I keep hearing that empty office buildings are an economic time bomb. I keep hearing that housing inventory is low which is why house prices are high. Why can’t we convert offices to homes?
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It‘s possible, some are already doing it.
A huge problem is that most offices are built to be used as office space.
So lots of smaller individual or several really large rooms. Most offices usually have one bathroom and one kitchen per floor. But because most levels are way too big for only one flat and several people probably don’t want to share one kitchen and one bathroom with all their neighbors you need to build the electrical infrastructure to operate several stoves and ovens, also the plumbing for several bathrooms on one level.
Especially the plumbing could be really complicated and time consuming, therefore hugely expensive.
Another factor is that those offices might be in the more industry-oriented parts of the city, so further outside the city center and you might actually need permits to have people living in the areas of industry, at least it’s like that in Germany.
I‘m sure there are several other points to be made though.
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