11,500 homes can be built in vacant offices: real estate advisor

The Netherlands can build at least 11,500 homes from the 1,622 vacant offices in the country, according to an analysis by real estate advisor Cushman & Wakefield. Some 665,000 square meters of office space are immediately suitable for conversion into housing.

Approximately 2.1 million square meters of office space is redundant in the Netherlands. But not every office is suitable for immediate conversion into housing, for example, because the office building is located on an industrial estate. If such an industrial estate were to be tackled in its entirety and turned into a residential area, the Netherlands could realize more than 11,500 homes.

Office buildings in the provinces outside the Randstad have the most potential. The vacancy is low within the Randstad but is increasing outside it.