Speaker
Description
Following public health measures to combat COVID-19, there has been a surge in the number of urban residents working from home rather than commuting to offices. At the same time, many companies are reducing their workforce and real estate expenses, generating additional unused office space. Due to population growth, there is also an acute need to increase the housing stock in many of these cities. A solution to these issues may be found through the partial conversion of vacant office buildings into housing. This could also foster urban vitality and sustainability by accelerating mixed-use development – facilitating public transit and walkability and reducing suburban commuting and its environmental costs. In addition, turning empty office space into “green” housing, through energy-efficient refurbishment, can help meet goals for GHG emissions reduction to combat climate change. This includes improving the insulation of the building envelope and boosting the efficiency of equipment for heating and cooling. While green retrofits are currently performed on an ad-hoc basis, a comprehensive strategy to turn office space into residences could provide the impetus for large-scale implementation of energy-efficient green design within the building stock. This will require new statutory urban planning and changes in zoning, as well as financial mechanisms to facilitate the process. The transformation of vacant offices is related to multiple factors as well as actors with conflicting interests, involvements, and investments. But one crucial factor is that supply must match demand, in terms of building characteristics and location. This research aims to identify the foremost factors affecting the potential transformation of vacant offices into housing from both the supply side (i.e., housing construction) and the demand side (i.e. market needs). We evaluate the economic feasibility of building-use transformation and the practicalities of city government decisions. From the analysis, we develop a game theory-based model answering the following questions: What factors determine the feasibility of commercial building conversion? To what extent is an office building, given its characteristics, suitable for conversion into housing? What policy tools and strategies would most effectively catalyze the implementation of office building conversion? How could the process be leveraged to foster “green” refurbishment and help transform commercial districts into sustainable mixed-use urban centers? Finally, what regulatory changes are needed to facilitate the establishment of such centers, and who are the main actors involved?
