I firmly believe that an important part of the solution to affordable housing may already be standing.Across our towns and villages are buildings that have fallen silent. Houses, convents and other properties that once accommodated families, work, care or community life now stand vacant, sometimes for decades.We tend to describe these buildings in economic terms: vacant property, unused assets, unrealised value. But a building at the heart of a community carries also social value.Buildings are part of the infrastructure through which community happens. People live in them, meet around them and attach memories to them.When a building becomes derelict, therefore, besides losing usable floor space, there is something gradually withdrawn from the social life of the neighbourhood.This thinking lies behind the Foundation for Affordable Housing’s first co-living project, which will transform a derelict former convent in the heart of Kirkop into an affordable co-living space.The innovation is not simply co-living as a housing model. It is the proposition that vacant buildings can once more give a new lease of life to our core villages.Co-living gives us one model through which to do this. Residents will have the privacy of their own studio or room while sharing intentionally designed communal amenities. Good co-living depends on precisely this balance between privacy and community.Instead of consuming more land and materials to accommodate more people, we are taking a building that has outlived its original purpose and giving it a new one. We are retaining what can be retained, investing in what already exists and returning a dormant property to productive and social use. There is a circularity that is environmental, but also profoundly social.Regeneration cannot simply mean renovating the inside of a building and closing the door. The community created inside must connect with the community that already exists outside.In Kirkop, dialogue with residents and stakeholders began well before the project’s launch. We listened to concerns and changed the project accordingly. That engagement shaped the plans themselves, which now include a community clinic and a night shelter that will also be available to senior citizens from the locality.Successful regeneration should not simply extract value from a place but it should return value to it.Kirkop is intended to be the beginning. Weeks ago, we issued a public Expression of Interest inviting owners to propose vacant properties that the Foundation could take under long-term arrangements, renovate, manage and transform into affordable co-living spaces.Does this eliminate the need for new construction? No. Malta’s housing needs and the scale required mean that new development will remain necessary. Only that construction should not be our automatic first answer. As a country, we should develop a stronger instinct to look first at what we already have. Before adding to our built environment, we should ask whether an existing building can be made useful again.If we can turn these buildings into affordable living spaces and give them purpose once again, we achieve more than restoration. We recoup their social value.Jake Azzopardi is the CEO of the Foundation for Affordable HousingLovin Malta is open to interesting, compelling guest posts from third parties. These opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the company. Submit your piece at hello@lovinmalta.com•