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I have a basic question, because I don’t know much about real estate. If we have a brewing commercial real estate crisis, and we have a long-standing housing cr

I have a basic question, because I don’t know much about real estate. If we have a brewing commercial real estate crisis, and we have a long-standing housing crisis, why isn’t one the solution for the other? Can’t some real estate developer buy an office building on the cheap and convert it into housing and make a profit? I imagine that local zoning and building codes may not allow for that, but it seems like there’s enough urgency in this issue to resolve those.

felixgallo 2y ago
There are also serious physical constraints. Most office buildings were not designed to have the number of bathrooms that subdividing into an apartment complex would require for example.
voisin 2y ago
This is definitely happening (see Calgary as a great example, converting 17-18 buildings from office to residential). Not all buildings can efficiently be converted (floor plate shape/size, etc), and some municipalities are slow to update zoning.
reubenswartz 2y ago
This may work in some situations, but unfortunately commercial building are typically very expensive to convert to residential. Think of an office tower with centralized plumbing and HVAC, with an open floor and no real interior walls. You've got to run plumbing and HVAC everywhere, add real(ish) walls, and depending on the size of the floor plate, there may not even be a good way to get light to the right places.
the_snooze 2y ago
It's more complicated than you think. Office buildings aren't configured like apartment buildings; for example, plumbing and windows/lighting. Also, depending on the local rules, an office-to-housing conversion might require adding more parking. All these are expensive things to do, because office buildings were built to be office buildings. It's not impossible to convert them to housing, but there aren't as many cases as you'd expect where it makes economic sense to do so.

felixgallo 2y ago

There are also serious physical constraints. Most office buildings were not designed to have the number of bathrooms that subdividing into an apartment complex would require for example.

voisin 2y ago

This is definitely happening (see Calgary as a great example, converting 17-18 buildings from office to residential). Not all buildings can efficiently be converted (floor plate shape/size, etc), and some municipalities are slow to update zoning.

reubenswartz 2y ago

This may work in some situations, but unfortunately commercial building are typically very expensive to convert to residential. Think of an office tower with centralized plumbing and HVAC, with an open floor and no real interior walls. You've got to run plumbing and HVAC everywhere, add real(ish) walls, and depending on the size of the floor plate, there may not even be a good way to get light to the right places.

the_snooze 2y ago

It's more complicated than you think. Office buildings aren't configured like apartment buildings; for example, plumbing and windows/lighting. Also, depending on the local rules, an office-to-housing conversion might require adding more parking. All these are expensive things to do, because office buildings were built to be office buildings. It's not impossible to convert them to housing, but there aren't as many cases as you'd expect where it makes economic sense to do so.