00:00 These signs are a common feature on buildings across Adelaide.
00:06 While many are struggling to find a home in what's now the tightest rental market in the
00:10 country, city offices like these are lying dormant.
00:14 And another new office tower is set to be built in the CBD.
00:17 Whilst it's good to have new builds, it seems a terrible waste not to deal with the old
00:22 property we've got.
00:24 About one in five offices in Adelaide are vacant, according to data from the Property
00:28 Council of Australia.
00:30 The city's Lord Mayor has called for some of those to be converted into residential
00:34 apartments in a process called 'adaptive reuse'.
00:38 We've identified another 150 or so buildings that we think have the potential for conversion.
00:43 The state government says it won't stand in the council's way.
00:47 There are some barriers against it, but they're not government barriers, they're more technical
00:52 and physical barriers or finance barriers.
00:55 But experts say the task of converting offices into apartments isn't straightforward.
01:00 The really big challenge is finding the right office building to convert.
01:05 A building that's got the right floor to floor heights, a building that's not too deep and
01:10 that is slim enough and a building that's in the right location.
01:13 The property council says developers must also jump over more regulatory hurdles and
01:18 deal with higher costs when converting existing buildings.
01:22 Whether it's improving office stock as is or embarking on what is a huge challenge in
01:27 adaptive reuse, office to residential, the environment currently in the city isn't one
01:35 that's conducive to taking on more risk.
01:37 We've got some financial markers that say that it is stacking up and obviously not for
01:44 every building.
01:45 The city council says it currently has about 30 dwellings in the pipeline.
01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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