Subdividing

From the change wiki

Motivations

There's often a lack of single-person housing, or housing in general. Subdividing is probably cheaper and more environmentally-friendly than building all new units from scratch.

Types / examples

  • Apartments into studios
  • Single-detached houses into duplexes

Considerations

Size & space

Sufficient

A studio or one-bedroom apartment is suited for a single person, especially if affordable and in a walkable area.

A half-duplex is well suited for couples who don't have kids (an increasing trend), especially those who don't plan to. Or in some cases (especially USA & Canada), suburban homes are often big enough that a family of 4 could live comfortably in half of it (if the interior is set up the right way).

Human connection

Needs good design

Single-person housing is useless if it promotes loneliness. Buildings & neighborhoods need to be designed for much more than just work and home life.

Renovation costs

[RESEARCH needed]

How does the cost of all that retrofitting compare to new construction? [QUANTIFICATION needed]

This section needs some case studies. Factors to consider:

  • Building new walls
  • Redoing plumbing
  • Redoing wiring

Economics

Bare with it

At first, the new housing units won't be much cheaper. But don't let this be a reason to oppose the movement (no matter how tempting that may be). Keep it going until they run out of rich people to sell to. Prices go down when there's finally enough housing for everyone. It also helps to deliberately make affordable housing.