Perhaps it’s still more profitable than letting a building sit there un-used. The market should be allowed to try.
Comment on They really want people to RTO
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 8 months agoUnfortunately the building codes for office and residential buildings are very different and it’s damn near impossible to convert many offices into residences.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
That’s okay, I’ll take a whole floor with no showers or kitchen for a cheap price.
It’s not hard, it’s just not profitable meaning they have to take a lost, you know, like everyone else who makes a bad investment.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
It doesn’t matter what you’ll “take”. It’s illegal to live in a building that doesn’t meet code for residential units. Stuff like natural light as well as adequate plumbing and ventilation are important.
And they wouldn’t just be converting entire floors into single units. Those would be beyond luxury sizes. You think a 50 storey building can afford to become a 50-unit apartment? How is that going to solve our housing crisis? Don’t be dense.
For a conversion to work, they would need to be able to convert every floor of an office building into sufficiently dense housing. But office buildings are typically laid out with very deep footprints, where much of the internal layout of the building is far from any sources of natural light. Humans need access to natural light, which is why it’s not legal to sell a unit where the main rooms don’t all have windows. That can’t be fixed without tearing down the building and building something new.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Yes. The idea here is that relaxing those laws and allowing
More important than having a roof over one’s head? A “free market” is when people make their own decisions about what’s important instead of the nanny state doing it for them.
I guess if plumbing is an issue then you could get about as many units out of an office as bathrooms that the office floor could support.
Last time I stayed in a homeless shelter I had zero natural light. I was very, very happy to be inside, and nobody was forcing me to be there. I happily, eagerly, traded my natural light for shelter.
Free. Market. Adults making their own choices. Humans do not, in fact, need natural light. And the fact that some building code makes that claim, does not make it an aspect of reality.