La Défense considers turning some offices into homes
· BehindLines newsroom
Office buildings turned into apartments: the trend, already visible in New York, Washington and London, is reaching Paris. According to the BBC, the public development authority Paris La Défense has unveiled plans to convert up to a fifth of the business district's office buildings into housing.
A nine-storey building
The first case cited is Le Diamant, a nine-storey building where 1,800 people work, according to the BBC, which places it in La Défense. Roland Cubin, deputy CEO of Groupama Immobilier, tells the BBC the company wants to convert it entirely into apartments. The local outlet Defense-92 places it in Puteaux instead and notes that the business district spans Puteaux, Courbevoie and Nanterre. In an earlier article, this outlet reported that the building, completed in 1992 and covering 14,000 square metres, was to be vacated in July by Groupama's teams, who are moving to Nanterre, then host an artificial intelligence hub for a few years before the conversion to housing, for which studies were then under way. Nothing in the sources says where this timetable now stands.
Why convert
According to the BBC, demand for offices has fallen sharply since the pandemic and the rise of homeworking. The chief executive of Paris La Défense, Pierre-Yves Guice, cites a vacancy rate of 14 to 15%, higher than before, and a wish to diversify a district where people only work. Ludovic Delaisse of Colliers France estimates that office demand in Paris has dropped by almost a third in five to six years.
Technical obstacles
Turning an office floor into housing is far from simple. The BBC cites the windowless centre of each floor, where only access areas such as lifts and stairs can go, as well as greater plumbing needs and ceilings that are sometimes too low. In Washington, some developers have created atriums to bring in light.
What other cities are doing
A report published last year, cited by the BBC, counted 8,310 converted flats being prepared in New York, against 6,533 in Washington. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, tax breaks and looser planning rules back such projects; a Knight Frank study indicates London projects are 60% above pre-pandemic levels. Mr Cubin hopes French authorities will also reduce taxes and constraints.
Why it matters
These conversions respond to falling demand for offices. Roland Cubin believes taxation will decide how far the movement goes: in his view, France could end up converting either 2% or 18 to 23% of its empty offices. He adds, the BBC reports, that a change of use currently causes a building to be classed as new, with the matching requirements for parking, accessibility and fire safety.