Across many cities, adaptive reuse has become an attractive development strategy for residential projects, including coliving. Converting existing buildings can offer opportunities to reduce construction timelines, preserve embodied carbon, and revitalise underused assets. At the same time, the realities of building structure, planning requirements, and construction complexity mean that not every conversion opportunity proves viable.  

Compounding this, sustainability regulation and energy performance standards are evolving rapidly across the global real estate sector. For owners and operators of existing assets, these changes raise important questions around retrofit strategies, capital investment, and long-term asset viability - including the very real risk of stranded assets by 2030 and beyond.  

Shared living buildings present their own considerations: communal systems, high occupancy density, and integrated amenities all influence retrofit decisions.  

This session brings together investment, asset management, development, design, operational, and sustainability perspectives to explore when adaptive reuse makes sense - and how to future-proof the assets that result.

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What will be covered in this session?

• Opportunities and challenges in building conversions for shared living
• Structural and design considerations specific to various coliving formats
• Planning and regulatory factors affecting adaptive reuse
• Emerging energy and sustainability regulations and their portfolio impact
• Retrofit strategies: technology, building systems, and capital investment
• Avoiding the stranded asset trap: long-term resilience and value