The conversion of offices into housing should remain rare, according to the Banque de France

Between 2013 and 2019, around 1% of the new housing area was the result of a conversion, according to the calculations of the authors of the study.

According to the mathematical model that they have developed, the elements that have the greatest effect on the transformation of offices into housing in a given employment area are a high stock of office real estate and a high stock of real estate low residential.

The number of square meters per employee could also have an impact on this: the larger it is, the more common conversions are, they note.

On the other hand, price differentials between office and residential real estate seem to have no effect.

According to this model, the increased use of telework caused by the Covid pandemic and the resulting drop in office occupancy could have an effect on conversions... but very limited.

“Without regulatory changes to encourage the conversion of offices into housing, telework should not have massive effects,” they write.

The change of destination of a building indeed requires obtaining authorizations from elected officials, including the modification of the local urban plan.

And because of the cost of the work, demolition-reconstruction is sometimes more profitable, despite its strong ecological impact.

The model was developed with pre-pandemic data, "a limitation of the study", acknowledge the authors.