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Can empty office space fix the housing shortage?
(creditnews.com)
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this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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That is a good point but I wonder if the increased supply will impact overall prices. There is a lot of used space. I have seen % of free space but not what that means in terms of how many homes this could be turned into. Love to know if we converted all free space how big of impact it may or may not have. I suspect pretty big.
Yeah, but lots of housing sits vacant right now...
And since these are high prices condos in metro areas... Most people who get them are going to have other homes as well.
Which is why this money would be better used if it went to building affordable homes for people who don't have a home
That is a good point. The only thing I can think of that will have an impact is if cities demand x% of low costs housing being converted from office buildings. If they are mostly targeting rich buys then yeah…what is the point.
I mean, it seems a safe bet Biden is doing it because people who own billion dollar office buildings tend to make large political donations... So this could just be him funneling them taxpayer money, so they give him less money in donations.
But he says he legitimately thinks this is a good use of taxpayer money and will help the average American.
Like most things Biden does, we have to try and figure out if he's lying about why he's doing it, or just really doesn't understand the problem.
Which is pretty depressing.
Oh….Ahahaha. I thought we were talking about Canada. The gov here is not paying to convert, but there are developers planning as these big towers need to find a new life and fast. In theory it should add more supply, but I think we are both agreeing that it likely will not go that way…at least not enough to bring down overall house prices. Real estate is really just about the investment with the homes and offices just tenants or purchasers a distant second. It is about maintaining real estate value above all else. At least in Canada and surely the same in the USA as we are so similar.
Yeah, this article is about US.
But I do think Canada has the same problem.
Per square foot (or however many beavers or whatever Canada uses) expensive housing earns more than an affordable one of the same size.
So developers keep building fancy housing no one can afford that sits empty, while the lack of affordable housing causes homelessness.
It's technically making more housing available, just not for the people who need more housing.
Like if there was a food shortage so the government started subsiding caviar and champagne. Sure, they're helping with food availability, it's just not helping anyone that actually has food insecurity