New York City has the most apartments converted from office space underway in the country.
The Big Apple, which has the largest office market in North America, has some 8,300 units in the pipeline that are being converted from unused office space, according to a report from RentCafe that analyzed office-to-apartment units that are under construction, planned or prospective. Year over year, the city has seen this figure grow 59 percent. Overall, there are more than 15,700 units in the city being converted from all building types, which is also the most in the country.
Thanks to a housing crunch, affordability crisis and rise in hybrid or fully remote work options, governments and landlords have been eyeing empty or mostly-empty offices as potential housing options. A report from this fall found that less than one in six offices in the U.S. were ripe for such conversions.
Manhattan, however, stands out: more than half of the offices in the borough are top choices to be converted into residential properties. Last year, Mayor Eric Adams launched a program to streamline the conversion process in the city. One top project in the works is Metro Loft Management’s conversion of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s former headquarters into a multifamily building with 1,500 rental apartments.
Washington, D.C., ranks second with the highest number of office-to-apartment conversions, with more than 6,500 units — a 12 percent year-over-year growth.
Among the 20 metros with the most converted units in development, Boston has seen the greatest annual spike in its change of office-to-apartment pipeline, according to RentCafe. That city has about 1,200 units in the works to be converted, up 160 percent from the year before.
There were three markets of the top 20 that recorded annual drops in their office-to-apartment conversions: Dallas (-14 percent), Cleveland (-20 percent) and Detroit (-10 percent).
Here is a closer look at the top U.S. cities planning the most office-to-apartment conversions.
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