The Netherlands has no fewer than 53,000 offices that can be directly converted into homes. This is evident from our analysis in which the vacancy of office spaces and the associated zoning plans have been mapped out. The results provide insight into the current condition of office spaces and their potential repurposing, without major zoning plan changes.
The most important findings are:
- The Netherlands currently has 148,080 offices, as registered in the Basic Register of Addresses and Buildings (BAG). This also includes buildings with multiple functions, such as combined office and living spaces.
- 36.4% of the offices (approximately 53,000) are located in areas where the main destination allows residential. This concerns areas where the single destination is, for example, ‘residential’ or ‘center’.
- The total area of these offices is 167 square kilometers, which amounts to 0.39% of the total Dutch land area. Large cities such as Amsterdam have an above-average concentration of offices.
Indicator of transformation potential
“This shows how much potential there is for the repurposing of offices into residential spaces,” explains data project leader Thijs Herwig. Since January 1, 2023, approximately 11,000 new office spaces (both for sale and rental) have been brought onto the market, providing an important source of data for further analysis. Of these 11,000 offices, approximately 4,500 are located in areas where transformation is possible without changing the main destination. This translates to an area of 2.07 square kilometers.
Contributing to solving the housing shortage in the Netherlands
On average, a person has a living space of 53 square meters (CBS), which means that potentially 39,119 people can be housed in these offices with complete transformation. Herwig: “Although it is not realistic to transform all offered offices, this does demonstrate the potential and what role transformations can play in the housing shortage.”
