Over the past few decades, advancements in technology have changed how people work and live. With the dwindling demand for offices, you might have wondered–can you convert office areas to residential? Turns out you can.
Repurposing office space to residential property isn’t something new. As CNBC reports, 41% of apartment conversions were from non-residential buildings in 2020 to 2021 alone, primarily fueled by the pandemic.
Since there’s a push towards hybrid working models where employees spend several days working from home, it seems the trend is here to stay.
This article examines what makes an office ideal for the transformation to residential space and the history of the office block conversions.
How Did Office to Residential Conversion start?
The office building to apartment conversion is not some well-kept secret–real estate investors have conducted them for some time now. For instance, people have lived in loft buildings for decades in New York City.
However, it wasn’t always this way. In the 19th century, these lofts functioned as warehouses and manufacturing spaces before people turned them into offices.
This transformation to residential living during the 20th century was one of the first examples of this kind of conversion. Well, at least in the United States.
John Cetra, one of the founders of interior and architecture design firm CetraRuddy, claims that loft buildings were ideal for office to residential conversions because they didn’t rely heavily on air conditioning.
That also means they had smaller floor plates than the office building structures before them.
The office to residential conversion movement started in the early 90s, primarily isolated and limited to capital cities.
For example, in Paris, France, almost 600,000 square meters of office space have already been transformed into residential space since 2001.
This translates to the creation of about 450 to 550 homes annually. However, this pales in comparison to Paris’ roughly 1.4 million square meters of housing space and 16.9 million square meters of office space.
More recently, the pandemic continues to challenge the purpose of office spaces. The fact that people can work remotely or from home means that offices are no longer the only places where workers can conduct day-to-day work activities.
With the declining demand for office spaces, building owners are now starting to look for alternatives more than ever before, hence the sharp increase in office to residential conversions.
What Makes an Office Ideal for Residential Conversion?
There are a few things that make office spaces perfect for residential conversion, including:
1. Small Floor Plates
The loft buildings in New York were easy to convert to residential properties because of their small floor plates. Small floor plates meant that the space wouldn’t need to rely on air conditioning heavily.
Moreover, they were suitable for natural ventilation and allowed a ton of light.
2. High Glazing-to-Opaque Ratios
Office spaces usually have high glazing-to-opaque ratios, meaning huge windows that allow plenty of light. This is an ideal feature seeing how natural light is a priority for most renters and homeowners.
Also, most office spaces have much higher ceilings than what you’ll find in residential properties. These high ceilings can offer great space, especially after taking out the acoustic ceilings.
3. Unbeatable Location
Most office spaces are usually dead center of capital or major cities, typically in and around the central business district. Having a home in this area means having easy access to the best recreational activities and transportation.
Being in a central location also means hospitals, financial institutions, and good schools are only a few blocks away.
4. Distinctiveness
A huge reason why certain office spaces make great residential conversions is their cool factor, which makes them distinctive. Office to residential conversions gives you the chance to use the building’s eccentricities to create interesting types of spaces.
It also allows you to take advantage of the peculiarities outside.
5. Efficient Security
Most office spaces have efficient security protocols to keep company property and data safe. This is something residential areas can take advantage of as well.
This factor is even more beneficial if the conversion targets wealthy individuals with valuable household possessions.
6. Open Spaces
Most modern-day office buildings or setups have a lot of open space. You can do many things with that open space when converting the premises into residential spaces. It gives you room to play around with the overall design.
For instance, open-kitchen designs are still prevalent in the real estate market. An open space makes developing such a layout pain-free.
7. Connectivity
There aren’t many modern-day offices that can operate at optimal levels without an internet connection.
When you’re converting an office into a home, you’re most likely getting a place that has excellent connectivity options baked into the design.
And with the flexible work-from home movement gaining an upper hand, homes with excellent connectivity have become a highly sought-after commodity.
8. Plenty of Electrical Outlets
Office spaces typically have numerous electrical outlets. The abundance of electrical outlets can be beneficial to residential spaces as well.
We live in an era chock full of gadgets and weak batteries that need a charge frequently, or require full-time connection to an AC outlet.
Challenges of Converting an Office to a Home
One of the most significant challenges when converting an office into a home is dealing with deep floor plates.
The deeper areas of the office that can’t access enough air or natural light can prove unusable in a residential setup. This factor typically negatively affects the viability of that residential conversion.
You can overcome this issue if you intend on making large residential units. However, efficiency might be a problem if your units are on the smaller end of the spectrum.
Conclusion
Seeing the numerous unoccupied office spaces around, you must have asked–can I change commercial property to residential? Yes you can.
While it’s still too soon to tell how the future of this type of conversion, the global pandemic has helped boost its popularity.
That said, local municipalities will play a massive role in the growth rate of these types of conversions if they keep issuing permits for them.
If you’re considering converting your office into a home, make sure to examine the zoning requirement first before anything else. These rules and regulations will tell you whether you’re allowed to conduct such a conversion project.
