Proposal of owners' survey methodology

Jāzeps Bikše �10.03.2020

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Aims

• To find out reasons of vacancy for the buildings in the historical city centre of Riga and to understand the barriers to return these buildings to the use.
• To adapt the owners' typology developed by “StadtWohnen” in order to find possible support mechanisms for returning the buildings to use.
• To inform the owners and to find out their opinion about the instruments provided by the City Council that support revitalisation of the vacant properties.
• To foster revitalisation of the vacant buildings with public benefit temporary use activities or co-development approach.

Process

• Selecting the buildings.
• Finding contact information of owners.
• To approach the owners and carry out the survey.
• Data analysis and summary.

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City centra and Old Town

• Large number of vacant buildings signalled both by municipal portal www.riga.grasti.lv, as well as info gathered by FREE RIGA.
• Many buildings liquid in the property market, however, still vacant.
• The results of the survey could very likely lead to public interest, as well as far reaching benefits for the society.

Criteria for selecting buildings

• Buildings that are more than 50% vacant.
• Priority to the buildings in areas of the city centre where FREE RIGA has a running project = more capacity.
• High temporary use potential - buildings in a good technical condition, central locations, “interesting” for creative use.
• Buildings that are hard to develop through the ordinary property market = with high co-development potential:
• Buildings with heritage restrictions - high land value, however low business value.
• Buildings with layout typology that are not easily transformable (industrial buildings in the city centre, etc).
• Owners that have not been reached through other channels (like owners with significant property tax debts, as well as owning degraded buildings).

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Why we can reach these owners?

Network of FREE RIGA in cooperation with “Latio”, the leading real estate company in Latvia

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Layout of the survey

• Identification and contact info
• Info about the property
• Plans of the owner
• Interests of the owner
• Agreement for data analysis and further contacting

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1. Identification and contact info

Prospective contact persons: 

• Owner (from land registrar)
• Manager
• Renter

Contact info:

• Phone
• Email
• Mail address

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1.1 Identification and contacts

Divided property rights is one of the hurdles to revitalise or sell property..

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Property rights:

Are you the sole owner? y/n

Do you cooperate? y/n

Would you share contact info? y/n

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2. Info about the building

Area

• Total
• Unused

�Use / function

• Residential
• Retail
• Office
• Other

�Technical condition

• Very good, ready for use
• Average. To restart use of the buildings …. is needed
• Bad. To restart use of the buildings … is needed

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3. Plans of the owner

Owner:

• Wants to sell the building, not planned to use the building in the existing condition.
• Is planning to renovate and return the building to the use.
• To wait (reasons)
• No clear plans.

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Is it published for sale or rent?

• Yes
• No

4. What are owners looking for?

I am interested in:

• Investors to redevelop the building (types of investment and current obstacles)
• To find a buyer
• To find users for the building:
• Users
• Renters
• Vacant property guardian service
• Information, trainings, lecture, financing, other offers

5. Consent for data analysis

Es piekrītu, ka manus iesniegtos datus apstrādās (informācija par personas datu apstrādi ir pieejama STARPNIEKA mājaslapā www.latio.lv).

Piekrītu, ka man nosūtīs piedāvājumus un informatīvo materiālu par sniegtajiem pakalpojumiem uz norādīto e-pastu un/vai tālruni.

The expected results

• Typology of owners based on Chemnitz approach
• Profiles of owners interested in cooperation
• Factor analysis
• Support for revitalisation of the buildings with public benefit temporary use or co-development model.
• ...

Thank you!