London, Ontario is the latest Canadian city to greenlight the incentivizing of office-to-residential conversion. The city will be taking serious steps to promote the conversion of unoccupied office spaces into residential buildings.
Once formed, London would join the likes of Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto in transforming the Canadian housing infrastructure. Most probably, a string of more cities will enter the list by the end of the year.
On Thursday, during the annual State of the City meeting organized by the London Chamber of Commerce at RBC Place, Mayor Josh Morgan announced that a total of $74M will be allocated to incentivizing office-to-residential conversions across the city of London, Ontario. The money comes from the Federal Government’s Housing Accelerator Fund. As per the program, the city will be offering $20,000 and $28,000 to one-bedroom and two-bedroom units respectively.
Mr. Morgan also detailed the steps the city plans to take in order to facilitate the conversions. It’s a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone solution – office vacancies and housing issues. Office vacancy is on the rise in London. The vacancy rate of the city has shot up by over 6% from the third quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2022. The current vacancy rate is close to 25% – among the highest in the country. As per an estimate, approximately 1,200,000 sq. ft of office space is vacant in London.
The office-to-residential conversion is a part of the city’s Core Area Land and Building Vacancy Reduction Strategy introduced last May. The staff highlighted at the time,”There is a market structural issue with London Core Area commercial office vacancy.”
The plan also points to the possibility of incentivizing air-quality improvement efforts around the converted buildings. In addition, there may also be a grant program that waives the application fee for conversion projects. The plan aims to address the housing issue in more than just one way. London will be encouraging developers to turn unused parking areas into housing. With the Core Area Land and Building Vacancy Reduction Strategy, the city will be joining hands with several local developers in order to turn care facilities into housing for homeless families.
Another thing to be noted here is that the vacancy is high among Class B and Class C office buildings which account for over 75% of office vacancy.
Since before the Budget Day on April 16, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been making announcements addressing the housing crisis facing the North American nation. From incentivizing the construction of affordable housing to reconstruction, these plans promise to improve the housing infrastructure of Canada.
The real estate sector’s most influential leaders and innovators will be gathering in Calgary for a conference that, in all probability, is going to be the biggest real estate event in Alberta. Titled, ‘Rock’N REAL ESTATE 2024’, the BUZZ conference will be taking place in Carriage House Hotel & Conference Centre on Thursday, May 2. The meeting will open at 7:30 am with a light continental breakfast. The discussion will go from 8 am to 5 pm followed by an hour of networking session at the end of the event. Cocktails on the house!
Canadian housing activity was largely stable in March, but a key spring selling season lies ahead. Existing homesales edged up 0.5% in March (seasonally adjusted) and were up a modest 1.7% from sluggish year-ago levels (although an early Easter long weekend likely reduced volumes somewhat). While current activity might seem quiet compared to the exuberance in 2021 and early 2022, sales volumes are trending about in line with pre-COVID norms, albeit at the low end of that range.
“We are changing the way we build homes in Canada. In our housing plan and Budget 2024, we are delivering ambitious action and investments to build more homes, make it easier to rent or own, and help the most vulnerable with stable housing. This is about restoring fairness for every generation, and housing is at the heart of that”, said Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau about the country’s new housing plan.
7481 Woodbine Ave #203, Markham, ON L3R 2W1 (647) 806-8188