March 13, 2023
Due to a drastic increase in home prices over the last few years, lack of housing supply, as well as rising interest rates most recently, London Ontario’s home ownership rate is the lowest in the province. As a direct response to the housing crisis faced by the city, a goal was set to build 47,000 residential homes by 2031. At a time when builders are facing many challenges in an ever-changing market, it seems this lofty goal may be hard to reach. However, rather than focusing on building new homes, there may be another solution for housing that could also solve vacant tenancy issues within the city.
Office space, anyone?
Take a drive around London’s downtown core, and it’s hard to miss the FOR LEASE signs propped up in windows on nearly every block. Post-pandemic, remote working has increased, while the need for office space has diminished significantly. According to a CBC article, 8-10% is considered healthy for the office market, but London's vacancy rate sits at 22%. While this may seem like a grim and bleak reality that poses a threat to the livelihood of the city’s remaining downtown businesses and inhabitants, vacant space seems like a good problem to have during a housing supply crisis.
Opportunity Knocks
As a response to the same problem, Calgary has been working on converting vacant office space to residential housing. The program, subsidized by the city, has so far “created five office-to-residential conversions and added 700 new residential units to the downtown core” (CBC). London, Ontario mayor Josh Morgan believes a similar program could successfully be established.
Although converting these office spaces into housing would be a large undertaking considering these buildings do not meet residential housing standards, the goal to build 47,000 new homes from the ground up is also a large undertaking. Moreover, the project would have the added benefit of adding more foot traffic to the downtown core and would help property owners finally see some income from their presently vacant investments. We honestly think it would be an excellent project that would potentially help solve many problems faced by the city.
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