Conversions down 17% despite growing retail vacancy rates
The number of retail properties approved for conversion to residential property has dropped 17 per cent in the last year, from 453 in 2017/18 to just 376 in 2018/19 according to private wealth law firm, Boodle Hatfield.
Converting some tertiary retail into residential property has been proposed as a solution to the problem of long-term empty retail units.
The number of retail to residential conversions comes as the Government continues to fall short of its target of 300,000 new homes per year built in England. Research from Savills recently found that even by 2021, only 260,000 new homes are likely to be built.
Dennis Ko, partner in the Real Estate team at Boodle Hatfield, said: “There is an increasing acceptance that some peripheral retail property needs to be converted to other uses to prevent areas dying. These figures show that this simply isn’t happening on the scale it needs to.
“While it’s important to ensure the right mix of residential and commercial property, especially in town centre areas, disincentivising developers from creating new homes is unlikely to be the best way to do it.
“Developers often complain that the full planning process is slow, inconsistent and frustrating. Some will simply walk away rather than deal with that.
“It would be great to see the new Government make far-reaching reforms to the planning regime. Much has been promised by several previous governments, but the planning system still works to prevent a lot of vital residential development.”
