When Are Vacant Properties Business Opportunities?

Across our cities, empty shop lots and vacant office buildings are a common sight, a sign of wasted potential. But for enterprising individuals and businesses, could these underutilised assets be the next big opportunity?

Cha-Ly Koh, Founder and CEO of the data analytics firm UrbanMetry, joins us to provide a data-driven look at this issue. She discusses her framework for assessing these properties, the key financial and execution risks involved, and why repurposing old buildings is often harder and more expensive than building new ones.

We discuss:

• How to identify and define an "underutilised asset."

• The key financial, legal, and execution risks to consider before repurposing.

• Why it's often more expensive to revitalise old buildings than to build new.

• Why community and social capital are a city's most underutilised assets.

• Policy ideas like a "vacancy tax" and "patient capital" to encourage urban renewal.

For real estate investors, developers, and urban planners, this is an essential, data-driven guide to the challenges and opportunities of urban renewal.

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