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The building used to feature endless cubicles, long hallways and fluorescent lighting.

Now, the same spaces house modern apartments featuring granite countertop islands, fully furnished bedrooms and living rooms with views looking out to the Gatineau Hills. 

The Slayte, in the heart of Ottawa’s downtown, has transformed from a vacant government office built in the 1970s to a residential space with amenities such as a gym and rooftop terrace with shared barbecues, a hot tub and lounge.

The 158-unit apartment building — which took about two years to transform, plus a yearlong permitting process — is one of the first office-to-residential conversions in the city. Construction on the building, owned by real estate investment trust company InterRent, finished last year.

As Canadian politicians and policy thinkers try to come up with ways to solve a growing housing crisis, the project is one example of a novel solution for some urban centres.

The conversion of office buildings into housing is a trending topic. And vacancy rates in many downtowns are growing. But experts say the same kinds of barriers that have contributed to the housing shortage writ large are also at play for companies seeking to retrofit existing buildings. 

CLV Group president Oz Drewniak said in an interview that office conversions have a heap of benefits, including adding vibrancy to neighbourhoods, reducing crime, expanding customer bases for local businesses and increasing public transit ridership in downtown cores. 

Drewniak said it has an upside for sustainability, too, because keeping structures in place contains the millions of kilograms in carbon dioxide emissions that are embedded in the concrete of old commercial buildings. 

He estimated for The Slayte, renovating the unused office building, rather than completely tearing it down and building anew, would save the need for 770 trucks worth of concrete.

Drewniak said though there’s no “silver bullet” to the housing crisis, office conversion is one of the many pieces to the puzzle. 

“Every option has to be looked at,” he said. 

“We need municipalities to do whatever they can to speed up development, to provide incentives to get moving.” 

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The Canadian Real Estate Association has lowered its forecast for home sales and prices this year due to weakness in Ontario and B.C., as it now expects a nearly 10 per cent drop in the number of residential properties to trade hands compared with 2022.

In the association’s quarterly forecast update released Friday, it said it expects some 449,614 residential property sales via Canadian MLS systems in 2023, down 9.8 per cent from last year.

Meanwhile, the national average home price is forecast to fall 3.3 per cent on an annual basis to $680,686 in 2023.

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