Tulsa builders can now download 18 free, preapproved housing plans from the city to speed construction of smaller, affordable homes.

The T-Town HOME (Housing Options Made Easy) Catalog offers 15 single-family designs and three multifamily plans that have already cleared the city's code review. Builders who use them skip much of the traditional permitting process. The city's catalog page includes a downloadable PDF, an application and a lot-viewer map tool.

The plans are free.

The program launched June 30 as part of Housing Month. It grew out of the Mayor/Council Housing, Homelessness and Mental Health (3H) Task Force, created in 2023, and took about 18 months to develop, KTUL reported.

A Pew Charitable Trusts report published May 13 cited a Tulsa administrator's estimate that preapproved plans could save builders 7% to 11% on a single-family home. About 40 U.S. jurisdictions now have similar programs, according to Pew.

Travis Hulse, the city's director of housing, told TulsaPeople that recent construction has skewed toward extremes. "In general, what has been built over the last several years is large, single-family homes or larger multifamily apartment complexes," Hulse said.

Plans in the catalog range from the Berkeley, a wheelchair-adaptable one-bedroom cottage designed for aging in place, to the Carroll, a building coded under the International Building Code that contains four one-bedroom and two two-bedroom apartments. Builders can vary exterior materials, roof pitches and window layouts so homes do not look identical block to block. The city describes the catalog as a living document, with new plans to be added over time.

Gene Bulmash, senior advisor on housing in the mayor's office, said at the June 30 launch that the program aims to simplify the process and reduce the cost of getting homes built. Amber Oputa, managing member of Kingdom Vision Homes, said at the same event that her infill-focused company planned to use catalog designs for two lots then entering the permitting process.

Developers renovate older apartments, build rental homes

Private developers are also working the affordable end of Tulsa's housing market. John Gorrell and Jeff Hughes, co-founders of Gorrell Hughes Capital, renovate older apartment buildings at about $10,000 per unit, turning around properties that had dropped to 70% occupancy or below, TulsaPeople reported. Their two Tulsa complexes, River Ridge in the Riverview District and The Coliseum at 625 S. Elgin Ave. downtown, are now fully leased.

Brothers Steven and Ryan Watts formed Red River Development to build single-family rental communities with homes ranging from 750 to 1,250 square feet. Red River sold a community it built in Jenks earlier in 2026 and is in the early stages of a new project in Bixby, according to TulsaPeople. Ryan Watts estimated monthly costs run about $1,000 less than owning a similar home.

No timeline has been announced for the Bixby project.