FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – The conversion of empty offices can create thousands of apartments in major cities and noticeably alleviate the housing shortage there. This is shown by calculations by the real estate specialist Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), which are available to the German Press Agency. Accordingly, unused office space offers the potential for around 11,300 apartments in the seven largest cities in Germany. “Around a fifth of the current housing demand there could be covered by converting offices,” says Helge Scheunemann, research expert at JLL Germany. In some places, a particularly high proportion of demand can be met with conversions, for example in Düsseldorf (57 percent), Stuttgart (51) and Frankfurt (34). There is a lot of office space there that is suitable for conversion.
With the trend towards home offices, a lot of office space is unused. According to JLL, the office vacancy in the seven metropolises of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf amounted to around 5.64 million square meters at the end of 2023, of which 2.68 million were away from sought-after A locations where re-letting is comparatively easy .
On the other hand, there is a severe housing shortage in Germany. According to estimates by the Central Real Estate Association (ZIA), there will be a shortage of 600,000 apartments this year and by 2027 there could be 830,000. Because of increased interest rates and construction costs, housing construction is in crisis, and the traffic light government’s goal of 400,000 apartments is out of reach.
Nevertheless, the conversion of offices has so far played a relatively small role, said Scheunemann. “Office locations are not the same as residential locations.” Connections to schools, local transport, kindergartens, shops and parks are necessary. In addition, rezonings are expensive and time-consuming due to the increased construction costs./als/DP/mis
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