The number of former office buildings being turned into rentable housing has skyrocketed in recent years, from 23,100 in 2022 to nearly 71,000 in 2025, RentCafe reports. This means that office-to-housing conversions make up around 42% of the apartments in future adaptive reuse projects.

This surge in conversions has come about in response to a nationwide shortage of available apartments for rent in the U.S., which has amplified competition among renters. RentCafe notes that this trend marks a shift toward “sustainable, community-focused urban spaces that cater to the evolving lifestyles and priorities of modern American cities.”

The prevalence of remote work since the onset of the pandemic has left a significant amount of office space in the U.S. empty, which has also fed into the trend of repurposing workspaces into residential units.

Office buildings aren’t the only ones being repurposed, however. RentCafe reports that the share of future conversions includes:

  • Office buildings: 42%
  • Hotels: 22%
  • Factories: 11%
  • Warehouses: 6%
  • Other: 19%
In the slideshow above, we’ll look at which U.S. metro areas are seeing the highest number of office-to-apartment conversions, courtesy of RentCafe.

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