Office-to-residential conversion planning trends
Councils received 1,544 office-to-residential applications in the 12 months to September 2026, under half the 3,840 in 2016.
Office-to-residential conversion applications since 2016
Office-to-residential conversion applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredClass O closed in 2021
The count fell from 2,974 in 2021 to 1,664 in 2022. Class O, the office-to-homes right, closed to new applications after 31 July 2021. Most applications under Class MA, which replaced it, name no office and are not counted here.
A lower share since 2022
Office conversions made up 61 in every 10,000 applications in 2016, 31 in 2022 and 37 in 2025. The office-to-residential planning index stands at 58, and the share over 12 months is 3% above three years earlier.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 388 office-to-residential conversion applications in Q3 2026: 38 in every 10,000 applications, against 34 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 12% higher than a year earlier.
Office-to-residential conversion applications each quarter
388 in Q3 2026, against 368 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 38 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 34 a year earlier.
Where office-to-residential conversion applications concentrate
By region
Office-to-residential conversion applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 67 in every 10,000 430 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 60 in every 10,000 354 -
Barnet
London · 65 in every 10,000 351 -
City of Edinburgh
Scotland · 63 in every 10,000 313 -
Bristol
South West · 79 in every 10,000 294 -
Harrow
London · 72 in every 10,000 275 -
Bromley
London · 64 in every 10,000 264 -
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
South West · 74 in every 10,000 263 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 39 in every 10,000 260 -
Lambeth
London · 86 in every 10,000 255
Latest office-to-residential conversion applications
- 15 Frithside Street Fraserburgh Aberdeenshire Alterations and Change of Use from Offices (Class 2) to 4 Flats (Class 9) and Installation of Solar Panels
- 24 - 26 Ormskirk Street St Helens Prior approval for change of use from offices (E) to 4no apartments (C3) at ground floor.
- 288 St Albans Road Watford Change of use from commercial accounts office to residential
- Lux Automotive 2C Charles Street Ruddington Nottinghamshire Prior approval for the change of use of existing first-floor office accommodation (Class E) to form one self-contained one-bedroom, two-person dwelling (Class C3), with no external alterations.
- 2 Mayplace Road West Bexleyheath Kent Change of Use of first and second floor Commercial Offices (Class (g)(i)) to Residential Units (Class C3) including new rooflights/balconies and alterations to fenestrations and the formation of new residential access, cycle and bin stores at ground floor level.
- The Old Chapel St Georges Walk Gosport Hampshire Change of use of community office to a 2 bed dwelling with one parking space
Questions
How many office-to-residential planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 26,725 since January 2016, 1,544 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2016.
Which councils receive the most office-to-residential applications?
Birmingham, Leeds and Barnet have received the most since 2016.
Do you need planning permission to turn an office into flats?
In England, often not. Under Class MA, a building in use class E for 2 years can become homes with the council's prior approval, decided within 56 days. Listed buildings, national parks and national landscapes are excluded. Wales and Scotland have no such right.
Why did office conversion applications fall after 2021?
Class O closed to new applications after 31 July 2021, and the count fell from 2,974 in 2021 to 1,664 in 2022. Class MA replaced it, but most Class MA applications say only Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses) to homes, so this count leaves them out.
About Plota
Plota is the UK's most visited planning search, according to Similarweb. It shows every new planning application from every UK council, read daily from 390 planning registers, with past applications back to 2016 from more than 420 registers, including those of councils since merged. It also covers planning committee decisions, HMO licences and premises licences.
How this is measured
What needs an application
These figures count applications that name an office becoming homes, full applications and prior approvals alike. Class MA prior approvals that say only Class E to homes are left out, as the building may be a shop or clinic.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names office-to-residential conversions or a close variant of the words, by the date each council received them. These are planning applications, not completed schemes; the largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- How matches are checked: we read the 200 most recent office-to-residential conversion applications and 20 from every year since 2016 to confirm each one belongs.
- Topic counts leave out, by design, works to trees and applications that only discharge conditions, amend an earlier permission or approve reserved matters, which follow a scheme already counted. Everything else is counted.
- A share is the number out of every 10,000 applications over the previous 12 months. Each topic is a number in every 10,000 planning applications, so trends compare when overall planning activity changes; the share still moves when either the topic's count or the total does. The office-to-residential conversion planning index sets the 2016 share at 100, so 200 means twice as common as in 2016.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 9 November 2026.
- Planning is seasonal, so each quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Year on year: each topic's and theme's share of all applications in Q3 2026, against Q3 2025, at every council we hold. A share is the number in every 10,000 applications. Shares compare across councils and years; raw counts do not.
- Left out of the topic shares: Birmingham's applications from June to September 2026: a validation backlog at the council since June 2026: of 685 reference numbers it issued in September, its register lists 288. The same months a year earlier are left out too, so every comparison covers the same councils.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- Class MA of Part 3 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 allows a change from use class E to homes by prior approval, after 2 years in Class E use. legislation.gov.uk
- Class MA was inserted by S.I. 2021/428, which also closed Class O to applications made after 31 July 2021. legislation.gov.uk
- S.I. 2024/141 removed Class MA's vacancy rule and floorspace cap from 5 March 2024. legislation.gov.uk