Office to Residential Conversions Tops in New York and Washington, DC

The national movement to convert office buildings to apartments continues to gain momentum, especially in certain cities.

As the commercial office market continues to soften with the work-from-home movement remaining in place, a number of cities are leading the way to the number of unit conversions to residential uses. A new RentCafe analysis of Yardi Matrix data looks at under-construction, planned and prospective conversions, identifying the top 20 American metropolitan areas where the changeovers are most common, represented the greatest opportunities for those in the building trades.

Leading the list, not surprisingly, was the New York City metropolitan area where 8,310 units are expected to be converted in 2025. This represents a 59 percent increase over the previous year. In second place was Washington, DC where 6,333 units are projected to be converted, a 12 percent jump from 2024.

Rounding out the top five were: Los Angeles, 4, 388 units; Chicago, 3,606 units; and Dallas, 2,725 units. Only Dallas represented a decline from the year before.

In the sixth through tenth positions on the survey were Atlanta, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Cincinnati and Kansas City. Rounding out the top 20 were Phoenix, Cleveland, Bridgeport, CT, Jacksonville, FL, Denver, Omaha, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit.

Residential conversions are one of the stronger areas in the building trade, especially in urban locations with ample inventory of empty or near-empty commercial office space.

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