I’m not from the US, but I’ve heard about the housing shortage crisis as well as the commercial real-estate vacancy crisis. I’m pretty sure the US government will bail out the rich folks again.
Honestly, people need a cheap place to live, right? Why not just buy a commercial property about as big as an ideally small home and call it a day? Isn’t that a win-win situation? Or are there laws that make it illegal?
In theory you could….
But;
It isn’t zoned for residential use, so you’d have legal issues;
You’d likely be in an area that isn’t good for residential usage; a lack of grocery stores and schools etc. — it might be doable for a single person but not a family.
Office buildings are not designed as homes so there’s likely a high cost to do the conversion; bathrooms and kitchens — also access. buildings would need to be set up for 24/7 access so people can come and go
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Yea, zoning. Companies get first pick of real estate, americans get what’s left over.
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Commercial property isn’t zoned for use as housing, which can be a legal issue if you try to use it as your primary residence for some documentation.
In addition, the building codes for residential and commercial properties are different, I believe commercial properties don’t have to be as well insulated as residential and I’m sure there’s some other annoying tidbits that would rear their head as you tried to live in an office.
Edit: I don’t think living in a commercial property would be, like, the worst, but I’m remembering trying to fix an electrical issue at work and seeing the breaker box didn’t have any 40 Amp breakers. That’d make installing a fridge and other kitchen appliances tricky… but you could probably make do with a decent mini fridge and an induction hot plate.
Assuming that you’re talking about the US (I won’t speak for anywhere else), there is exactly 1 circuit in my kitchen with 240v/40a- the range. Everything else is 120v/15a. Current code requires a number of dedicated circuits, but they’re all 120v. Most are 15a, with a few 20a. The fridge, dishwasher, microwave, and any countertop appliances are all fine with 15a (1500 Watts continuous).
Most offices have tons of circuits run to any given area, because (by code) you can only connect so many devices. Googling wasn’t immediately clear how many, but it’s between 8 and 15. That’s only a few cubicles per circuit, so there should be no shortage of wiring.
When you’re talking about zoning, do you mean dividing a floor into multiple sections? I’m not sure I understand this, but I saw a video not that long ago, about a school being turned into an apartment. Wouldn’t it be ideal for people to come together to create a CHS, plan out the sections and then convert it into a apartment?
Never had insulation in my mind, because we don’t have that issue over here lol. The cold can be quite dangerous, it does make sense now. But as you move more towards the southern territories, that doesn’t hold valid, right?
When I say zoning, I’m referring to Zoning law.
Basically, municipalities create law to designate land use. This prevents someone from, say, building an industrial park next to a kindergarten, or restricts just how much commercial property can be built in an area. The other commenter makes a point about how living in a commercial property would give you poor access to services generally desired by residential properties, like schools and grocery stores. This is a consequence of zoning laws.
Zoning laws play a part in the housing crisis in a variety of ways!
I’m not sure if warmer climates solve all the issues with using commercial properties as residential as now you have to consider cooling as well.
My understanding (could very well be wrong) is that a plot of land must be zoned at or above the intended use. It’s for the purposes you said (and particularly for maintaining home property values), but there’s a hierarchy. If a place is zoned residential, you can’t open an office building, because offices are a higher zoning class. Above that is industrial. But you can also use it for lower purposes, such as residential.
As for services, that really is highly dependent on your locality. Downtown living has been a huge trend in my area. High-rise condos (very expensive ones at that) have been built right next to the office sky scrapers for well over a decade. A lot of buildings were designed with the ground floor being retail traffic (restaurants, sometimes offices, etc) with residences above. This all happened before COVID.
I don’t think they’re a good fit for a family with kids, but clearly they have these things already figured out.
According to the same wiki article, the hierarchical version you mention of Euclidean Zoning (named after Euclid, Ohio) fell out of favor in the US for flat zoning, which is much more restrictive. But since it’s always locality dictated, it’s always different wherever you go.
The cops can remove you from residing in a place that isn’t legally residential.
