Hotels Could Solve Housing Crisis Old hotels could be converted into apartments to help ease Australia’s housing crisis, according to commercial agency JLL.
The group says one-fifth of Australia’s hotel stock is more than 20 years old, and it would be easier to convert them into residential use than converting vacant office space as some have suggested.
JLL senior analyst Kyle Wheatley says repurposing existing buildings, could help pick of the massive shortfall in the housing market.
He says hotel buildings usually already have central cores for lifts and other services and floorplans with kitchens and plumbing that lend themselves more to residential refurbishment than office buildings.
“From a very high level it would be much easier, especially for a more serviced apartment product or budget-style smaller hotel product,” he says. “It would definitely be a lot more feasible than an office building, just given the similarities in product type.”
Wheatley says hotels built before 2000 would be getting tired and need renovations anyway.
Some developers have already taken the plunge, with a with a Sydney developer converting a former hotel at Rushcutters Bay into an apartment building and the units are now being offered for sale. The Sir Stamford Circular Quay has also been earmarked for conversion, to apartments.
