Housing Preferences for Adaptive Re-use of Office and Industrial Buildings: Demand Side

Vacant and derelict buildings represent an insufficiently exploited resource. Several frameworks have proposed how to assess an adaptive reuse potential of a building towards more sustainable and resilient urban areas. Views of experts stand central in them. However, the literature lacks the end-users perspective that supports expert views. This study explored the methodology that can validate and facilitate the implementation of a performance-based adaptive reuse framework, in particular in two focal aspects, building usability and economic sustainability.

An online experiment faced 220 respondents, of different age and household composition, with a choice of renting a housing unit in an adapted reused office or industrial building. Five discrete choice models were used to measure the preferences for living in an adapted building and test correctly for observed and unobserved taste heterogeneity. The results highlight that nearly 70% of respondents favoured renting a unit in an adapted building while being reasonably ambivalent towards its first use. Having a private outdoor and the size of the unit emerged as the most influential attributes. Also, younger singles are the most probable occupants of these buildings when studios and one-bedroom apartments are available housing units in the Netherlands.