The BPDA board in 2025 approved 5.8 million square feet of development worth an estimated $4.8 billion. That’s down by half from the 11.6 million square feet of development approved in 2024. In the past decade, the BPDA board has approved 124.5 million square feet of new development worth an estimated $70 billion, a Globe analysis of city data shows.

Of course, just because a project has been approved does not mean construction will immediately launch. Developers routinely secure approvals from the BPDA board and city zoning groups long before pulling building permits. (And even then, a building permit doesn’t necessarily mean construction is imminent.)

Still, the slowdown and ongoing struggles in the commercial and residential development industries were enough to prompt the city to pause a scheduled increase on fees developers pay into affordable housing and workforce development trusts.

The fee, called linkage, kicks in for projects larger than 50,000 square feet and was scheduled to increase on Jan. 1. Sharp increases in construction and financing costs in the past five years, along with ongoing uncertainty surrounding federal trade policy, prompted the Boston Planning Department to request holding linkage at its current rate for 2026.

“We have not received any linkage-eligible projects so far in 2025,” Reuben Kantor, the Planning Department’s senior policy advisor, said at November’s BPDA board meeting. “With the anticipated, or already announced, pullback of a variety of federal funds for our research institutions, for vaccines, for cancer research, for educational institutions, we think that there’s going to be additional impact on commercial and institutional development in the near future.”

The BPDA board and the Boston Zoning Commission approved the request at their November and Dec. 10 meetings, respectively.

The ongoing development slowdown continues to be a major concern for Boston officials. Property taxes fund 71.7 percent of the city’s $4.8 billion operating budget. Many office buildings sold at steep losses in 2025, and the value of the city’s existing commercial property base has declined for the second straight year.

Boston’s building boom prior to the COVID-19 pandemic — particularly the creation of the Seaport District — powered the city’s budget for years. Development in the Seaport, notably, generates about 10 percent of the city’s tax base. That means an extended decline of commercial and residential development is more than concerning — it’s “dangerous,” said Greg Vasil, chief executive of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board.

GBREB members “feel like it’s getting better, but it’s not going to be a marked change,” he said. “It’s going to be this slow recovery from COVID. Five years later, we’re still crawling out.”

Amid the development slowdown, the BPDA has had some highlights, including an extended office-to-residential tax break programthat Boston Mayor Michelle Wu saidhas resulted in 251 housing units either completed or under construction. At December’s BPDA board meeting, Planning Chief Kairos Shen touted progress in zoning reform that reduced the number of projects needing approvals from the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal.

“Like you, I observed progress this year,” he told the board.

The BPDA board and Zoning Commission also approved long-discussed zoning changes to Boston’s downtown this year, despite opposition from multiple state and city officials. The change allows for downtown towers of up to 700 feet in certain zones. It would also disincentivize office development in favor of new housing.

“A thriving, reimagined downtown from a Financial District to a mixed-use neighborhood with more residents, and a new mix of businesses, is positive for our entire city and the region at large,” Shen said in a statement.

Catherine Carlock can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @bycathcarlock.