Converting Brown Offices to Green Apartments

Arpit Gupta, Candy Martinez and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh

No 18396, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: The conversion of brown office buildings to green apartments can contribute towards a solution to three pressing issues: oversupply of office in a hybrid-and-remote-work world, shortage of housing, and excessive greenhouse gas emissions. We propose a set of criteria to identify commercial office properties that are are physically suitable for conversion, yielding about 11% of all office buildings across the U.S. We present a pro-forma real estate model that identifies parameters under which these conversions are financially viable. We highlight several policy levers available to federal, state, and local governments that could accelerate the conversion, and that may be necessary should policymakers desire the creation of affordable housing. We highlight the role that the Inflation reduction Act could play.

Keywords: Clean-energy; technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G1 Q51 Q54 Q58 R21 R23 R32 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-08
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