#office-to-residential-conversions

#office-to-residential-conversions

San Jose has approved a slew of housing initiatives and incentives including some for office-to-residential conversions downtown to jump-start the construction of thousands of units previously stalled by unfavorable market conditions. Despite the city approving tens of thousands of housing units since 2020, fewer than a third have broken ground, leaving San Jose well behind the state's mandate to plan for 62,200 units by 2031.

Cuomo who only moved into New York City in September 2024 after living in Westchester, a suburban community north of the city has promised to build over the next decade half a million new apartments, two-thirds of which will be affordable. The plan offers tax incentives to private developers to build more residential developments. It also says it will loosen zoning laws to promote office-to-residential conversions.

Dozens of organisations have signed an open letter calling on the government to scrap office-to-residential conversions in England, which analysis has found led to the loss of almost 28,000 affordable homes. Local government campaigners, housing providers and homelessness charities have all joined the call to abolish some permitted development rights (PDR), which grant automatic planning permission to building projects and are often used to convert office blocks into housing.