Press review - 24/09/2023
Transforming offices into housing, Good or bad deal?
Office vacancies in the region have been steadily increasing since the Covid pandemic and the rise of telecommuting that followed. However, the conversion of these premises into apartments faces many obstacles.
This former office building (left) constructed in Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine) in 1991 was converted into 56 housing units with retail units on the ground floor by Axe in 2018 (right).
"The office is dead, long live housing!" The slogan is certainly quite reductive, but it accurately reflects the current trend. The observation first: in thirty years, the supply of offices has increased by 50% in Île-de-France to reach 59 million square meters according to a study by Catella Property, a business real estate consultancy.
However, at the beginning of 2023, nearly 6 million square meters were vacant, representing about 10% of the total area. Moreover, the Climate and Resilience Law provides for a 50% reduction in the rate of land artificialization between 2021 and 2031 to achieve zero net land artificialization (ZAN) by 2050. Finally, the Île-de-France region’s master plan (SDRIF) projects the creation of 70,000 housing units per year, 30% of which are social housing.
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