A quarter of Bristol’s available office stock will be lost to housing by the end of the year.
A total of 500,000 sq ft of office conversions are predicted for the South West city in 2014, according to Knight Frank, compared with 316,000 sq ft in 2013 and just 63,000 sq ft in 2012, prior to the introduction of the government’s office-to-residential permitted development rights.
Martin Booth, partner in Knight Frank’s Bristol office, said: “We could see up to 500,000 sq ft of office space removed this year for residential use, which is around 25% ?of available office stock.”
Peter White, head of Bristol office agency at BNP Paribas Real Estate, warned that the increase could hamper the city’s plans to create a dynamic office sector. He said: “My concern is that Bristol has never had a dedicated central business district. The danger is that the expected avalanche of applications will crush any hope of a central business area.”
An Estates Gazette investigation last month revealed that, outside of London, Bristol received the second highest number of notifications to convert offices to houses without planning permission, behind Brighton (11 January, p31).
A total of 42 proposals have been made to convert offices to homes in the city since the policy took effect in May 2013.
It comes as Knight Frank’s former seven-storey home, the 20,600 sq ft Crown House, was sold by receivers at ES Group to Bristol Crown House for £1.2m. Plans are being worked up to convert the building into 30 flats.
Chris Wakeman, divisional director of ES Group, said: “Crown House’s location in Bristol city centre makes it a natural choice for residential use. We anticipate other landlords in the city centre may take a similar route.”
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
