The New York Office Market Finds Relief in a Wave of Conversions

New York City is undergoing a quiet but dramatic shift as obsolete office towers turn into much-needed housing. What had long been a trickle of one-off projects has become a defining feature of the city’s real estate landscape. With office vacancies still hovering above 20 percent, landlords are increasingly looking to residential reuse as both a survival strategy and a response to the city’s housing shortage. The result is a surge of conversions that has outpaced anything seen in prior decades.

The numbers tell the story. Between 2004 and 2022, New York averaged less than 1.2 million square feet of conversions annually, with only one year ever breaking above four million. That picture changed after COVID. In 2023, conversion starts hit 1.6 million square feet. The next year, they doubled to 3.3 million. By August 2025, they had already surpassed 4.1 million—eclipsing the entirety of 2024 in just eight months, according to a new Cushman & Wakefield report...

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RSK: The last line tells it all, office to residential conversions is a release valve to the overall problem.