News of: Monday, February 07 2005,
The City of Amsterdam investigates the possibility of housing students in the vacant office spaces in Amsterdam.
At the moment there is a shortage of cheap housing possibilities for students in Amsterdam. At the same time, there is about 1,000,000 square meters of empty office space, due to economic circumstances.
It is now investigated what rules have to be changed to make it possible to convert some of the offices into apartments (maybe temporarily). Rules that are in the way have for example to do with regulations of designated areas. If the official destination of a building is office space, you can not convert the building into a residential building. First, the law for that area or building has to be changed.
Some offices may have to be converted on a permanent basis, as they do not fit the (technical) requirements any more of businesses seeking office space.
