As San Francisco looks to house more residents, several large-scale construction projects are effectively dead in the water.

More than 20,000 new apartments in San Francisco have yet to see the light of day after receiving approval for construction.

While housing prices have increased in the city, construction of new residential projects have stalled as developers weigh the costs of inflation, additional city fees, a shortage of construction materials and ongoing federal tariffs, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Rents in the city were up 10.6 percent last month year-over-year, per Apartment List data cited by the Chronicle. Home prices are up too with 5.2 percent last month from last July with a median price of $1.7 million.

As demand increases, supply has been slow to increase. Only 1,453 homes in new buildings, excluding renovations and additions, were completed last year — less than a third of the more than 5,000 new homes completed in 2020. Plans for just 2,541 new homes were filed last year. As it stands, the city lags behind its state-mandated Housing Element goal of permitting 82,000 units by 2031.

While some megaprojects completed hundreds of new housing units during the pandemic, such as Treasure Island, Mission Rock and 5M, other projects across the city have been slow to get off the ground.

At the Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point site, for example, more than 10,000 homes were approved for construction in 2010. But environmental hazards at the shipyard including nuclear toxins and radium-filled paint have presented a major hurdle, leading developer FivePoint Holdings to instead focus on the Candlestick project, though that one has also been stuck in delays as well.

Parkmerced, the largest apartment complex in the city, was set to receive 5,600 new units in 2011, but its construction start was repeatedly delayed before the pandemic paused it entirely. Maximus Real Estate Partners defaulted on its mortgage and surrendered the 3,221-unit property earlier this year; new receiver Douglas Wilson Companies is focused on maintenance issues rather than new units.

In South of Market, the Creamery closed in 2020 to make way for a Bjarke Ingels-designed mixed-use project, though the Danish visionary is no longer involved. The plan was revised to include 1,110 units and was approved in 2023, but it, like all the major projects planned in the Central SoMa area, has yet to start construction in the face of high construction costs and weaker office demand for office space.

Nearby, other projects like the new San Francisco Flower Mart and 88 Bluxome have sought plan revisions that could include more focus on housing.

Oceanwide Center, meanwhile, broke ground in SoMa in 2016 but was paused in 2019 and later sued by construction firms claiming they were never paid. It’s just a hole in the ground today, according to the Chronicle — not unlike Oceanwide’s abandoned, graffiti-filled skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles. — Chris Malone Méndez