue for affordable housing, and approved by the Council on April 15.

The mayor said the petition she signed represents the fourth time the city has petitioned the state legislature to allow the city to impose a transfer fee. She said the proposal is for a “very modest” 2% fee on the value of transactions after the first $2 million of the sale, meaning that the tax would be on the remaining value.

“This funding will have generated $160 million … had it been adopted the first time we passed it at the city level and sent it up four times ago,” Wu said at a Jamaica Plain press conference. “We will continue to try for this because we truly need every bit of resources for our community.”

Wu signed the bill after speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Jamaica Plain. Built in 1913, the church has been vacant since 2004 and is slated to be redeveloped into 55 mixed-income housing units with a multi-purpose performance space, the mayor’s office said.

Wu said similar transfer fee bills have been sent up to Beacon Hill by other cities and towns in Massachusetts in recent years that, along with Boston’s proposal, “have been urging for this very reasonable tool to be used and to then target that funding for more housing and more affordability.”

The home rule petition was sponsored by Councilor Henry Santana, and approved by the City Council by an 11-2 vote on April 15.

“Through this fee, we can better address the housing crisis that impacts most of Boston, a city in which over 50% of renters are cost-burdened by imposing a modest tax on the most high-value real estate transfers,” Santana said at the time.

Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune said ahead of the Council vote that the fee would affect roughly 10% of real estate transactions in the city.

The petition states that money generated from the transfer fee would go into the city’s neighborhood housing trust fund to establish more affordable housing.

Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy cast the two opposing votes. Flynn said at the time that he didn’t favor imposing another tax in Boston.

“I think it’s critical for us to demonstrate fiscal discipline, fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability,” Flynn said. “I do not support another tax, especially during these challenging economic times.”

The proposed transfer fee comes after Wu spoke favorably of imposing congestion pricing this week. Her climate action plan floated the potential for a new tax on drivers traveling into Boston on Monday.

The city’s push for a fee on high-ticket real estate transactions has been met with resistance on Beacon Hill, where previous petitions sent up by the mayor have died. State Rep. Brandy Fluker-Reid, a Democrat who represents parts of Boston, has filed the latest transfer fee bill on behalf of the city.

The city’s proposed bill was quickly met with renewed opposition from industry groups on Thursday.

“We’ve always opposed it,” Greg Vasil, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, told the Herald. “We will continue to be opposed to transfer taxes, whether it be Boston or other communities.”

Vasil said transfer fees “really don’t work.” He said they’re “sold to the public” as a way to generate revenue, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case.

He said real estate transactions are “way down” in the Boston area, and the tax would come at a time when commercial buildings “are trading way below the value that they once did before” the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In those cases, they’ll continue to lose substantial amounts of money, so it’s just not a real benefit, the way it’s set up — and I think it’s been borne out with the Legislature having not passed it session after session after session,” Vasil said. “It would increase the cost of doing business in the city.”