High housing vacancy is a global paradox, evident in both shrinking cities and densely populated urban centers. The reuse of vacant residential units presents a dual opportunity: to address housing demand through affordable alternatives and to advance urban circular economies. However, this process is often hindered by complex and conflicting stakeholder interests.
This study develops a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) framework to capture the challenges and priorities of key stakeholders involved in vacant housing reuse. The framework was first constructed using empirical data from Cairo, a densely populated city with a 33% housing vacancy rate in 2017, and subsequently tested for applicability in Görlitz, Germany—a contrasting context marked by population decline and high vacancy.
The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in Cairo—including investors, government representatives, owners, and building professionals—were thematically analyzed to identify core criteria and construct the initial MCDM framework. In the second phase, this framework was tested through semi-structured interviews in Görlitz to evaluate its robustness and identify context-specific adaptations.
The findings confirm the transferability of the core MCDM structure, with economic viability emerging as a universal barrier. While the fundamental stakeholder criteria are comparable across contexts, their relative importance and the nature of challenges—such as regulatory frameworks (e.g., old rent control law in Cairo) and socio-cultural perceptions—remain highly context-dependent. The framework thus provides a structured approach to reflect the Cairo findings and map multi-narrative perspectives in distinct urban settings.
The developed MCDM framework offers policymakers a transferable diagnostic method to identify local barriers, leverage points for intervention, and design context-sensitive strategies that systematically coordinate diverse stakeholder interests in the reuse of vacant housing.