Boston is incentivizing the conversion of empty office buildings into residential housing to revitalize its downtown business district. The city is offering a 25% reduction in property taxes to developers who convert their office buildings into housing and seeks to attract new residents and businesses to the area. The program is expected to cost the city $10M over the next five years. - The city will require developers to set aside at least 10% of the units in each converted building as affordable housing.
- According to real estate firm CBRE, vacancy rates at downtown office buildings nationwide have increased by 5.6 percentage points since the fourth quarter of 2019, reaching 17.8% in the first quarter of 2023.
- Other cities that are pursuing office-to-housing conversions include Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
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