White collar work significantly shifted in 2020, and most big America metros are now full of vacant offices. Those would’ve been a very boring / safe investment if the world kept plugging along as it had for the past 75 years.

We should find a way to incentivize converting these spaces into residential use. That’s what we need right now, and we should look at this as an opportunity to lower housing demand and housing prices.

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not a hot take, I think most people agree with that. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. In many cases, the cost of demolishing the building and building a brand new apartment building is cheaper than converting the current building. From floor plan to ceiling height to water and electrical lines, office buildings just aren't built to handle residential uses.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that’s a fair point. You basically need to knock out all of the walls, and even then, you probably need cities and states to get creative with things like egress laws.

In place like SF there is so much useless office space now, and a massive need for housing. I’d love for us to find away to repurpose that square footage for what is actually needed - housing.

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 9 months ago

Yeah, I can only imagine what a nightmare of zoning regulations and everything else it is on top of the upfront cost, which none of these property owners want to pay.

I can't help but think, though, how much better our cities would be if we replaced all that empty office space with housing. I watched a great video once about how a city in New York has removed half of the aging highway ring in the city and is planning on removing the other half because of how replacing it with local roads has not only opened up tons of new land for development, but also revitalized their dying city core because of how much more accessible it is.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

We just bailed out SVB, gotta keep this money printer going my guy.

[–] Postreader2814@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

Depends on who takes the loans. Big banks and the 1%, bailout. Us, recession/depression incoming.