Co-living ‘Microapartments’ Cost Half as Much to Build as Typical Studios

A study from Pew and Gensler shows that converting office buildings into small co-living units would cost from one-third to one half as much as building a typical studio apartment.

As explained by Alex Horowitz and Tushar Kansal, the analysis found that “small co-living apartments could be developed for $123,300 to $238,700 each, including acquisition, design, construction, furnishing, and, where needed, seismic retrofitting.” By contrast, new studio apartments cost around $400,000 each in larger, more expensive cities.

Converting office space to co-living makes use of the existing architecture of office buildings, which often feature exterior windows and interior plumbing and other infrastructure. The proposed model places living spaces on the outside edges and shared infrastructure like kitchens in the middle of the building. The analysis warns that the model would likely still require public subsidies to get started, but that the units would be self-financing after completion.

The 10 cities in the study have few regulatory barriers to these conversions, according to the authors, and cities such as Houston and Denver actively encourage the adaptive reuse of office buildings. The study suggests regulatory reforms that would help other cities reduce barriers: “reducing or eliminating requirements for minimum unit size and parking; allowing mechanical ventilation in buildings where operable windows aren’t feasible; removing caps on the number of units per building or acre; and making such conversions “by-right” projects, so no variance or rezoning is necessary.”