A new report from RTS has claimed that empty offices have the potential to house 43.000 people in Switzerland. Several million square metres remain unused in the country’s office blocks, though converting them into rental apartments remains a challenge.

2 million square metres of office space empty in Switzerland

According to the report, provided by the Zurich real estate agency CBRE, there is currently around 2 million square metres of empty office space in Switzerland. As the average person in the alpine nation occupies 46,5 metres square of living space, they estimated that 43.000 people could find a home if these office blocks were converted.

The idea is especially attractive in Swiss cities where housing shortages and rising prices are at their most severe. According to RTS, empty offices could house 6.000 people in Zurich, 4.000 in Geneva and 2.000 in Lausanne.

Wincasa manager Massimo Blangiardi told RTS that office conversions are going to be a key tool in solving the housing shortages. However, “We would have to be able to carry out a large number of projects to relieve the market congestion,” he added.

Converting offices to apartments: Easier said than done

While the idea of converting offices into homes sounds simple on paper, experts note that it is much harder to do in reality. Legal requirements such as access to light and ceiling height restrictions, alongside physical costs such as adding the necessary plumbing and electrics, make converting a working space into one for living a tough prospect for developers.

Speaking to RTS, Simon Chessex from the Lacroix Chessex architectural firm predicted that office conversions will remain rare if the rules are not changed. “The only hope is for exemptions. Changing the law would take far too much time. On the other hand, we could act on a case-by-case basis.”

Owners lack financial incentives to convert offices into apartments

Another problem lies in the incentives for office building owners, with real estate developer Henrik Stump telling RTS that “the yield of an office building is always a little higher than for apartments. In addition, the construction costs are a little lower.” He added that if he converted his office into a group of apartments, he would be spending a lot of money for less financial gain. Even in half-full offices, he claimed owners would be reluctant to switch.

Therefore, RTS concluded that while office conversions will become more common, they will likely only focus on older buildings far from city centres which no longer attract enough interest from companies.

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