In the fight against the housing shortage, hundreds of offices will be converted into around 4,100 homes by 2021. This is a 13% increase over 2020, according to new data from statistics agency CBS.
Statistics Netherlands tracks how many former offices, shops or industrial buildings have been added to the real estate portfolio. In 2021, this involved a total of 9,500 homes. The year before they were still 10,215 (therefore decreasing).
Over the past seven years, 76,000 new homes have been built in empty offices or shops. Sometimes only part of the building has been converted into living space. Surprisingly, redevelopment houses are often small (less than 70 square meters) and old (55 percent were built before 1945).
In total, 98,000 homes were added in the Netherlands in 2021. The vast majority (almost 70,000) are newly built.
