“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

In an attempt to solve the housing crisis, some developers decided to take work from home in an entirely new direction. Seeing all the empty, abandoned offices out there, someone had the genius idea to just convert them into apartments. On the surffice, not a terrible idea.

But as one TikToker shared, a few developers decided to do the absolute bare minimum when turning an office into a living space. So if you ever wanted to see what it might look like to live in your break room, scroll down and enjoy some haunting Zillow images and viewers’ indignant reactions to these listings.
More info: TikTok

Converting an office into an apartment might seem clever, but execution is everything

You’ve probably been hearing they’re converting a lot of office space into residential space to stop the economy from falling off a cliff, etc. But I’ve never seen it done so lazily as they did in this conversion in San Rafael.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

TikToker Zillowtastrophes shared one of the laziest listings on Zillow

So we’re at the Grand Landing and we’re looking at a 1000-square-foot apartment for half a million. As a caffeine addict, I’m not complaining about the neighbors, but let’s check inside.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

Oh, boy, where to start? I think living here might be just as soul-crushing, if not more soul-crushing, than working here.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

They’ve just plopped a kitchen on this wall.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

The carpet still looks commercial grade, and they didn’t even bother closing off these glass panels.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

Now, I know a roof over your head is better than nothing. But remember, this is half a million dollars. Just wait till you see the bathroom. It’s tucked over here. It’s like 15 square feet.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

At this point, just put the toilet in the shower. Who needs a bathroom countertop to put your toothbrush on? It’s not like you have a lot of products anyway.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

Here’s another look at your boss’s office. I mean your bedroom.At least it’s got external curtains.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

The listing has had very little work done to it beyond a kitchen unit

Trying to figure out where you even place the bed in this room. Sorry, but I do not want to live in the DMV. There’s literally still stains on the ceiling.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

And if this is your front door, good luck pretending you’re not home.I guess if you ran a business out of your home, this would be a great storefront.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

There’s also this luxurious outdoor living space.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

Would you believe it’s actually waterfront?

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

It doesn’t really matter though, because you can’t see the water from here.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

Here’s your little table, and this roof is very much in your way.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

There’s also no way there aren’t tons of cigarette butts littered on this roof.

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

Image credits: zillowtastrophes

For some reason, they chose to show us what it used to look like before they painted and put a kitchen in. As you can tell, the carpeting and everything else is exactly the same.

Super authentic for your next office-themed party.

You can watch the full video here

@zillowtastrophes Your literal home office. $520,000 1 bd 1 ba 1,066 sqft 777 Grand Ave SUITE 204, San Rafael, CA 94901 #homeoffice #workfromhome #remotework #sanraphael #theoffice #zillowtastrophe ♬ How`s Your Day – aAp Vision

The demand for housing keeps growing while supply remains scarce

It’s no secret that accommodations and the housing market, in general, are not in the greatest place right now. Demand is high, supply remains low and prices look like someone accidentally added an extra zero or two to the end of the number. The factors behind this are myriad, but one that has been going on since 2020 is the ever-increasing popularity of working from home. Employees who are no longer tied down to specific neighborhoods, cities, or even countries tend to shop far and wide for a house to buy or rent. At the same time, offices across the US remain pretty empty, with some studies estimating that up to 50% of office buildings are simply sitting unused at the moment.

The flip side of this is demand for housing has now exploded across the world, as listings won’t just be looked at by locals, but by remote workers, potential Airbnb hosts, and real estate companies seeking to cash in on the heightened demand. So some theorists and developers looked at all the offices sitting empty and wondered if this was the golden ticket to solve both issues at once. The reality is that offices generally were never built as living spaces and tend to require extensive modifications to be converted into homes. Of course, that’s assuming that the developers want to make nice, comfortable living spaces and not a gray-carpeted nightmare, as shown in the TikTok above.

Most offices are large, open designs, with climate controls set up around efficiency, as it would be quite expensive to run separate heating and cooling for each cubicle. Unless tenants can figure out a way to find a consensus with multiple neighbors on how high or low to leave the thermostat, office-to-apartment conversions need new cooling, heating, and insolation systems built from the ground up. Most US offices don’t have operable windows according to one estimate and larger building conversions risk having cell-like apartments in the core of the structure with no window access at all. While people might have lowered their standards to try and find a place to live, the comments under this TikTok show that there are still some lines people won’t cross when it comes to accommodation.

But office-to-apartment conversions are more complicated than they appear at first glance

But even if developers are willing to go through all the necessary steps to turn an unused office into an acceptable apartment and also not drive up the price too much, there is still a bottleneck that needs to be kept in mind. There are just not enough offices to really solve the massive demand for housing. In the US, offices take up a lot less space than residential buildings and other businesses in most major cities. For example, Denver needs between 13,148 and 30,930 more housing units to keep up with demand. Even if every compatible and empty office building in Denver were to be converted, this would yield only about 1500 apartments, at 1,000 square feet each. In other words, office-to-apartment conversions, at best, would cover about 10% of the city’s needs.

Other studies, this time in the metropolitan city of San Francisco have estimated that only 3% of the city’s demand could be met by converting offices. By 2030, they have estimated that San Francisco needs over 80 ‘000 new housing units, while office conversions could really only provide around 2700 units. This is not to say that these initiatives are bad, as most things in life aren’t solved by one fix. But as Zillowtastrophes very accurately identifies here, more often than not, realtors and developers will just use this as an excuse to flip lazy conversions to desperate people. So unless you have always dreamed of living at your desk, best to stay away.

Viewers mocked the downright ridiculous conversions in the comments

“I’ve Never Seen It Done So Lazily”: Horrid Converted Office Apartment Costing $520,000 Goes Viral

I am a writer at Bored Panda. Despite being born in the US, I ended up spending most of my life in Europe, from Latvia, Austria, and Georgia to finally settling in Lithuania. At Bored Panda, you’ll find me covering topics ranging from the cat meme of the day to red flags in the workplace and really anything else. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, beating other people at board games, cooking, good books, and bad films.

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I'm the Visual Editor at Bored Panda, responsible for ensuring that everything our audience sees is top-notch and well-researched. What I love most about my job? Discovering new things about the world and immersing myself in exceptional photography and art.

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