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Oh absolutely. The collapse in the market for office real-estate would have to get particularly bad for the owners of those properties go for that option. The o
by korethr 5y ago
Oh absolutely. The collapse in the market for office real-estate would have to get particularly bad for the owners of those properties go for that option. The owners of these properties are in the business to make money. If nobody wants their property for offices anymore, they will have to find some new use for their property that they can profit from. The condos/studios/lofts/whatever resulting from a conversion would indeed need to command high rates to make such a conversion worth it. Like I said, the housing created by such an option would be an expensive luxury probably only affordable by the upper-middle and upper classes.
However, given the (IMO probable) positive effects for less-than-rich, I would not protest such an outcome.
- mrobins 5y agoI can’t speak to the conversion costs, but let’s pretend there’s a creative solution (modular construction?). Converting office space to mass market housing could be a huge long term win. Cities like NYC and SF already have a huge shortage of overall non-luxury units which has caused rents in previously less expensive further out neighborhoods to spike. These neighborhoods aren’t super exciting to live in now so they’ll naturally be more affordable to start. Hopefully over time by mixing housing and residential in these central business districts they’ll become more vibrant w/ an economic engine that runs on nights/weekends too. If commercial vacancies really do spike it may be better for cities to incentivize these conversions rather then let their midtown’s stagnate.