Converting empty offices, retail and hotels into apartments is one of the most-watched trends in real estate. Lenders want to finance it, developers want the next building, brokers want the owners, and cities want to know whether their incentives are working. The hard part is finding the conversions — and that takes more than one dataset.
Why permits alone fall short
Search permit descriptions for “convert” or “conversion” alongside commercial and residential terms and you get surprisingly little signal. In the Virginia catalog, that search returns only about a hundred permits — and many are model homes converting a garage to a temporary sales office and back. The real ones read like existing two-story building converted to two apartments, and they are a small minority.
Conversions are big, multi-permit projects that departments file under ordinary types: building, alteration, change of use. You find them by knowing which buildings to watch.
Step 1: Parcels find the candidates
Start with the building stock. Land Records carries land use, year built, building square footage, floors, assessed value and owner for every parcel. Screen for:
- office, retail or hotel land uses;
- buildings of a size and age that suit residential floor plates;
- low assessed value for the building’s size, or long-held ownership — the owners most likely to sell or convert.
Step 2: Zoning says what the building can become
A conversion lives or dies on zoning: is multifamily allowed by right in the district, what density, how much parking? ZoneOptics reads zoning ordinances into structured districts, permitted uses and dimensional standards, so you can check every candidate building against its district’s rules.
Step 3: Permits confirm the work
With a shortlist of buildings, permits stop being a needle in a haystack. Join on parcel_id and watch the candidates:
- interior demolition and alteration permits on a large commercial building;
- new plumbing and electrical permits at residential scale;
- a certificate of occupancy for dwelling units.
A Buildstats monthly subscription delivers every permit from the trailing 12 months, refreshed monthly, so a conversion shows up the month its first permits are filed.
Who this is for
- Lenders and investors: conversion pipelines, before the press release.
- Brokers: owners of buildings that fit the conversion profile.
- Cities and housing agencies: proof that incentives are producing units.
Get the data
Buy any county or statewide permit file — full history or monthly subscription — and join it to Land Records parcels and ZoneOptics zoning on the parcel ID. Talk to us about combined extracts.