Number of office-to-apartment conversion projects has jumped since start of pandemic

As remote work rose and demand for office space declined since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, developers have found converting some offices to residential use to be an attractive option.

Apartment conversions rose 25% in the two years since the start of the pandemic, with 28,000 new units converted from other property types, according to a report from RentCafe. By comparison, new apartment volume rose just 10% over the same period.

Of the total number of conversions, 11,090 new units are the result of office-to-apartment conversions, which have risen more than 40% between 2020 and 2021, representing an all-time high. An additional 77,000 adaptive reuse units are currently being converted.

Washington, D.C., leads the nation in most apartment conversions, with 1,565 new adaptive reuse units in 2020 and 2021—more than double the amount between 2018 and 2019. Overall, Washington, D.C., has 5.6% of the total adaptive reuse projects in the U.S.

One of the hardest decisions multifamily developers and their design teams have to make is what mix of amenities they’re going to put into each project. A lot of squiggly factors go into that decision: the type of community, the geographic market, local recreation preferences, climate/weather conditions, physical parameters, and of course the budget. The permutations are mind-boggling.

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