{"id":34904,"date":"2026-04-03T03:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/office-to-housing-conversions-grew-28-last-year\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T03:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:40:11","slug":"office-to-housing-conversions-grew-28-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/office-to-housing-conversions-grew-28-last-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Office-to-housing conversions grew 28% last year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226\" alt=\"-\"><br \/>\n        Listen to the article<\/p>\n<p>            <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">3 min<\/span><\/p>\n<p>    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/text-to-speech.divecdn.com\/newspost\/816315\/2026-04-01_10.16.23\/office-to-apartment-conversion-projects-rentcafe.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"><\/source><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\">feedback<\/a>.\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Dive Brief:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>The number of <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rentcafe.com\/blog\/rental-market\/market-snapshots\/adaptive-reuse-office-to-apartments-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span>office-to-apartment conversion<\/span>s<\/a> in the pipeline at the start of 2026 grew to 90,300 units \u2014 a jump of 28% year over year, according to a March 24 report by RentCafe.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>New York outpaced other cities by a wide margin, with 16,358 such conversion units underway, followed by Washington, D.C., with 8,479 units and Chicago with 4,360 units.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>Office buildings now make up 47% of future conversion projects nationwide, with hotels coming in second at 18% and industrial properties at 16%. Since 2022, the number of housing units in the pipeline from office-to-apartment conversion projects has soared 290%.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Dive Insight:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The rise of remote work is helping to drive the wave of office-to-apartment conversions, Doug Ressler, senior analyst and manager of business intelligence for Yardi Matrix, said in a statement.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>At the beginning of 2025, national office vacancies stood at just under 20%, according to RentCafe, while physical occupancy was around 50% in many buildings.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Many cities that struggle with widespread affordable housing shortages are taking notice. Some are adding incentives to encourage residential conversion projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>New York City established a property tax exemption program in 2024 for converting some <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/site\/hpd\/services-and-information\/tax-incentives-467-m.page\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>non-residential buildings into housing<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>, and D.C.\u2019s <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dmped.dc.gov\/featured-content\/housing-downtown-program\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Housing in Downtown<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span> program offers a 20-year tax abatement for commercial-to-residential conversion projects with a goal of bringing 15,000 new residents downtown by 2028. Eligible areas span from the National Mall to Dupont Circle and Georgetown.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Chicago, meanwhile, is using tax-increment financing to <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/blockclubchicago.org\/2025\/04\/16\/2-more-lasalle-street-buildings-to-be-converted-into-apartments-after-city-council-approves-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>support two major conversion projects<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span> in its downtown area, Block Club Chicago reported.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>New York State is <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nysenate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2026\/patricia-fahy\/fahy-peoples-stokes-introduce-legislation-creating-state\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>considering offering refundable tax credits<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span> to support more such conversion projects in Albany, Buffalo and other communities outside of New York City.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Buffalo, New York, Mayor Sean Ryan said in a statement announcing the proposed state legislation last month that office conversions could help support the city\u2019s downtown revitalization.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>&#8220;Buffalo is facing two difficult realities at the same time: a shortage of housing that people can afford and underutilized office space in our downtown,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cConversions like these are the creative tools that Buffalo needs to meet the challenges of the present day.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>After Chicago, RentCafe\u2019s top cities for future office-to-apartment conversions included Los Angeles with 4,340 units; Dallas with 3,966 units; Denver with 2,991 units; Philadelphia with 2,697 units; Atlanta with 2,642 units; Cleveland with 1,771 units; and Cincinnati with 1,770 units.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/office-to-apartment-conversion-projects-rentcafe\/816315\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This article was originally posted at Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive &#8230; <a title=\"Office-to-housing conversions grew 28% last year\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/office-to-housing-conversions-grew-28-last-year\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Office-to-housing conversions grew 28% last year\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-dive","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}