How Empty Offices Become Apartments In The U.S.

I don't know why everything built now has to up "luxury or upscale" there is a huge need for affordable utilitarian design in every US metro.

Not just office buildings have been converted to housing. Near me is an old schoolhouse (built in the early 1900s) that was closed due to too few kids living in that neighborhood, and it was converted into apartments for seniors

Block institutional investors from buying residential homes, full stop. We absolutely can bring down the cost of living by removing these people out of play. It's insane to me that this isn't a more discussed issue across the board.

We were looking at getting a bigger office. However the office owners would rather it to sit empty instead of reducing their price by 10%. So the one we liked sat empty for 2 years now

The only alternative is not office to condo conversion. You can convert the offices into mixed use buildings, with condos at the periphery, and offices, and commercial units inside. This way, you can drastically increase convertible offices.

The problem is that a lot of cities have regulations limiting zoning to single family housing. This isn't always a bad thing but in a city where space is tight, its a huge problem. The issue nearly always stems from government regulation and undue influence from powerful corporations to limit competition

this reminds me of when warehouses and factories started turning into places to live by artist and students

For YEARS bosses & CEOs insisted that working from home was NOT possible. Then the pandemic proved them wrong &/or liars.

It needs to be affordable housing.....not just housing. I dont care about offices being converted into luxury apartments.

I think this boom is great. My only objection is, can we make SOME of these conversions more affordable for MOST and not all be so high-end? As a fan of architecture, I love what they are doing with these places. I love the individuality that each new project is getting. This Atlantic property is amazing , but yeah the rents are just astronomical! Whew!

i love how all the real estate agents are trying to convince people its a bad idea - they rather people be homeless than lose a buck

As others have pointed out in the comments here, I hope the people doing this are giving due consideration to partial conversions, with street level storefronts, office space and residences. The walkable shop-and-work-where-you-live concept produces much more vibrant, sustainable neighborhoods than massive pure residential complexes (e.g. the well-intentioned but il-conceived projects) or pure business districts (what everything south of City Hall used to be before Battery Park City).

As long a institutional investors continue to purchase blocks of homes in the 'affordable' range with all cash offers to be used as rentals, the supply side will remain tight and renting will be the only option as well as an expensive option.

Best freaking idea ever!!! I had heard in a City where an old Mall was turned into an apartment building mainly made with efficiency apartments. Love it! 🤙🤙

Great idea. Studio apartments needed. Affordable, affordable, affordable!!! Single working moms and the elderly laborers need housing yesterday.

I still find it interesting that they still have the gall to say that $1,300 a month is affordable when it still isn't and never was. Inflation for all things has gone up tremendously and it's nothing like what the people in the 40s-90's paid. That's actual affordability. We have a crisis not on trying to find places to convert into more spaces to live, but making sure people aren't having to think between rent and eating well and addressing all the other hidden costs like bills that go into having a place of your own.

Buildings could contain both office and residential units in a mixed-use building, and zoning needs to be amended to permit this.

San Francisco really needs to do this. We have one the highest empty commercial office space in the country.

Near neighbor of The Poplar here in Philadelphia. Just wanted to point out that Post Brothers now owns so many units in the city that now they are impacting the median rent numbers. The Poplar is located adjacent to a public housing development, and it’s a stark contrast in the inequity that exists for Philadelphians seeking affordable, high quality housing. Folks in public housing next to folks with extreme wealth. A mix of socioeconomic backgrounds is essential, but what we are seeing is a growing divide between super rich and super poor.

$2k a month for a apartment is insane. I pay $490 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment in Ohio.