Commercial property turn into residential with no planning permission needed.

lynzpower

tyler80 wrote: »

Nevermind the empty commercial properties, what about tackling the empty residential properties first?

there are empty homes officers in all local councils ( unless they have been laid off) if you know of empty homes then let them know through your council switchboard. Your council can let you know how many homes they have brought into use in the last year if you ask.

Usually based in Environmental health department.

tyler80

Through my job, I'm well aware of where the empty homes are and the council are aware of them too. They're still empty...

lynzpower

tyler80 wrote: »

Through my job, I'm well aware of where the empty homes are and the council are aware of them too. They're still empty...

there are specific protocols with empty homes, it can take a long time, the ultimate is for the council to undertake CP. Many no longer have the money to do so....

MrEnglish

Yes there are many empty houses but even more empty commercial properties. Not just offices and pubs ect.

Any commercial property garages or workshops, even things like old estate agents, ha the irony

chewmylegoff

MrEnglish wrote: »

Yes there are many empty houses but even more empty commercial properties. Not just offices and pubs ect.

Any commercial property garages or workshops, even things like old estate agents, ha the irony

google tells me there are about 500,000 unoccupied houses in this country.

i have no idea how many unoccupied commercial premises there are, but you have already quoted the figure of 250,000 potential conversions as a result of this new legislation.

and an estate agency is a shop. so no.

lynzpower

http://www.findaproperty.com/displayprop.aspx?edid=04&salerent=0&pid=5366579 you could buy a disused bog in the olympic borders (lol)
for 320k . 800k square feet of joy!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33041933.html
or comparable this 3 bed home for 325 asking price

this is the cheapest commercial property I can find in my area on a quick gander to compare with aside from: http://www.findaproperty.com/displayprop.aspx?edid=04&salerent=0&pid=116856 a floor in an multiple tenant industrial estate.

A world of issues contained with living in a shared building like this with multiple businesses sharing the building, not least, noise and other industrial emissions.

Cleaver

And apparently pubs aren't included either. That seems really odd to me:

• We have more pubs than we need as we've changed our culture,
• Loads of pubs are therefore closing down,
• A lot of the old pubs are amazing old buildings that would make great flats,
• Old pubs tend to be on the corners of streets, or slap bang in the middle of a residential area.

I'd much prefer to live in a decent pub conversion rather than an old office block.

lynzpower

Maybe that choice isnt for you to make cleaver and this policy is for developers to benefit from, not the likes of you and I

Here where i am high demand for housing and lot of conversions into flats of old pubs but seldom single family dwellings. There are also lots of vacant shops.

the more I consider this the more I consider that this is designed for the rich developers to convert large buildings into flats or HMO style dwellings than for Jo public to build a home for herself and her family. How else can you afford to buy and refurbish a comercial property, the costs would be huge lets face it.

There is nothing under 325k in my area that isn't a shop, with some residential above. I have seen brilliant shop conversions and they can work for small families ( 2 parents, 2 kids) although lack of garden, sometimes a yard. Seems like this option isnt going to be open to you and I? there are many lovely houses for under 325 here.

chewmylegoff

lynzpower wrote: »

Maybe that choice isnt for you to make cleaver and this policy is for developers to benefit from, not the likes of you and I

Here where i am high demand for housing and lot of conversions into flats of old pubs but seldom single family dwellings. There are also lots of vacant shops.

the more I consider this the more I consider that this is designed for the rich developers to convert large buildings into flats or HMO style dwellings than for Jo public to build a home for herself and her family. How else can you afford to buy and refurbish a comercial property, the costs would be huge lets face it.

There is nothing under 325k in my area that isn't a shop, with some residential above. I have seen brilliant shop conversions and they can work for small families ( 2 parents, 2 kids) although lack of garden, sometimes a yard. Seems like this option isnt going to be open to you and I? there are many lovely houses for under 325 here.

i don't think the relaxing of planning rules is intended to enable the "man on the street" to buy himself a disused office and stick some curtains up and call it home. i presume the point of it is to encourage property developers to buy commercial property and convert it into multiple apartments and then sell them on to you or i.

on cleaver's the pubs point - the counter argument is that if you allowed people to convert pubs, it wouldn't be only the disused ones which are converted into residential properties. it may well lead to a large number of pubs which are still operating to be converted. landlords would do their sums - if they reckoned they could make more money converting (or selling out to property developers) than they could by running a pub, then that's what most of them would do. when they came to retire or move on, they would sell to the highest bidder. if there is more profit to be made converting the property, then the highest bidder will be a property developer, not a publican.

vivatifosi

I know of a few large scale commercial to residential conversions. To a building they have all taken unloved high density office buildings, mainly from c1960s and refaced them and turned them into flats. Key criteria: they have to be central to the core location to attract young professionals who will want to have facilities to hand and they should also have parking provision. Here are some examples:

Before:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://image03.webshots.com/3/2/73/54/18327354uyWpNsLUZm_fs.jpg&imgrefurl=http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1018327354011645349uyWpNsLUZm&usg=__LjtjEcDrltqBZWFANP_zDSGz5ZQ=&h=1600&w=1200&sz=367&hl=en&start=0&sig2=IVMtlB_UkYv0uuPTYhltWQ&zoom=1&tbnid=amRvPk8gRHwPBM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=90&ei=LVaGTa2HEpmAhAfP_c2vBA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkodak%2Bbuilding%2Bhemel%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D987%26bih%3D397%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=758&vpy=40&dur=2895&hovh=259&hovw=194&tx=127&ty=145&oei=LVaGTa2HEpmAhAfP_c2vBA&page=1&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0
After:
http://www.livetheimage.com/

This is before only, going through at moment, government bldg:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.novaloca.com/images/property/lg_359_15824_634002891494785000.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.novaloca.com/property-details/36467%3Fsearch%3Dtrue&usg=__fo4rHOrLWEk23jwZbpR8dNen_5U=&h=461&w=614&sz=34&hl=en&start=0&sig2=QIN3zPHzIn6zgBNdzPyfNQ&zoom=1&tbnid=jNFG3mV9At2srM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=181&ei=8VaGTYOgDo2GhQeopcitBA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhereward%2Bhouse%2Bpeterborough%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D987%26bih%3D397%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=328&vpy=78&dur=171&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=71&ty=94&oei=8VaGTYOgDo2GhQeopcitBA&page=1&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0
Notice: http://planpa.peterborough.gov.uk/online-applications/buildingControlDetails.do;jsessionid=AF3264A89658331AB3C10C1AF4A2B625?previousCaseUprn=010008055351&previousCaseType=Property&activeTab=summary&previousKeyVal=I30EN9ML00000&previousCaseNumber=I30EMYML00000&keyVal=L9ENM3ML0AV00

It wouldn't surprise me if the government has identified a lot of potential buildings that it will no longer use and nobody else would want that it would be very happy to see sold for resi conversion. Many years ago when I first worked in commercial property the old adage was "if you have a ropey old building that nobody else wants, the government or BT will take it". Then BT privatised and started moving into nicer premises leaving horrid buildings as the domain of the government.