Office block owners threaten market flood

Wellington office block owners want help to convert their buildings into rental apartments, threatening to flood a market in which there are already hundreds of vacant flats.

The idea was promoted by developer and Property Council chairman Ian Cassels in Wellington this week. Much of Wellington's looming glut of empty office buildings should be converted into rental apartments to double the numbers living in the central city.

The 60,000 to 70,000 people who worked in the city every day were vital to Wellington's economy, he said. Ten thousand of those lived in the CBD, but that number could be increased to 20,000 by converting a forecast 200,000 square metres of vacant office space into apartments.

"Instead of spending money on buses and cars, that money would be spent in the city."

But Wellington already appears to have a glut of apartments and plans for several large new apartment blocks have faltered in the past two years. More than 1500 Wellington apartments were listed as being for sale or rent on Trade Me this week.

Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast was unenthusiastic about Mr Cassels' call to convert empty offices to living space. She wanted to encourage more people to live in the central city but "what we don't want is lots of conversions to B-grade apartments". "The quality, design and amenity of apartments must be the best if we want living environments comparable to overseas cities."

A Property Council paper issued this week calls for central city property owners in Wellington to have more say in how the CBD is managed.

- © Fairfax NZ News